It's been over 10 ten days since my friend, Dan Lyons, entered into eternal life. But I still have only just begun to process this.
These past 10 days have been filled, however, with friends, with heartfelt connections and condolences from so many people, and with LOVE.
Friends gathered in PA after Dan's wake
Thoughtful gift from coworkers in honor of Dan
The quote on the prayer card for Dan (I still can't believe that he has one) sums up brilliantly who he is and his relationship with Christ. I can only hope to aspire to be like Dan, who strove so much to be like Christ that we compared him to Christ in more than one homily and eulogy. He was a true disciple.
The thing that made Dan so much like Christ was his love. It just radiated to everyone that he met. I know that after death we tend to glorify people, but the parallels between Dan and Christ's life truly were staggering: he suffered, died, and lives on through the legacy he left with the people he trained to share it.
Tomorrow is the feast of the Ascension, and as I mentioned in my last post, my friends and I have experienced in new ways what the apostles must have felt like in these days. Our example is gone and we are confused and sad, but we are motivated to spread the good news of his legacy.
As I said previously, Dan just personified and expressed love so well. I believe he did this because he always lived in the present moment. He had a way of planning for the future while still enjoying the present. He traveled, he accomplished goals, (though his brother pointed out in his eulogy that Dan never *actually* had a *real job* for nearly 10 years! :), and he planned a life with his amazing wife, Hanna. But in each moment he was presented, he enjoyed it and he loved.
The theme of the present moment has been a theme for me for more than a while now. It is now just clicking, as I finally stopped to reflect today, that LOVE in the present moment is our vocation. I've been searching forever for the meaning of my vocation and isn't the root of everyone's vocation, Love? And love is certainly best when in the present moment, because when else can you give it?
It makes me so sad that it has taken something like this to get a lot of us to wake up and love more deeply, more openly, more courageously, but that is what the Paschal Mystery was and is. Christ had to suffer and die so that we might understand God's immense love. My heart is bursting with sadness and love simultaneously, but love will win because it already has.
Dan, we love you and miss you. Thank you for what you have taught and continue to teach each of us about love. Intercede for me and for us that we might be better teachers of love.
I look forward to the day when we meet again and can sing karaoke with the Lord!!! We might have to pick a different song selection this time, though:
I hope you will all join me in praying the novena for the Holy Spirit as we approach Pentecost these next 10 days. May these next 10 days be filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit and with love.
Peace,
Julia
These past 10 days have been filled, however, with friends, with heartfelt connections and condolences from so many people, and with LOVE.
Thoughtful gift from coworkers in honor of Dan
The quote on the prayer card for Dan (I still can't believe that he has one) sums up brilliantly who he is and his relationship with Christ. I can only hope to aspire to be like Dan, who strove so much to be like Christ that we compared him to Christ in more than one homily and eulogy. He was a true disciple.
The thing that made Dan so much like Christ was his love. It just radiated to everyone that he met. I know that after death we tend to glorify people, but the parallels between Dan and Christ's life truly were staggering: he suffered, died, and lives on through the legacy he left with the people he trained to share it.
Tomorrow is the feast of the Ascension, and as I mentioned in my last post, my friends and I have experienced in new ways what the apostles must have felt like in these days. Our example is gone and we are confused and sad, but we are motivated to spread the good news of his legacy.
As I said previously, Dan just personified and expressed love so well. I believe he did this because he always lived in the present moment. He had a way of planning for the future while still enjoying the present. He traveled, he accomplished goals, (though his brother pointed out in his eulogy that Dan never *actually* had a *real job* for nearly 10 years! :), and he planned a life with his amazing wife, Hanna. But in each moment he was presented, he enjoyed it and he loved.
The theme of the present moment has been a theme for me for more than a while now. It is now just clicking, as I finally stopped to reflect today, that LOVE in the present moment is our vocation. I've been searching forever for the meaning of my vocation and isn't the root of everyone's vocation, Love? And love is certainly best when in the present moment, because when else can you give it?
It makes me so sad that it has taken something like this to get a lot of us to wake up and love more deeply, more openly, more courageously, but that is what the Paschal Mystery was and is. Christ had to suffer and die so that we might understand God's immense love. My heart is bursting with sadness and love simultaneously, but love will win because it already has.
Dan, we love you and miss you. Thank you for what you have taught and continue to teach each of us about love. Intercede for me and for us that we might be better teachers of love.
I look forward to the day when we meet again and can sing karaoke with the Lord!!! We might have to pick a different song selection this time, though:
I hope you will all join me in praying the novena for the Holy Spirit as we approach Pentecost these next 10 days. May these next 10 days be filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit and with love.
Peace,
Julia
1 comment:
Just came from Mass. The Eucharistic dimension of the Ascension, the Body of Christ as Church and Body of Christ in Heaven and Body of Christ "with us always until the end of the age" was jumping out at me so powerfully and clearly today, in a new way - more connected than before. I think the Eucharist gives us that Presence and the Love-in-the-Present-Moment so powerfully, and the courage to live the same LOVE in each moment for each person we meet, out in all the world. It is a task for our whole lives! Dan got it so easily and purely, it seems to me, from the beginning - how'd you DO that, Dan? Gifted! The timing on all of this is incredible. God continues to unveil Himself to our dear CUA community long after we've left the campus. I am so grateful for the work He has begun in us and the powerful (yes mysterious) ways He is bringing it to fruition. Thank you for sharing your heart - All will be well! <3
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