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  Family - Weekend Effect

Lighting The Way Together

Fr. Bob McDonald

I just got back from [my sister] Lee’s funeral in Sacramento. It was an extraordinary celebration of the love between John and Lee. Together they have been lighting the way these sixty-two years! Letha and John Mamola had visited me many years earlier on their Honeymoon. I had just made my first vows as a member of the Society of Mary. John told me it was like trying to get into Fort Knox. At first they were not allowed to see me. That is how Seminary life was in 1942. I was not permitted to go to my sister’s wedding.

The Wake was a model of family celebration. After the Deacon led the formal prayers, Cathy, the eldest, led the celebration. The two oldest brothers, Bob and Gerry, sang Lee’s favorite ballad, “The Tramp on the Street”, a metaphor of Mary seeing her Son, Jesus, in every suffering person. Bob played the lead guitar, and Gerry made the Dobro (slide guitar)sing. Several granddaughters, accompanied by daughters-in-law on guitars, sang other beautiful favorites. Then Cathy invited us to speak. That is when I realized how Lee and John had affected the lives of so many people. I was not alone in speaking about their love being a light for all to follow. Their triplet sons John and Jim and Joel, son-in-law Steve, were especially eloquent.

Monday, at the end of the funeral Mass, Lori, their youngest, read many beautiful things she had found amongst her mother’s things. I read them over before I flew back.

One surprise was a letter that I had written Lee two days before her Wedding. In it I told her that I had nothing to give her, having just made the vow of poverty. But I gave her the only gift I could, the Lord Jesus. I encouraged her to receive Him in the Eucharist often, and promised that Jesus would bring them close together during the years ahead.

Her family testified to that. It had happened. They spoke of church being more than something to do, but rather an encounter with Jesus. They spoke of how the love between their parents had touched their own lives.

Though tears came easily, I experienced joy as I witnessed the light shining in all these children and grandchildren. I saw the “Little Church” becoming more beautiful even in the midst of tears.

-Fr. Bob McDonald, SM

QUESTION FOR DIALOGUE: Are we hiding our light? What are my feelings about my answer?

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