Sunday Night Prime - 2018-01-14 - Remembering Fr. Andrew Apostoli

[Music] [Applause] hello EWTN family I'm father Agostino Torres a member of the Franciscan friars of the renewal the community co-founded by father Andrew Apostoli in tonight's special Sunday night prime we want to pay tribute to father Andrew bringing new reflections from those who knew him best as well as a look at his funeral in committal here's a special look at father Andrew Apostoli good evening welcome to everyone on behalf of the Franciscan friars and the sisters of the renewal my name is father John Paul well that's and I'm the general servant of the community and we're here to honor and to pray for our dear father Andrew apostolate to welcome the Apostoli family [Music] also all of other Andrews friends priests and religious that are here all the faithful that are gathering tonight to pray here and online and we take a time away this evening to pray for our dear father Andrew to remember him this man who has given us a great gift the gift of himself following that answer to that call of Jesus to follow him for these past 75 years and we take a time away this evening to pray for our dear father Andrew to remember him hail Mary full of grace the Lord is with thee blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus [Music] hail Mary full of greed the Lord is with thee blessed art thou on women and less it is Jesus [Music] hail Mary full of grace the Lord is with thee blessed art thou unless it is Jesus [Music] glory be to the Father and His Son and to the Holy Spirit [Music] the first glorious mystery Jesus's resurrection from the dead father enters heartless this mystery of the Rosary fills us with a great hope and joy that someday we shall share with Jesus in the fullness of his risen life when he raises on Myrtle bottles and makes them like his own in glory [Music] good evening my name is Michael Apostoli and our father Andrews youngest brother I want to thank father John Paul for the opportunity to say a few words about my brother well they're an true and maybe share some memories of what it has been like to have father Andrew as a brother it's a family member as a priest in our family everyone here knows my brother his father Andrew but there are some of us here however and many of them us all of them are sitting here and unless there are some other people I haven't seen we also know him as Joe Uncle Joe Joey cousin Joe and because of my grandson Owen great-uncle John so we were so proud and happy that father Andrew was able to baptize Owen last year in August of 2016 it was a wonderful day and wonderful ceremony but it's Andrew father Andrew I'm gonna go back and forth with this it's a little bit tough for me to keep track I because I use that I used all those names pretty much when they call Joe Joey father and Andy you know anything was probably my favorite but yeah he was baptized Joseph Dominic at st. Michael's Church and Gibbs town New Jersey and we have my cousin here Frances Ann from Gibbs town and she told me about the the event the date was in August of 1942 he was at that time he was somewhat nomadic life in those early years going back and forth for between the Bronx and New Jersey he always finally retucked recalled his time growing up in New Jersey with aunts uncles around cousins our family eventually settled in the Bronx and it was in the Bronx I think that his journey to the priesthood really began or took off father Andrews vocation to the priesthood was evident early on in his youth my mother would always tell me that he was devoted to saying his prayers daily saying and serving as an altar boy at our parish she observed his dedication to saying the Rosary the Rosary was part of a family prayer in our home I remember so many times late at night he would come back from something and he'd be walking back and forth in the chapel just to stay awake praying his rosary every night at 9:30 we pray the rosary with Mother Angelica or we prayed the rosary with father Mitch Pacwa so we were pretty was praying the rosary with the television but also we pray the rosary in the chapel when I was here at the seminary studying at st. Joseph's here in st. Leopold's friary he would be coming back from whatever preaching engagements and he would praise rosary faithfully in fact in the back of the friary the pathway going back and forth has been worn out from his walking keeping himself awake praying the rosary he loved the Rosary so much but he couldn't pray while driving because he would have fallen asleep but he loved their ladies so much father Andrews devotion to Our Lady was par excellence I mean she was part of his life she was his mother and he really I think that's really part of his legacy that were meant to pass on he very much believed in Our Lady of Fatima 's vision for the church and how important she was to our faith and it's amazing in a lot of ways that he would have passed away in the hundredth anniversary year of Our Lady of Fatima and I'd say like with one of the great gifts of coming to work for UW 10 and being able to meet people like Mother Angelica and father Benedict Groeschel father Andrew is there as well and I would say as I said about so many of them what you see is what you get the person you saw on screen was emblematic of who that person was they were real they cared about people they cared about their faith and they loved their Lord and we shall ever miss them you know our parents