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Homily for the Mass of Christian Burial of Fr. Richard Leary, C.P.

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“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the one bringing good news, announcing peace, bearing good news, announcing salvation….” (Isaiah 52:7)

As Christmas draws near here in Jamaica, NY, most of the trees in our garden are barren, and even the hardiest autumn flowers have turned brittle in the cold. Nature itself reminds us that life has its cycles. We too flourish and wither. Through the winter we will only have our memories of what was, and the dream of what might be again in spring.  But as Christmas draws near in the Caribbean island-nation of Jamaica, whose people Fr. Richard Leary loved, the giant poinsettia trees are filled with brilliant red flowers while the prolific euphorbia bushes abound with silky white blossoms. At Christmastime, these vibrant flowering bushes alternate side by side in a garland of festive color encircling the rectory at Balaclava, one of the many places Fr. Richard pastored during his decades of missionary life in rural Jamaica.

His home State of Vermont’s motto is “Freedom and Unity,” and his father’s name was Moses.  It is no surprise that young Lawrence Leary grew up with a desire to get on the move in order to help others less fortunate than himself.  In his teen years, he heard a call from Christ to leave father and mother and the consoling atmosphere of the large and loving family into which he was born in 1918. He entered the Passionist seminary at 19 years of age and by 21 professed his vows as Richard of the Mother of Sorrows.  In that solemn moment, he committed himself to keep the Passion of Jesus ever before his eyes both as an inspiration for his own self-sacrificing love, and as a divine message of “good news” about God’s love for our world. Some seventy years later, we can see how that charism and life-defining vow genuinely shaped his relationship with everyone he would meet from that day forward.

Richard grew up among the mountains of Vermont whose hardwood trees summer clothes with a mantle of green leaves, and evergreens full of cones which winter blankets with layers of fluffy white snow. Stately oaks abound, as well as the maple trees cherished for their syrup, which graces the breakfast tables of countless homes along the Eastern Seaboard. Little did Richard and his family know in his childhood and adolescence, that he would spend the last third of his long and healthy priestly life crisscrossing the mountains and valleys of a Caribbean island. There, winter and summer hardly differ.  There, flowers and fruit trees thrive every month of the year.

The mountainous terrain of Jamaica has much in common with the valleys and highlands of Galilee, which Jesus walked all the years of his hidden life and public ministry. Our Gospels constantly remind us how blessed the people were who heard the message of salvation which Jesus announced. Truly, as Isaiah writes, “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the one bringing good news, announcing peace, bearing good news, announcing salvation….” (Isaiah 52:7)

Jesus was no stranger to his mountains, often seeking out their solitude for his prayer. From that vantage point, he grew in passion for ministry to the poor, the sick and those whom others had cast aside through fear or a lack of love.  Like Jesus who knew well all the country roads zigzagging across the Galilean highlands in his thirty some years among us, Fr. Richard too would spend some thirty years seeking out the country people of Jamaica, far away from the big-city lights of Kingston or the tourist meccas of the northern coast. At night on the roads or alone in his rectory, he would live the prayerful life of Jesus and grow ever deeper in his own passion for justice.

“The Lord is my shepherd, there is nothing I shall lack…Even when I walk through a dark valley, I fear no harm for you are at my side” (Psalm 23:1, 4).  Passionist ministry in Jamaica has always had a strong ecumenical flavor because in most of the rural areas only about 3% of the population belong to Roman Catholic church communities.  Psalm 23 is a constant feature of funerals in every Christian church in Jamaica, and the virtues of the good shepherd characterized Fr. Richard so aptly. From 1948-61, he taught Canon Law to more than a dozen classes of Passionist seminarians. But it is obvious that like every good teacher, he was also a student at the same time.  Canon 529 offers a description of the role of a pastor which serves as an accurate summary of Fr. Richard’s apostolic fervor, especially once he left the classroom. “The pastor should strive to come to know the faithful who have been entrusted to his care; therefore he is to visit families, sharing the cares, worries and especially the grief of the faithful, strengthening them in the Lord…he is to make a special effort to seek out the poor, the afflicted, the lonely…” Fr. Richard diligently shepherded countless thousands of people both in his Atlanta ministry in those history-changing years from 1961-1977, and in Jamaica from 1977-2007.

At night in rural areas, Jamaican roads and hillside towns are intensely dark. But darker still are the fears people have for their uncertain future, and for where they will find assistance for food and the basic education of their children, much less dental care which can restore a happy spirit as well as a child’s smile. Like Jesus, the Good Shepherd, Fr. Richard was there, walking with the people in their dark valleys of life’s challenges.

