Monday 28 July 2008

Richard’s First Anniversary.

Today is the first anniversary of Fr. Richard passing on to a new life - May he rest in peace and rise in glory.

My thanks go to Marianne (from Mulhouse) for reminding us of the powerful words that Richard often used at weddings, which took on a new meaning a year ago today.


Because you belong to Christ
You are akin to me
One in the bonds unbreakable
Wrought for eternity
Spirit with spirit joined
Who can the ties undo
Binding the Christ within my heart
Unto the Christ in you.


Where ever Richard landed he would be surrounded by an informal lay community. As Richard moved from apostolate to apostolate these lay communities overlapped and then spread throughout the world. It was one of Richard’s heartfelt wishes that there would one day be a formal Salvatorian lay community to share this sense of community, but formed in Salvatorian spiritually. We can be sure that Richard will be pleased to see that a Salvatorian lay community is now in formation in the capable hands of Father Alex McAllister SDS. You will be able to find out more from http://gb.sds.org/LaySDS/index.htm


My thanks to Stephen Evans for the visual memory below of one of Richard’s informal lay communities at the top of Tryfan (Snowdonia) in the late 70’s. Can you spot Richard?