Homecoming was last night. The youngest two of my five sons looked great. They were well groomed and each had a wonderful young lady to escort. Everything was perfect. Except that the youngest called home in tears early into the evening. Things had changed. One of their classmates (who would have been at the homecoming dance) had been killed a few short hours before in a tragic accident. Another boy was seriously injured in the accident. Here is how the evening was described by the local paper:
School officials planned to break the news to Murphy’s teammates at the dance by pulling them aside. But word of the tragedy had already begun to spread as the dance began, and students instinctively made for the chapel a short walk from the gym on Lorain Avenue at West 30th Street.
Soon, most of the dance crowd had poured into the chapel, the young men in suits, their dates in summer dresses. Many expressed shock. Jesuit priests led them in prayer. A vigil emerged. Crew coach Matt Previts wept to see it.
A great tragedy. A time for prayer and reflection. A time to reinforce this idea that we need to prepare for our deaths in our everyday life. An occasion to remind ourselves and our children that God in His infinite wisdom and mercy may call even the youngest home to Himself at anytime. An opportunity to reorder priorities (yet again) and let the little things that distract us from loving our children fall away.
Please pray for this young man, his family and the injured.
In paradisum
In paradisum deducant te angeli:
in tuo adventu suscipiant te martyres,
et perducant te in civitatem sanctam Jerusalem.
May the Angels conduct you to Paradise: And at your coming may the Martyrs receive you. May they lead you to the holy City of Jerusalem.
Chorus angelorum te suscipiat, et cum Lazaro quondam paupere aeternam habeas requiem.
May a choir of Angels receive you. And may you, with Larzarus once a poor man, Possess eternal peace.
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My God. What a terrible, terrible reminder. May God bless and comfort everyone involved in this tragedy.