Rejoice Always!

“They say that Hope is happiness.

but genuine love must prize the past

and memory waxes the thoughts that bless.

They rose the first. They set the last.”.......George Byron

This last week I mourn the loss of Patricia Jensen, my student of old and Ron Skoumal, my boyhood friend. And yet on this Sunday we are to rejoice always. And the liturgical color is Rose, like the blushing dawn of a new day.

Surely friends such as these dwell in our memories and the memories of such friends are like lights shining in the Advent dark. They passed on the Christ light to us to still shine and brighten our continuing paths.

Patricia in the spring time of her life showed forth so much promise and then fulfilled it. In my last conversation with her, I said, “You had such an inquiring mind!” And she replied, “And you helped me have it!....a compliment I shall dearly cherish.

Ron, my boyhood friend and classmate, in his youth was in the Coast Guard.

Semper Paratus! Always Ready!

always ready to lift his sails,

Against the harsh winds of adversity.

He knew the pain of marital loss, harsh battles with cancer, resulting in total deafness, a broken hip, and Covid Against which he could not prevail.

in all of this no bitterness, no complaints.

We all should “always be ready” to cherish the memories of such as Ron and Patrica. They have lighted up our lives.

And so even in the Advent darkness, we cherish their sharing of their light.

May the rose colored vestaments remind us of a future rosy dawning when Jesus will come again for in Him they hoped, and so do we.

Rejoice! Again, I say Rejoice!