OUR DEPARTED LOVED ONES REMEMBERED IN HONG KONG
Ever faithful to their promise to care for the graves of our Sisters in Hong Kong, our Columban Associates place flowers and a candle on the graves of our Sisters M, Augustine Mc Carthy, Frances Xavier Mapleback, Mary Aquinas Monahan, M Philippe Mc Dermot and Columban Father Edward Collins to remember them on November 2nd 2020. The pictures show the Fathers, Columban lay missionaries and our Associates at the graves of our Sisters and priest in ‘Happy Valley Cemetery’, Hong Kong, where they were buried.
We remember and give thanks for the blessings of the years spent in Hong Kong and knowing that the Columban charism is alive and well.
OUR DEPARTED LOVED ONES
by John O’Donoghue.
The dead are not distant or absent. They are alongside us. When we lose someone to death, we lose their physical image and presence, they slip out of visible form into invisible presence. This alteration of form is the reason we cannot see the dead. But because we cannot see them does not mean that they are not there. Transfigured into eternal form, the dead cannot reverse the journey and even for one second re-enter their old form to linger with us a while. Though they cannot reappear, they continue to be near us and part of the healing of grief is the refinement of our hearts whereby we come to sense their loving nearness. When we ourselves enter the eternal world and come to see our lives on earth in full view, we may be surprised at the immense assistance and support with which our departed loved ones have accompanied every moment of our lives. In their new, transfigured presence their compassion, understanding and love take on a divine depth, enabling them to become secret angels guiding and sheltering the unfolding of our destiny.