Fr. Richard’s life bridged many momentous changes both in Passionist lifestyle and in the history of the world. You can even find his writings on the internet simply by typing into the Search box on Google: Funerals in Jamaica Richard Leary. That will take you immediately to his article in our Passionist Compassion magazine, which gives us a glimpse of the pastoral texture of his life in 1997. After Fr. Richard describes some of the common Jamaican practices for burying loved ones, he writes, “When no family or friends are present, I am called to officiate at a brief graveside ceremony. I am always moved by the tragedy of the event. How devastating for a human being to die without a home, without loved ones to mourn, without anyone to remember who you are, whose lives you touched, what you did with your life!” (The Passionists Compassion, Spring 1997)

Though he was reluctant a few years ago to come back to this monastery in Jamaica North from his assignment in the Jamaica South which he loved, we can say that he did not die without a home, or without loved ones who mourn his passing, but with several classmates and other people who remembered and cherished who he was, people whose lives he touched here as well as there, and still cherish what he did with his life, especially for the poor. In death now, he will return to Jamaica, land he loved, to rest in peace with fellow Passionists who served and died there as well.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:1).  The Beatitudes in Matthew’s Gospel invite all of us to grow in a variety of virtues – simplicity in material concerns, mercy, single-hearted devotion to God as the orientation of our whole life above all else, peacemaking, with fortitude and perseverance in the face of injustice. But the vivid presence of the beatitudes in Fr. Richard says more about what God does in someone, rather than what the person does on their own. We may plant a tree and care for it in its fragile beginnings so that it may take root well.  We help the tree develop and in God’s time we may be blessed with fruit that will nourish ourselves and others. We do our part, but we do not create the fruit.

God first planted Richard’s life in the tender, caring environment of the Leary family home.  His love for his family endured with steadfastness wherever he roamed widely on this earth, even till the last morning phone call from his sister on what turned out to be the day of his death. Those virtues of Christ’s beatitudes continued to mature in his Passionist community life. No doubt his reserved spirit was tested by that imposing band of classmates who hailed from the big cities of Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, classmates who had never seen Vermont and probably never suspected what treasures could come from there.

Nourished by his communion with Christ Jesus, “the Lamb who was slain but is risen,” Richard of the Mother of Sorrows was familiar with suffering throughout his life. But in his latter years, the tree of his life became more explicitly conformed to the tree of Calvary on which hung our salvation. He who had generously worked with his hands for others all his life had to rely totally on others to help him every moment of the day. His feet had served him well marching with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., as well as plodding through the red dust of Manchester hillsides suddenly turned to slippery clay in the midst of a funeral in a backyard family plot. His virtues as a Passionist indeed came to full maturity when his hands and feet were pinned to the bed of suffering.  Surely, the Mother of Sorrows whose title he bore in profession was his unseen companion in these years of his spiritual crucifixion with Christ.

The vision of John of Patmos in the Book of Revelation enables us best to understand how our brother, uncle, fellow Passionist and friend, who was a ‘tree of life’ for so many here on earth, is worthy to take his place alongside that unique and eternally longed-for heavenly Tree of Life which bears fruit “twelve times a year, once each month; the leaves of the trees serve as medicine for the nations” (Revelation 22:2). Transplanted now alongside that river of life which flows from the throne of God, everything Richard shared with us will continue to be healing grace for all who have known him here, whether for a day or a lifetime. So many benefitted from the gifts of his theological education, his discerning insights about the foibles of human nature, and his deadpan humor which could reduce even the most unresponsive persons to laughter. All that may seem over now, humanly speaking.  But his love for God, which he shared so generously among us, will continue to bear fruit in God’s time and providence. May we come to know the truth which he shared on the banner he hung on his door wherever he lived in recent decades that, “Grace is everywhere” (Last line of The Diary of a Country Priest). Dear Richard, may you who brought peace to so many on this earth, now rest in eternal peace.

- Fr. Paul Zilonka, C.P.

Please consider making a make donation in Fr. Richard Leary’s memory to the Passionist Retirement Fund.

