February 4, 2021
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Soon we will be entering the season of Lent, a time to intensify our pray, fasting, and almsgiving. Please spend some quality time with each other as members of the CUSA family, and to look for ways during this pandemic in which you can offer help to those in need.
I would like to offer a suggestion of mercy during the season of Lent. (If you can physically do this)Think about the Corporal work of mercy that is to bury the dead. Almost every day for the past two weeks I had to go to the funerals for so many people who have lost love ones due to the pandemic, very sad. I am amazed at the kindness and mercy that those who have been called by God to bury the dead. They stand nearby and watch, as the family say good-bye and hear the last prayers to be said at the grave by the Priest, Deacon, or another minister, I asked them what do they think about as they wait? They say we say a short prayer for the dead that they will soon bury.
Every time I go to a cemetery, I make it a point to thank those gravediggers with a word of encouragement for all the good things they do for others.
Gravediggers are the last ones to say good-bye to our loved ones and are most often forgotten. They never receive a thank you, they just do what they are asked to do, to bury the dead, a corporal work of mercy.
This is only a suggestion, but maybe each fraternity, and we have many, would bake cookies or cakes during this Lent, and go to your near-by cemeteries and look for the gravediggers and give them a treat with the prayer card of and thank them for what they do. You will see a big smile and maybe some might even say, "nobody has ever done this for us."
You will make lots of wonderful and kind people so happy, you will see smiles and looks of gratitude. Lent is a time to intensify your love for God and neighbor.
Peace and all good,
Brother Ed Arambasich, OFM
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