A friend of mine posted this quote from Archbishop Fulton Sheen on Valentine's Day. It seems uniquely appropriate to Charlie's story, as he lived with limited heart function for his whole life (and yet lived a very full and joyous life!):
“The human heart is not shaped like a valentine heart, perfect and regular in contour it is slightly irregular in shape as if a small piece of it were missing out of its side. The missing part may very well symbolize a piece that a spear tore out of the universal heart of humanity on the Cross, but it probably symbolizes something more. It may very well mean that when God created each human heart, he kept a small sample of it in heaven, and sent the rest of it into the world, where it would each day learn the lesson that it could never be really happy, that it could never be really wholly in love, that it could never be really whole-hearted until it rested with the Risen Christ in an eternal Easter.” Archbishop Fulton Sheen (Manifestations of Christ)We just celebrated Charlie's funeral and burial this past weekend. His funeral was concelebrated by eight priests and a bishop and attended by more than 700 family members and friends. It was unbelievably, even overwhelmingly,beautiful. We have felt so surrounded by the love and prayers of so many (not only those in attendance, but friends from as far away as Rome and Australia) that I've been telling people that we felt like the most loved family on the planet. It is in these signs and acts of love and the consolations of a life well lived that we can truly say, in spite of the heartbreak, that God is good.
Charlie's Obituary
No comments:
Post a Comment