were very proud of their sons Joseph's decision to enter the religious life as a Capuchin although my mother wondered why he had to go away so far away so soon that's a month father Andrew left home as a young boy to begin the road to his priesthood when he entered the Capuchin seminaries in studying upstate beacon in Geneva New York the rules for student home visits were very strict then I was a very small child at the time but I do recall missing my big brother and looking forward to his return home for whatever short period of time it might be I have to confess that it was not just because I would get to see my brother again but it's also knowing that there would be a huge party with all his favorite foods including including icebox cake pizza every kind of cookie you could think of the these happen to be favorites of my brother Francis and I as well and my mother would get ready for days it wasn't quite the fatted calf it was more like the loaded lasagna but we we prepared you know my brother and Ice Francis and I served as tasters we're very happy for that job and so we look forward to of coming these parties also included extended families cousins aunts uncles as well as neighbors and good friends they were they were fun memorable so I guess you can always say that father Andrew always enjoyed big gatherings and listening to what was being said tonight I think that's consistent and I think we also learned this trait from our parents to be hospitable and he certainly hooked up with the right group of people to to you know demonstrate this hospitality because I don't think I've seen hospitality like the Franciscan friars at the renewal and the sisters that I've met throughout this whole year and all over the course of his life as a Franciscan for I myself have known angel' father Andrew in a somewhat a very intimate way in the sense that we lived together as friars being members of the same community both of us were Capuchin Franciscans and 30 years ago we began a renewal of the Capuchin Franciscan Order and now we are now Franciscan friars of the renewal living a life of caring for the poor and evangelization in many many ways he was extremely humble always generous with the gifts and the talents that God had given to him he is a man which has been very very generous with his time his energy perhaps you may know that he also began a religious community of sisters called the Franciscan Sisters of the renewal father Andrew gave much of his time and energy and interest in this little budding sister's community which is growing and doing well now I think really what summarizes it him for me is is the word father I've been praying and thinking about how he was a father to me and to the sisters and the role that a father would play how he played that so well I think as a father I always felt safe with him first and he was so solid in his teaching he taught us as novices and as our spiritual father I just I just knew we were safe that we were always getting sound Catholic teaching and also he always provided for us spiritually provided for us the sisters have been saying these past couple days how generous he was for us coming always to say masses for the past five years I've been living in East Harlem he was living up in Yonkers he would come weekly make that drive into the city to be with us for mass and confession in spiritual direction and then lastly that very special dynamic I think of a father with a daughter the way he encouraged us I felt so encouraged in my vocation by him I felt he he brought out he helped me to blossom in my vocation times when I was struggling and he spoke with me and just so reassuring and encouraging and always wanting me to grow in freedom he used that a lot how important that was as a Bride of Christ to be more free in my vocation father Andrew was so generous with the gift of his priesthood and we sisters the community that he founded we took him up on that generosity as much as we possibly could and he would come and say Mass for us in the beginning at least twice a week and the beginning of my religious life and then as each new house opened he would come and say once a week a mass in each new house the hours spent driving the hours spent preaching celebrating the mass hearing our confessions giving spiritual direction and endless endless it was so incredibly generous and I think you know sometimes I've gone into sacristy and there's often a little a little phrase to priest that says priest of Jesus Christ say this prick this mass say this mass as if it were your first mass your last mass or your only mass and when I think a father Android I know he was a priest that did that for the hundreds and hundreds of masses that I was privileged to be out with father Andrew it was always with the same deliberate reverence devotion it didn't matter what his schedule held he said that mass as if it was his only mass and his reverence brought all of us into a greater reverence into a greater love of the Eucharist and so his personal love of Jesus was contagious on July 7th 1993 father Benedict Groeschel was to be on Mother Angelica live with Mother Angelica in this time he brought a friar with him the co-founder who knows father possibly first appearance in the libertine lives it just so happened that was my very first day working at EWTN is what so we both have that connection of working together started together you wtn during that show and afterwards mother delica was very