Rest In Peace Sister
Dear friends, sadly the other day my younger sister Elizabeth at age 32 passed away. For those of you who don't know, she was unfortunately like so many people who are on the streets and on drugs.
Despite my family's best efforts, her earthly life was lost to that destructive life style. The drugs caused her severe mental illness and she didn't talk much. Fortunately, we did see her often and would give her water and food when she really needed it. We would tell her how much we all loved her and that we wanted her to get better. We would remind her that help was out there and all she needed to do was ask for it and be willing to receive it. When she was lucid she wanted help, but the drugs would pull her back in.
She was a teachers aid to severely handicapped youth at Beyer High school for about 6 years. She loved taking care of them. She was the kind of person who would change adult diapers and she did everyday as a TA. She had a desire to help people and was a giving person. In her twenties she attended MJC and Chapman University and became a college graduate with a BA. She wanted to be a special needs teacher. She died broken, hungry and lonely yet we are thankful it wasn't worse.
God is good!
We have hope in his Mercy!
With her recent destructive lifestyle aside she still was a child of God and loved perfectly by him. And, "We are not the sum of our weaknesses and failures, we are the sum of our Father's love for us and our real capacity to become the image of His Son" (St. John Paul II) In her earlier years she was baptized as a Catholic (born again of water and spirit Jn 3:5) and received the Sacraments all the way to confirmation.
When she was doing better she did go to confession, and she prayed the Divine Mercy prayer. She believed in Jesus and in his Church. Attached to those acts of faith are Christ's promises of mercy and life with him (Mark 16:16, Jn 3:15.)
It is by faith in Christ that we know she will be OK. We are comforted and at peace knowing that God has and is extending his mercy to my sister. "God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ-- by grace you have been saved" (Ephesians 2:4-5)
Purgatory is God's mercy!
On behalf of my parents and family I want to say thank you for your support and offers of help. We appreciate your care, prayers and concern for our family during this time. Please also pray for my/our sister. "It is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins. ( 2 Mac 12: 46)
On behalf of my/our sister Elizabeth and all those we have lost to drugs and sin, here with us or in purgatory, we can pray
Psalm 51.
"Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit."
Amen
Thanks for reading
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