In the Catholic Church, eulogies really aren’t really a thing.
Catholics come to Mass, even a funeral Mass, to offer worship, praise, and thanksgiving to God for the gift of a life returned to Him.
Today, we recount, not what my mother did, but what God did for her.
And that’s fine because my mother was never one to seek attention and a 5-minute eulogy could never do her justice.
The stories have been told and memories have been shared, and we will continue to be tell the stories and share the memories.
My mother was wonderful and that’s all you need to know. And if you knew her you already know that.
I would like to take this time, on behalf of my father, my sisters Amy and Missy, and our entire family, to thank everyone and ask for a few favors.
I want to thank everyone for their prayers for our mother and for your support over the past several difficult weeks.
She knew that you were praying for her and she was touched.
Please don’t think that God didn’t answer your prayers. Your prayers were heard and answered.
They may not have been answered the way we wanted them to be answered, but I trust that God answered them in the way that my mother needed them to be answered.
There were so many prayers offered and so much love shown. She was loved and she loved all of you.
The only place that she could possibly be loved any more is where I hope her soul rests now, in Heaven.
I can certainly imagine that my mother is in Heaven. She checked all the boxes.
She would fit right in. She was a prayer. In Heaven, that’s what you do. You pray. She prayed for most of you and she will continue to pray for you in Heaven.
So, I pray that God will reward her for her strong faith and for how she lived out her faith with works of love and mercy.
She loved God, she knew that Jesus died on the Cross for her, and she loved being part of his Church.
She loved Mary and Joseph, St. Jude, the Little Flower, and all the saints.
She loved her family. She loved her friends. She loved.
I want her to be included in that part of the Communion of Saints in Heaven, the Cloud of Witnesses that we call the Church Triumphant.
But it isn’t up to me. God is the judge.
So, I’m asking for some favors:
- I ask that you pray with me, asking God, in his mercy, to welcome her into his presence so that she can rest in the peace, warmth, and light of his face forever.
Pray for her, and ask her to pray for you and with you.
And just in case there is anything that would keep her apart from Him, pray with me, that God will lovingly purge and purify it from her soul in Purgatory.
- Pray for my brother Nick, our other deceased family and friends, and for your own family and friends who are no longer with us.
Visit cemeteries and come to Catholic Mass. You are never closer to your deceased loved ones who are in Heaven than at Mass, because Catholic Mass is Heaven on Earth. My mother loved going to Mass and I know that she will be there with me whenever I go to Mass.
- Pray for the forgotten dead, those souls who have no one to pray for them because of neglect of their families or because of the passage of time.
There are neglected graves and even neglected cemeteries where people are buried and whose souls need our prayers.
- Pray for our family and pray for each other. Pray that our faith remains strong and that we continue to find comfort and consolation in Jesus’ promise of the resurrection and everlasting life. Pray that we all stay close to Jesus because that’s how we stay close to all of our deceased loved ones.
If you would do these things, I would appreciate it, my family would appreciate it, and my mother would be eternally grateful…literally.
Thank you and God bless you.