impressed with the father arranger she always had written a great heart for Franciscans of course but she loved the message that he was proclaiming him said I think you need to a series that would lead to over 18 various series and specials that father Andrew would would host throughout the years not including coming to do either 10 bookmarks and other live shows and special coverage of events etcetera so the witness of father through the airwaves has been tremendous just a few days within these first few days of his passing and EWTN let our viewers know through various means we've had over 40,000 messages on our various media websites and social media aspects and that's just the beginning of those who people that doesn't come to those who called in you know literally is from around the world people around the world Philippines South America you're all writing in the message saying how much his message meant to how much his words and his teachers made when he first started there was a direct connection with father Rochelle and we even had a little fun at the beginning when we when father Andrew first started coming down near me you did a little spot that said this is father Groeschel this is not gotta get people to know him and even later on and we did a follow up to that saying can you guess who this friar is and the person gifts his father Groeschel said oh it's not his father auntie he finally understood this is a totally different shade of gray so they the two of them really handed years ago a promo was done but which one was father Benedict and which one was father Andrew in fact recently we were doing something where we want to kind of honor father Andrew on one of our shows and we couldn't put his picture up because they put father gross shells picture up instead and so but I don't think that was something that ever bothered father Andrew he was just too humble and too nice a guy father possibly truly had his own stuff in his own way of saying things and he soon became a favorite for our viewers they would ask for more programming from him and he was always willing to do programs based upon his books based upon his retreats and the theme that is I think going with everyone given their eulogy says how much he gave when he would come to eat I began to do the series television to be honest when you're on TV can be very exhausting but idea to pretend we'd always ask him to do more so you're doing your series can you also be on the live show can they also say the daily mask and do some reflections on your vocation there's always one it was always yes there's always sure I'll be happy to me having known him for many years and having lived with him for several years knew that he was a holy man scripture says that he who has been given much much as expected from and we know that he poured himself out preaching all over the world constantly sharing and giving of himself in so many different capacities he never stopped he always said yes he always gave more whenever the locals found out that father Andrew was going to in town there was the the call hey do you think he could come talk to our prayer group could he come you know counsel this person I remember one time after finishing a long series I drove him an hour away so that he could give a talk to confirmation students he was just always a yes with father we even when Mother Angelica was having one of her a larger birthdays we were having a special show when we contacted father and said you know do you think you could just take a little message and father into me when we got it back or so that following in June small Google Friars did the famous CFR birthday so on Mother Angelica if you don't know what that is that's for the front I can still hear mother laughing now later on the show but it was always it was always a use somebody was asking for help in the friary he would say yes even the most simplest things the most humble of things and he was always attentive to everyone who talked to him he was never big on himself and this is a great example in the witness of father Andrew his humility always ready to listen always ready to give never think of himself great and that is exactly what made him great [Music] [Music] I'd like to begin by recalling a prophecy from the servant of God venerable Archbishop Fulton sheen the homily he preached when he ordained father Andrew to the priesthood in 1967 an archbishop Fulton sheen uttered a prophecy about father Andrew that day and I think today we can safely say that that prophecy has been fulfilled and I quote the emotional thrill of the first mass will leave but not the love of being a priest that grows as the years go on you are the first priest I think that I have ordained since the council you are definitely and so since you are the first priest that has dropped from my hands since the council may you begin to be with me the beginning of a sanctified priesthood you have it already and sanctification is like health when you have it it is easy to keep when you lose it it is hard to get back doubly hard you are a holy man you will be a holy priest and the world will be better because of this day [Music] so I'll conclude with the comments on something that card Archbishop Sheen said the thrill of your first mass I want to tell you about Father Angie's last mass was the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe solemnity our patroness and we were there at his bedside and it was very clear to