forum member Mac (Luke) passed away today, February 2

“Rosary for Luke at St. Anthony's Wednesday 5.30 pm. Funeral mass at 9 am Thursday. God bless”

From Josie

Time Difference for me on West Coast, USA

Whanganui, New Zealand is 21 hours ahead of Portland, OR

 

I think this is the case
Will check back just in case, but we can just say some prayers.

 

Yes, it looks like they only live stream the Sunday Mass. Will stop and pray for Luke now so my prayers can be united with those of his friends and family at the funeral Mass.

 

Hi Everyone
I live in Australa on the east coast and we are 4 hours behind New Zealand. I got up at 430 am and by 5 am I still coud not find the live stream on the site, so I decided just to send my guardian Angel and be there spiritually. I watched the lastest recorded live stream of the High Mass on the 3rd of February, it goes for 1 hour 18 minutes. Father mentions in this Mass, Lukes passing the day before and says some loving things about the timing of Luke's passing. The TLM was beautiful to watch and brought back memories of my youth.
I'm sure they will post the video of the Requiem Mass in the near future.
God Bless Luke his family and friends and all of us. Amen

 

Just catching up here. God rest Luke. There is a new star in the sky. My prayers for Josie and for their beautiful family.

Joe C thank you for representing us all

 

Prayed for Luke’s soul at morning mass held about 2 hours ago.
Rest In Peace, Luke.
Till we meet in Heaven, please intercede for all of us here.

 

I infrequently post- but read the forum daily... Rest In Peace MAC, I am sure there are many like me you have brought closer to our Lord without even knowing.....

I am praying for you and your family

 

My Dear Forum Friends
It has been an exhausting but rewarding few days. Luke's body has been laid to rest and final farewells delivered.

Not only did he have an exemplary death but also a very special funeral. His wife and daughters were so beautiful, brave and dignified in their mourning.

I drove down on Wednesday. By coincidence this was the 11th anniversary of my brother George who died aged 50 only a few months after his diagnosis, just like Luke. George too was fortified with the rites of Holy Mother Church.

And by "coincidence" the day that Luke's diagnosis was made was the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross and Luke had a large relic of the true cross with him much of the time.

Much of Luke's mass was beautifully sung in Latin and this continued all the way to the graveside. The homily was nothing less than heavenly. The French priest began by enumerating exactly what conditions and circumstances allowed participation in Communion. He then spoke about the wonderful way Luke was prepared for death and his "particular judgement "and explained that because one dies in a state of grace, no matter what measures have been taken, there may still be a time in purgatory for the newly departed. Only God knows.

So he said we must continue to pray for Luke. If he does not need those prayers they will merit some other soul. The priest reminded us that we commemorate Christ in His death and if we follow Christ in His acceptance of whatever death God wills for us, we will be saved. He reminded us of the prayer the Church makes that we be spared a sudden death - better by far to be prepared like Luke.

Remember how I shared with you Luke's conviction that one final battle for his soul remained to be fought. The priest spoke about this in the same terms that Luke had used saying that Satan never gives up while he can still exercise his destructive mission. The Trads do not shy away from such hard truth. That battle has been fought for Luke and won. St Michael has come through again. Luke's brother spoke to me after the burial and said that many of the gaps about Luke's illness had been filled by reading the posts here.

It had been fully intended to live-stream the mass but something went wrong with the camera. You were definitely all there with me in spirit. It will be on utube and the homily alone makes it all worthwhile. With me being faithful to the popes of Vatican II and Luke being with SSPX we had many disagreements but in the end we learned to respect each others right to differ. In the end we were at peace on our different paths, parallel paths but within sight and sound of each other and heading in same direction, close enough for many an encouraging look and word, a manly pat on the back and an arm around the shoulder. There are many mansions in our Father's kingdom.

The cemetery was about 10km from the church and the route took in the banks of the Whanganui river. It was a beautiful summer day. When Luke's long coffin - he was very tall - was lowered - everyone young and old, and there were many, sprinkled his coffin with holy water and troweled some clay into his grave. Singing and prayers including the rosary continued throughout the service.

Everyone had been invited to eat at the hall near the church and they all brought something. There was a mountain of delicious food but by the end it was almost gone. It was a bit of a scramble at the book of remembrance but eventually I managed to scribble all you names down. Sorry it was not neater and I hope I did not miss any. I did not take any photos during the service as no one else did except one photo of the hearse. The funeral directors name was Dempsey which was my grand uncles - two Jesuits and a parish priest, Willie, Joe and Eddie.

Some members have expressed the wish to help Josie in these hard days and asked me to pass this on to her. I did that today and she will send me her details which I will email to Padraig.

My job here is done now and I thank you for your warm welcome and kind words during my short stay. I am trying to cut down on online time anyway and am busy in my retirement restructuring my practice. May God bless you all and hold you in the palm of His hand.

 

Thank you Joe for keeping us updated during these past days. And thank you for bringing us all with you today. God bless you in your retirement. Peace.

 

Thank you Joe.

 

I have photoed Lukes card and the memorial page but the file is too large to post here. I will try to email it to Padraig. He may be able to reduce it.

 

Just got this from Josie

“Hope you got back ok. There was a problem streaming the Mass. It will be uploaded soon hopefully”

 

Thank you so much Joe for that last update and for coming back to share Luke's final days with us. Thank you too for all of your efforts helping Luke and family through this difficult period and for your trip to the funeral, etc. May God keep you safe.
-Sean

 

Joe, Thank you for bringing us with you to Luke's funeral. Sounds like it was a true celebration of life.

 

Rest in Peace! Praying for Luke and his family.

 

Thank you so much, Joe, for including me on the remembrance list and your description of the the funeral. I can picture it in my head and am grateful for the time and effort you made to help us feel part of Luke's being laid to rest.

 

I’m very grateful for all that you have done, Joe,
Thank you!

 

Here is Luke’s mass