Passionist Missionaries Inc.
526 Monastery Place
Union City NJ 07087-3398
Tel: 888/806-6606
E-mail: AGardiner@cpprov.org

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Fr. Richard Leary, C.P. (1918-2011)

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Father Richard Leary, a Passionist priest and missionary, died at Immaculate Conception Monastery on December 11, 2011 at the age of 93 years old.  He was born on August 19, 1918.  He was the son of the late Moses L. Leary and the late Lena (Chapman) Leary.  Brother of Mrs. Dorothy Millette of Eastham, Massachusetts and Catherine Dowhan of Burlington, VT.  Father Leary graduated from Cathedral High School in Burlington, Vermont in 1936.  He attended Saint Michael College, Winooski, Vermont and Holy Cross Seminary, Dunkirk, New York.  Father Leary entered the Passionists – a Roman Catholic Religious community of priests and brothers dedicated to the Passion of the Christ, contemplative prayer, the popular preaching of parish missions and retreats, and overseas missionary work – in 1938.  After completing his novitiate at Saint Paul of the Cross Monastery, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he professed his vows in 1939.  After studying at Saint Gabriel Monastery, Brighton, Massachusetts and Saint Ann Monastery, Scranton, Pennsylvania, he received his BA in 1942.  He then studied theology at Immaculate Conception Monastery, Jamaica, New York, Our Lady of Sorrows Monastery, West Springfield, and Saint Michael Monastery, Union City, New Jersey.  He was ordained to the priesthood at Saint Michael Monastery, Union City, New Jersey on April 29, 1946.

Father Leary studied at Laval University in Quebec, Canada.  He received his Licentiate in Canon Law in 1948 and then taught canon law at Saint Mary Monastery, Dunkirk, New York, Saint Gabriel Monastery, Brighton, Massachusetts, Immaculate Conception Monastery, Jamaica, New York, Saint Joseph Monastery, Baltimore, Maryland, Holy Family Monastery, West Hartford, Connecticut, Our Lady of Sorrows Monastery, West Springfield, Massachusetts, and Saint Ann Monastery, Scranton, Pennsylvania.  Father Leary was principal of Drexel High School in Atlanta, Georgia from 1961-1965.  Known for his dedication to the sick, Father Leary was Parochial Vicar at Saint Paul of the Cross, an African American parish in Atlanta, Georgia from 1961-1969. He also was pastor there from 1961-1971.  He then devotedly dedicated himself to inner-city ministry in Atlanta from 1971-1977.

Father Leary left the United States in 1977 for a missionary career in the Caribbean nation of Jamaica, West Indies.  He pastored parishes in Christiana, Bull Savannah, Balaclava, Black River, Mandeville, and Kingston.  He also served in the formation of young Religious in the novitiate at Balaclava and in canonical affairs for the diocese.  Throughout his life Father Leary accompanied the poorest of the poor, and he served on various civic organizations and boards and committees that ministered to the downtrodden.

The viewing will be held on Tuesday, December 13, at Immaculate Conception Monastery from 3:00 PM – 7:00 PM.  There will be a Rosary and Vigil Service at 7:00 PM.  Funeral Mass will be held at Immaculate Conception on Wednesday, December 14, at 11:00 AM.

Please consider making a make donation in Fr. Richard Leary’s memory to the Passionist Retirement Fund.

Passionist Missionaries Inc.
526 Monastery Place
Union City NJ 07087-3398
Tel: 888/806-6606
E-mail: AGardiner@cpprov.org

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The Donate Now button will redirect you to Caring Habits, Inc. (CHI) which is the credit card processing company for The Passionist Missionaries website.

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Homily for the Mass of Christian Burial of Fr. Sebastian Kolinovsky, CP

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The gospels note carefully how Jesus called people to follow him. They tell us when and where it happened. It was along the lakeshore in Galilee that Jesus called Peter and Andrew and then James and John as they’re fishing from their boats. And they followed him. After awhile, he sent them to other villages in Galilee, to the people and places they knew, to bring the good news of the gospel to them.

I mention the call of the disciples because one of Fr. Sebastian’s favorite stories was how God called him.  It wasn’t at the seashore or in church, for that matter, it was at the Blue Lantern, a diner down by the cathedral in Scranton, long gone now.

At the time he had just finished 3rd year high school and Sebbie got a job there washing dishes, then waiting on tables, then as a short-order cook and eventually as a bartender. Most days he’d walk down to work from his home in Taylor. He’d stop at the cathedral to say a few prayers and then if he had some money from tips, he’d drop something off in the poor box The times were tough then, he said, and he was lucky to have a job in a place like the Blue Lantern.