everyone that he was coming to the end of his journey [Music] and saying the prayers it's so familiar but yet so new in the presence of a dying man and I remember looking looking down and in my view was the host laying on the paten and father Angie laying on the bed there and he looked like a piece of bread on a plate and I realized that his conformity to Christ was complete like Jesus in the Eucharist Jesus who was his love Jesus who had nourished him over fifty years of faithful priesthood his conformity to Christ was complete and he was ready to go home to the Father [Music] and so many of the friars the brothers we were keeping vigil by his bedside and - moment to minutes before he passed he was just laying there two minutes before his eyes opened and he was seeing something that no one else in the room could see and his breathing started to change and we gathered around his bed and father John Paul was reading the prayers that you pray with someone as they're dying so many of those beautiful and profound passages from the Bible and then we came to the litany of the saints and his father John Paul lists off the names of the Saints pray for him and pray for him pray for him just imagining that cloud of witnesses that surround us and when he said st. Andrew pray for him father breathed his last how beautiful how beautiful Thank You Father we had the opportunity to pray with his body the brothers gathered around praying from the prayers for the deceased and the Sun shone brightly through the window onto his body we have been witnesses to great things he died as he lived tremendous faithfulness fidelity he wore out the the board's on the floor at the back of our Chapel praying so we certainly pray for you dear father Andrea we pray for you you may quickly come into the fullness of God's presence and we ask for your prayers as we now continue in our own pilgrimage of life and we thank you [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] like to just make a quick welcome to all who have come to attend this sending off of our dear father Andrew and attending this Requiem Mass like the most especially welcome our bishops Bishop Sullivan Mr O'Hara Bishop Byrne chip Cruz and Bishop masa for coming and joining us in choir and for all of the priests and religious and all of the faithful that have come most especially the Apostle II family and we're all here to pray for this this man who has given his life fully as a disciple so let us begin our prayers this day then Jesus saw the crowds he went up to the mountain and after he sat down his disciples came to him he began to teach them the same blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven blessed are they who mourn for they will be comforted blessed are the meek for they will inherit the land blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be satisfied blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy blessed are the clean of heart for they will see God blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called children of God and blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness for theirs is the kingdom of heaven and blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me rejoice and be glad for your reward will be great the gospel of the Lord [Music] one of the things father loved to do was evangelize and father would always ask the brothers at the house could you take me to the studio to make sure he could be on either BT and to make sure he could use his gift of evangelization on TV and so many of you know my brother and I our father innocent have had many opportunities to to also follow in the footsteps of father Benedict and father Andrew and start to do some shows on EWTN as well and we just learned so much from father he was so available and he was so excited about spreading the gospel on TV obviously with the inspiration of Mother Angelica and father Benedict father's humility his joy and his knowledge of the faith were many things that we took away as he as he every week would share with the audience with with his love for our lady with his love for obviously the Lord in the Eucharist and his love of his priesthood and he was just so attentive the to to the audience and so attentive to those who would meet along the way who would always come up to him and say hey father we've seen you not eat EWTN and we just wanted to say hello so father was that had that great gift to evangelize and he certainly has inspired us as seminaries to want to use that gift of evangelization to for the church so we like him can bring others closer to Christ closer to our lady and closer to their salvation father Andrew was the community servant when I first joined the Franciscan friars to the renewal so he's the one who actually interviewed and accepted me in 1996 shortly after I made first vows I was also assigned to him as his secretary and now at the end of his life I am the servant and bringing him to the last chapter of his life and there's one little short episode I'd like to share with you as I was in the seminary father Andrew was giving us a the seminarians a retreat and he spoke about Fulton sheen who had ordained him and how Fulton sheen had spoken to him about the great necessity for the study of the holy spirit and how after the council the the working of the Holy Spirit was a very important part of renewal on the priesthood and father Andrew took that on and father Andrew throughout the retreat that he was