Image by DanielaNob via Flickr

ANOTHER RICH FAREWELL TODAY … a returning for me to a former parish; a returning for Peter to the Father heart in whom, especially in recent years, he was graced with absolute confidence. His parish priest and a work colleague spoke beautifully of the irrepressible joy we all witnessed in a man, latterly a very fragile, frail man, who delighted most of all in bringing others delight. Peter spoke of the devoted wife who cared for him tenderly as “my angel”. He was the crucifer at All Saints’. And there was “something in the way he moved” that she and we recognised as of the stuff of the angelic, too. Truly one of God’s messengers has gone home.

They stand, those halls of Sion,
All jubilant with song,
And bright with many an angel,
And all the martyr throng;
The Prince is ever in them,
The daylight is serene,
The pastures of the blessèd
Are decked in glorious sheen.