Well, one day, one of the customers– his name was John Maloney, a local teacher – said to Sebbie “ I think you would be a good priest.”  Now, Sebbie was completely surprised. He’d never thought about it. He didn’t think he had the education or the qualifications. He wasn’t capable of it.

But John persisted. “You can do it!” And he arranged for him to see Fr. Boniface Buckley, a Passionist from Scranton, and after a few years studying at Central High School Sebbie entered the Passionists and was ordained a priest. Incidentally, over the years, John would call Father Sebastian periodically, usually at 8:30 in the morning, to keep in touch with him and see how he was doing.

Jesus called Sebastian, as he did his first apostles, from where he was and sent him to those he knew best.  The great Italian artist, Duccio, painted a picture of Jesus calling Peter and his brother Andrew from their boat and as you look at them you can see how much they belonged to the world they lived in. Their hands are firmly on their nets; they know this world through and through. And that’s the world Jesus first sent them to, the world they knew best.

It was through people like John Maloney at the Blue Lantern that Jesus called Sebastian first, and then through his family and friends, and then through the Passionists.  They recognized something in him. He was good with people like them, he knew them and appreciated them and, like Jesus, his heart went out to them. A priest called like that is usually the best kind of priest.

He had the common touch. After ordination Father Sebastian preached missions and retreats in English and Slovak; he was vicar and rector at the Passionist houses in Baltimore and Riverdale, NY. But probably his most notable ministry was as director of Passionist Missionaries, in Union City, NJ, where he raised funds for the Passionist missions in this country and throughout the world.

He was really good with people, and he showed it in the simplest of ways. As they sent requests for Masses and prayers, people would mention someone they had lost, or a sickness that weighed them down, or troubles they were having with their children or their relatives or their friends.  Father Sebastian would sit down and write them a letter. He didn’t type; when computers arrived, he didn’t use them. He wrote handwritten letters in a simple style that brought the blessing of God to those who needed it.  Handwritten letters by the thousands.

Unfortunately, he had to give up that ministry some years ago when he began to fail physically, but every once in awhile, someone will tell you that he or she got letters from Father Sebastian that meant so much to them. They heard Christ speaking through him.  The founder of the Passionists, St. Paul of the Cross, was also great letter-writer. Some say he wrote more than 15,000 letters in his lifetime. Father Sebastian beat him easily.

He announced the gospel, not in learned lectures or eloquent sermons, but in simple, heartfelt letters and gestures and words. “ How beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news!” St. Paul says in our first reading. Fr. Sebastian was that kind of priest. He brought ordinary people the beautiful blessings of Christ wherever he went.

His goodness was predictable. It was goodness of the simplest kind. We who knew him know that Fr. Sebastian was a man of routine.  He had a goodness you could count on. On Monday nights back in Union City, Sebbie cooked supper. “What’s on the menu at the Blue Lantern tonight?” we would say. You could count on it. Every day he would come up from his office and call his mother in Scranton, until she died. “What’s the weather like there?” you could hear him say. Later, we got the weather report from Scranton. You could count on it. He lived predictably. You knew where he was, who he was with, what he was doing, every day. You could count on it.

He had a predictable dedication to his community, his priesthood, his family, his friends, his Slovak heritage, and especially to the call of God he heard at the Blue Lantern years ago.

Today, we give him into the hands of God, who is also predictable. We give him to God, the Father Almighty, to Jesus Christ who died and rose from the dead, to God who promises resurrection and life everlasting, to God who is true to his promises.

As he called Father Sebastian long ago,  now he calls him again. “Come, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord.”

May I close with a suggestion, as we remember this good man. These last few years in a nursing home had to be difficult for Father Sebastian as he struggled with sickness and memory loss.  We know by faith that this is an experience of cross of Jesus. We also know by faith that a predictable God rewards those who share in the mystery of the cross.

At the moment of death, God gives graces of all kinds. On the day Jesus died, the earth quaked, tombs were opened and a Roman soldier suddenly believed. Could we ask God as he receives Father Sebastian into his hands, to send us more vocations.  Somewhere, may someone ask a young man or a young woman. “Did you ever think of becoming a priest, or a sister, or a brother?” We need the blessing of vocations like Father Sebastian’s.

Fr. Victor Hoagland, December 2, 2011
The Basilica of St. Ann, Scranton, PA

Please consider making a make donation in Fr. Sebastian’s memory to the Passionist Retirement Fund.