giving us as seminarians really inspired me to continue and do my own Master's work in the gifts and the charisms of the Holy Spirit and it's only because of that retreat of father Andrew that I was able to take that topic on and move forward in there and it's just quite ironic that how the Holy Spirit works all of this out father Andrew being the servant calling me in and then me being the servant and sending him on and we'll remember Father he will you know I refuse to be sad today although there's a there's a void with all of us there let's be realistic but I I can't be sad for someone who lives such a strong life and left us such a legacy okay whether it be the Friars and sisters whether it be the viewers on EWTN whether it be our apostolate and the people who follow us I got so many phone calls and people talk about you know giving me condolences and I appreciate that you were very close and and I said yeah it's a sad time today but remember that we're all given this finite time life to do our work okay and then we're judging what we those who come after us in that in November we were in fátima for our we always do it a pilgrimage at the end of the year we had 100 pilgrims with us is a beautiful event father Andrew was scheduled to meet with us and of course by that he was too sick to travel but the tradition carried on we had five priests on there three of whom were friars okay we had father John Anthony father Luke and father her do you know who came from Ireland and I see he came back to see us here today my experience with them was he was such a father and I looked up to him as a priest in fact he was the one that I chose in my heart to imitate emulate because of his priesthood and his reverence and his love for the rosary his love for the sacraments and now will we pray for his repose but we ask him as well to do it for us and what a blessing to be here today my name is father Glen Sudan oh and I am considering a distinct privilege for me to be offering the homily today for our dear father and friend and brother father and your apostolate every time we had a solemnity let's say was Christmas or Easter or semester II the professions especially the sisters father Angelo I waited for him he said the same thing after the opening greeting he says this is the day the Lord has made let us rejoice and be glad and when you look at the picture or father Andrew take a look at the picture of father Andrew listen to these words as you look at the picture of father Andrew these are the fruits of the spirit in fact he often wrote about the holy spirit a number of books about the Holy Spirit love joy peace patience [Music] kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness and self-control do we not see this man like a tree bearing these fruits in due season and it even says in this vision that the trees their leaves were used for medicine father Andrew as with other holy people have a healing presence you go before them and you feel better just being in their presence nourishing fruit and the healing presence my brothers and sisters yes joy this comes from not looking at life certainly not focusing in on the faults of another even one who's owned failings and false it's pulling the camera back it's seeing everything indeed it's seeing everything it's seeing eternity and when the Eternity is the backdrop everything falls into proper place and things that we think are so important may not be that important like sickness or death cancer whatever it may be Paul says what can separate us from the love of Christ Jesus yes there's a tendency at these times to canonize a person and maybe that day will come but now is the time mrs. Sadat necessarily for inspiration but provocation the Saints the holy people canonized or not we don't care but they provoke us to become the people that God has created us to be if there was we heard that there was some person somewhere in some farm country that could flap their arms really hard and fly if there was one person that could flap their arms and fly all of us would say maybe I could do that now admittedly some of us they need to work out in some way and some of us may have to lose some weight [Music] but it means that we have the potential if one person can do it we can all do it and so when we see a band like this his branches heavy laden with sweet and delicious fruit that we enjoyed every time we came into his presence if the Holy Spirit was at work in him why is it not at work in us and so brothers and sisters here's the provocation and here's the challenge they were called to sanctity will call to grow were called to become people that God has created us to be and this is why we ask for the intercession of the Saints that they will help us now is the time not to look at but to look under to look up at the mountain of the Lord to look at his temple on high to look up at his cabinet to look up at the cross to look up at his mother father and really looked up and his life is a provocation and an inspiration for us to do the same so let us ask most especially the Holy Mother of God to grant us the grace which she had in full that sweet life-giving water which enables us to bear fruit unto eternal life let us ask for her inspiration or for her prayers and protection so that what we have witnessed with our own eyes in the life of this wonderful men that others may see the same in us let us look up and see heaven the reward of a weld of life ahead of us father Andrew