The Little Flower

This afternoon I went to the reception of the body of a very good friend John Crawley into St Josephs. In about 3 months he had died fro Pancreatic Cancer. He now lies in the presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. His funeral tomorrow is at 1.30 pm. I reflected on how quickly death can come when we are old and how many of the people I knew at St Josephs who were members of the Rosary Group have now passed on. The strange thing is thatI I can now reflect on my own death with few misgivings. Perhaps I have about ten years left and although I will not be leaving instructions for my Canonisation I trust God will be kind to me despite my faults which were all too obvious to others. I will be leaving the world to the young, many who believe that it will be almost an eternity before they are old. But when old they will ask why time flew so quickly. Many of them may feel they do not have the same chances as I had or someone else has but I say to them do not live with the head but live with the heart. If you crave love from others and make your head the judge you will miss the beating of your heart trying to tell you that you must love in whatever circumstances. I remember in my young days getting uncharitable remarks from someone who seemed to dislike me intensely. Then one day in conversation I told her that I liked her. "You like me" she said confused. And after that she was a good friend. She had not really disliked me but for some reason she told herself she did. The first Saint I ever read about was St Therese of Lisieux. She went out of her way to help others and called every little loving act a little flower of love. This appealed to me as a child and I know it will appeal to other children. How many flowers did you give out today a child can ask in the evening then resolve to give a flower, perhaps a rose,  to someone who is lonely, depressed, or even hostile, tomorrow. But we humans are stubborn and although at 11 I vowed to plant many flowers, if I had been faithful to my vow I could have covered all of England by now, But there were the selfish years in my life and I still only have, God forgive me, a handful. But I did my best and I kept the Faith. May God be good to me in my final years.

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