Passionist Missionaries Inc.
526 Monastery Place
Union City NJ 07087-3398
Tel: 888/806-6606
E-mail: AGardiner@cpprov.org

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The Donate Now button will redirect you to Caring Habits, Inc. (CHI) which is the credit card processing company for The Passionist Missionaries website.

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Fr. Sebastian Kolinovsky, C.P. (1919-2011)

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Fr. Sebastian Kolinovsky, C.P., 92, a Passionist priest of St. Ann’s Shrine Basilica, Scranton, died on Monday, November 28 after a long illness. He resided at St. Mary’s Villa Nursing Home, Elmhurst for the last four years.

Fr. Sebastian was born Joseph M. Kolinovsky in Harryette, Ohio, the son of the late John and Barbara Podracky Kolinovsky. He grew up in Taylor and was a member of St. John’s parish. He attended Taylor High School and graduated from Central High School. He joined the Passionists in 1942 and received his early education in the Passionists at Holy Cross Preparatory School, Dunkirk, NY. He professed his vows in 1945 and after studying theology in various Passionist Monasteries Fr. Sebastian was ordained a priest by Most Rev. James McNulty at St. Michael’s Monastery, Union City, NJ on February 27, 1951.

Fr. Sebastian’s first ten years of priesthood were spent preaching missions, novenas and retreats both in Slovak and English. He served as Assistant Superior of St. Joseph’s Monastery, Baltimore, MD from 1962-1968 and was Rector of Cardinal Spellman Retreat House, Riverdale, NY from 1968-1978. Fr. Sebastian was the Mission Procurator for the Passionists from 1971-2004. He worked out of the Passionist Community of St. Michael’s residence from 1978-2004. He moved to St. Ann’s Monastery Scranton in 2004.

An amiable and gracious man, Fr. Sebastian as Mission Procurator and fund raiser for the Passionists Overseas Missions, spent many hours at his desk writing personal letters of acknowledgement to benefactors, offering condolences to the bereaved, encouraging the sick, caring for the unemployed and those weighed down by life’s burdens and establishing long lasting bonds with many of the people who supported the Passionist missions.

During his time at St. Mary’s Villa Residence Fr. Sebastian enjoyed the company of the other residents and staff. His family and Passionist community are very grateful for the care and love they gave to Fr. Sebastian during these last years, especially the staff at St. Mary’s Villa Nursing Home who cared for him with great devotion.

Fr. Sebastian is survived by a sister, Madeline Yarima, Scranton, a brother John, Milton, Florida and a brother Clement of Scranton. and several nieces and nephews and grand nieces, nephews and cousins. Along with his parents he was preceded in death by his two sisters, Ann Bierchinski and Mary Tremko.

Fr. Sebastian’s body will be received at St. Ann’s Shrine Basilica on Thursday, December 1 at 2:00 PM. His body will lie in repose for viewing until 7:30 pm. This will be followed by a Vigil service, lead by Very Rev. James Price, C.P., Rector. A viewing will also take place on Friday morning from 9:00 AM to 10:00 AM. The funeral mass will be at St. Ann’s on Friday, December 2 at 10:30 AM, celebrated by Very. Rev. Robert Joerger, C.P., Passionist Provincial. Burial will follow at St. Ann’s Monastery cemetery. Funeral arrangements are being coordinated by Thomas J. Hughes Funeral Home, 1240 St. Ann’s Street, Scranton.

 


In lieu of flowers please make donations in Fr. Sebastian’s memory to the Passionist Retirement Fund.

Passionist Missionaries Inc.
526 Monastery Place
Union City NJ 07087-3398
Tel: 888/806-6606
E-mail: AGardiner@cpprov.org

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The Donate Now button will redirect you to Caring Habits, Inc. (CHI) which is the credit card processing company for The Passionist Missionaries website.

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Homily – Mass of Christian Burial of Fr. Angelo Iacovone, C. P.

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Father Angelo Iacovone was born February 2, 1919, in Woodside, NY on 57th Street, in the house that his father Vito built. Angelo’s mother, Rose DeStefano, a very loving and spiritual woman, served as a catechist to Mother Cabrini, the American saint.

Besides his brothers, Joseph, Saverio, Fred, Francis and Rocco–Angelica was not yet born–Angelo’s aunt, lived with them. Angelo went to St. Sebastian’s Grammar School and then to the Salesian High School in New Rochelle.