we promise to pray for you and please pray for us may Christ be praised [Music] although his health declines in this house teared and his body became weaker in contrast it became even more obvious to us the strength of his soul the last time he came to offer Holy Mosques and our chapel in the Bronx I am the one who asked him to come and I was so happy he said yes and we're so excited that his attorney and I I was in the front I would never be closed way to the altar and I saw him coming down walking in and I thought he took such slow and measured steps and I [Music] was feeling guilty and then he held onto the altar and took such an effort to genitive night so beautifully before the tabernacle and then I just put my head down like that it was feeling so bad he came to kiss the altar and when he stood up his face was radiant full of light and my guilt vanished and I said in my heart he is his things I felt like I was looking at a sink the glow on his face [Music] reflecting on father Andrews life I think he was much like st. John the Baptist for us he held the lamp so that we could see Christ more clearly he never shed the light on himself it wasn't about him it was always about Jesus even as in his last weeks when I was trying to thank him for what he had done for us here is his response was no it wasn't me it was God God did all that for you he came to testify to the light and for us his sisters he illumined a path a gospel way of life that is brought to each of us the immeasurable gift of belonging totally to God there is no doubt in my mind that the Blessed Mother was there to take his hand on December 13 as he went home to our Father in heaven I feel confident father Andrew is with us now more than ever having received the eternal board of a good and faithful servant now we rely on his prayers to be faithful to this beautiful way of life that he and the Friars have imparted to us father Andrew we thank you and we love you please pray for us my brother bishops so many priests and deacons and women religious and so many who knew and love father Andrew it is good that we are here it's a tribute to the tremendous impact of grace and mercy that that he had upon the entire church was it not fitting that he died in Advent when the whole church was praying come Lord Jesus and that prayer was answered for him the said that season was it not fitting that he died at Hanukah when our when our older brothers and sisters in the faith celebrate the triumph of light over darkness and was it not fitting that he died on the feast of Santa Lucia Saint Lucy whose name is derived from light as we begin that the season of lights at Christmas time because he was indeed a light shining in the a light shining in the darkness that I don't think I'll ever go out and now we trust that eternal light shines upon him may he rest in peace [Music] one of the things that I remember about father Andrew is that he said that every night he tried to read a little bit of something from a biography of Saint Francis or the writings of st. Francis of Assisi because he thought that that was necessary to keep that spirit of st. Francis alive in himself and certainly he lived out that spirituality of st. Francis that totality of his life for God so we remember him especially as one who was an authentic Franciscan friar I really think that really we had two Saints among us and Father go shell and father apostle II and also our own Mother Angelica of course as well and what pillars they were what examples they were to us younger in the life although I've been here for a while too but those of us who are following in their footsteps that we had these big footsteps to follow in to follow in that spirituality that sanctity that they lived out that it was an authentic way in which they lived out the religious life I've had the awesome privilege of being a friend of father Andrew for 50 years he first walked into Moore's Catholic High School and for a religion class we had never seen a priest like him before he had brown robe on he didn't have shoes which was big big whisper he doesn't even have shoes he had sandals he didn't even have a built he had a rope and you could just tell right from the beginning that he was happy to be with us and he made everyone feel so comfortable we could talk to father Andrew about anything even kids would say well do you think I can go up there and tell him like I'm not sure if I really believe in God but you could because he welcomed everyone and we learned so much from him he wrote in my yearbook when I graduated from high school that he always enjoyed the discussions we had and he said you know keep in touch so I did on a special note six years ago I came down with cancer and father was notified about it and he contacted me and let me know he was praying for me that all the friars are praying for me and it helped me through a very difficult time in one thing though special is every time I either when he came to the network or when he called he spoke on the phone a lot he would always ask how are you doing how's your health what's the latest thanks be to God and just to know that because I know the Friars are in demand I know they're busy I know they have a lot of people reaching out to them but that he would remember you you were someone special to him he remembered me and that meant a lot to me the one thing that gives me great cause of light consolation is that through EWTN father's voice will still be