During that time, his mother and father would often go across the Hudson River to attend the Passionist Novena in Union City and Angelo would go with them. One day he told his father he wanted to be a Passionist and asked if they could visit their Seminary. So his father took Angelo at the end of his junior year to Dunkirk, NY. They thought he wouldn’t be accepted till after he graduated from high school. Surprisingly, he was accepted right away.

In 1938, Angelo began his Novitiate in Pittsburgh. Afterwards, he went to Boston then Scranton for studies as a Passionist. As a result of an operation, he was unable to play sports, and so instead he would watch his classmates play and consoled himself with long discussions with his professors, like Fr. Simon Jungfleish. Angelo loved learning and became an avid reader.

He was ordained in St. Michael’s Church in Union City, April 29, 1946, and spent the next year studying Sacred Eloquence in Baltimore, Maryland.

As a a priest at St. Paul’s Monastery, Pittsburgh, PA, Angelo worked with Fr. Gregory Flynn, building the novitiate Chapel and redoing the Church. Showing some of the talents he inherited from his father, he worked with architects and builders and enlisted volunteers to create that monastery’s beautiful stained glass windows, brick walls and stations and pews.

In 1954, Angelo was sent to the Passionist missions in Jamaica West Indies, where he served for 25 years. He served in Porous, Williamsfield and Bull Savanna. “He was a good man.” Fr. Richard Leary, a companion from those days, said of him.

In these places, Angelo lived a very poor life. Each month he received $100 from the province to handle his expenses and on this support, along with Mass stipends he received, he built schools and supported teachers, while living simply himself. He told others he wanted to give his full attention to the poor.

Jamaica could be a dangerous place. Once, driving down a windy mountain road, his car hit a truck carrying steel beams. Severely injured, Fr. Angelo and a young companion were taken to the hospital ship, Hope, then visiting Jamaica, where they were treated. The head injury he suffered was probably responsible for a health condition that eventually caused him to be return to the United States from Africa years later.

Sadness came when Fathers Angelo, David Roberts and Howard Chirdon were called back to the province in the late 1970s. Though hurt by the move, Angelo dealt with it the way he thought God wanted him to deal with it. On his return, he went to the Passionist House of Solitude in Bedford to live a quiet life of prayer and remained there more than the usual forty days.

Fortunately, Father Angelo got his second chance to be a missionary in 1979 when we went to Botswana in Africa. Its government then was contemplating a law to allow for abortions. Angelo, along with others, compiled important literature for the legislators and somehow got enough funds to send the video, The Silent Scream by Barnhard Nathanson to every Member of Parliament. The majority in Parliament voted against the pro-abortion law.

After 12 years in Botswana, illness forced Angelo to return to the United States and in 1997 he came to the Passionist Monastery in Jamaica, NY, where for the remainder of his life he cared for the Blessed Sacrament Chapel and found ways to help the overseas missions he always loved.

He was a master recruiter, who knew how to draw others to help the missions. He lived the beatitudes. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for they shall possess the land.” On the card from the day of his ordination he placed words from the French Novelist Leon Bloy, “One does not enter into paradise, today, tomorrow, or in ten years time, but this day if one is poor and crucified. “

That was Angelo—he was poor and he wanted to serve the poor. We know well, that even though his religious name was Angelo, he was no angel. He was a man, a human being like the rest of us, with greatness along with all the little things that make us small. But as the Letter to the Romans reminds us: “We know that our old self was crucified with him, so that our sinful body might be done away with, that we might no longer be in slavery to sin.” Angelo experienced this mystery in mind and body.

As our reading from the Letter to the Romans says: “Chastised a little, they shall be greatly blessed, because God tried them and found them worthy of himself. As gold in the furnace, he proved them, and as sacrificial offerings he took them to himself.” His crucifixion changed Angelo into pure gold.

Angelo was Angelo, from beginning to end. To take care of the poor, he took up the cross, and got us to do it too, however reluctantly or joyfully. In this Eucharist, we celebrate his life in union with Jesus Christ.

- Fr. Jerome Bracken, C.P.

Donations can be made in Fr. Angelo Iacovone’s memory to the Passionist Retirement Fund. 

Passionist Missionaries Inc.
526 Monastery Place
Union City NJ 07087-3398
Tel: 888/806-6606
E-mail: AGardiner@cpprov.org

Donate on-line by clicking the button below.
The Donate Now button will redirect you to Caring Habits, Inc. (CHI) which is the credit card processing company for The Passionist Missionaries website.

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