heard we're still gonna air his programs and his teachings and those who have never known never knew him or the new viewers in various parts of world will get to hear the message of our ladies of the Holy Spirit of st. Francis so father's voice is still gonna be heard throughout the world we thanks God for that and I can just picture right now Mother Angelica father krischell and father Andrew finishing up the conversation they started in 1993 in that July so he deputy and our viewers all we can say is thank you Father Andrew for all you did for us you know for all that you will continue to do thank you certainly the passing of father Andrew brought sadness to all of us who knew him here at EWTN but as we look back and remember father Andrew it's a moment of great joy because he meant so much to all of us here at EWTN to me personally to Mother Angelica he was a part of the network for over 25 years an important part of the network and all of us here looked forward with great joy to every visit that father Andrew would make he brought just a sense of holiness when he was here and you can tell whenever you spend time with him the depth of his spiritual life and just what a holy and wonderful man he really was he was a joy to be around and and just a very humble man who certainly conveyed by his life by his actions by his presence a true Franciscan spirituality a true Franciscan way of life I think in many ways that's why he was such a great fit with EWTN and why he was so special to Mother Angelica he would end up being at the Little Sisters of the Poor nursing home for 10 months I was privileged to be with him almost every day and although he had health complications he continued filming on EWTN continuing joining the Friars and sisters at their celebrations continued traveling when he could and even to Fatima in late May for the beginning of a hundredth anniversary of Our Lady of Fatima's apparitions it was during those 10 months I experienced his kindness and gentleness to the elderly you should have seen him walking around the dining room after he ate his meal and greeting each resident almost like there was a personal little visit his extreme prayerfulness especially praying the rosary his love for the Blessed Mother and her love for him his love for being a priest and talking about Fulton J Sheen his wanting to know what was happening to him his strong Italian strength his desire to travel and to preach his dedication to friends his dedication to friends showed himself so clearly to me when just a month ago after we had moved back to the friary with hospice care he learned about the tragic and sudden death of Adam Brickell a 15 year old boy who was the grandson of a dear friend of his and he insisted that we go to both the wake and the funeral to pray for the repose of the soul of this young man and the consolation of his family therefore Mother Teresa's words in life were so much a part of who father Andrew was that I heard him say many times at the nursing home a little phrase to people and they asked how he was doing he would say take what God gives and give what God takes all with a big smile over a year ago father Andrew had asked our Lord for a crop to offer to our lady in this centennial and that is what he has now given back to her in his sufferings and very life as we visited him two days before he passed where he was where him and his scapular holding his world mission rosary promoted by Archbishop Fulton sheen in Addis I was a beautiful statue of Our Lady of Fatima which he was facing as he lay in bed I'm positive he is now with her she who he loved with deep devotion father Andrew were going the mission of greatly but we know he will now spend heaven promoting Our Lady's message of Fatima now more than ever and I just want to close with the prayer that I think kind of reflects what we talked about sometimes when we talk about father Andrew it was written by Henry Cardinal Newman it's a reflection especially it reminds me of my brother's life and and even his most recent days in his own pain and suffering you know you may have seen it it's called the mission of my life and God has created me to do some him some definite service he has committed some work to me which he has not committed to another I have my mission I may never know it in this life but I shall be told that in the next I am a link in the chain a bond of connection between persons he has not created me for not I shall do good I shall do his work I shall be an angel of peace preacher of truth in my own place while not intending it if I but if I do but keep his Commandments therefore I will trust him whatever I am I can never be thrown away if I am in sickness my sickness may serve in perplexity my perplexity may serve if I am in sorrow my sorrow may serve him he does nothing in vain he knows what he is about he may take away my friends he may throw me among strangers he may make me feel desolate make my spirits sink hide my future from me but still he knows what he is about thank you for joining us for this special tribute to father Andrew apostolate in the spirit of father Groeschel and father Apostoli we the Franciscan friars the renewal will be continuing with new episodes of Sunday night prime in the near future god bless you [Music] you

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Keywords: NPR, NPR11290

Id: pM2_LGTfgKM

Length: 58min 17sec (3497 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 15 2018