Thoughts...Steve Rose

Passionist Reunion, July 23-25, 2004

After all the praise I remain with one thought...one feeling...of the weekend. It is not in the planning and the execution of such a gathering that makes things that matter...all that matters is that they gather for another moment in time...before there is no time. It would have been naught had not each and every one of you arrived and brought your richest selves to this gathering. What would a party be if no one came to it? Thanks to each and every one of you for being so bold and generous for coming here with your memories, loved ones, fears and whatever other baggage you drug along...thank you. I needed that. I needed each of you.

If we wait another 35 years...I will be 83 years old...much younger than Fr. Germain. If it is as good as this one, it will be worth the wait!

I thank God for each and everyone of you in my life. You made the journey so much more interesting. You shared that hich you were endlessly and those riches we carried through the years. It is the sum of those infinite riches that made the community what it was and it was the sum of those riches that made the worlds we have traveled through equally beautiful. To a person, each of you told a of story of love, life and community that enriched where you were and those around you. The world is a much better place for each of us having gone forth into the corners of the world and being all we could be.

Why did we leave if it was so good? Why is it so much better now with your three grown children? Joyce, was it so perfect with three beautiful infants? Quite simply, it was great in its day and we all had to move on...inside or outside the Passionists. And if Scotty had stayed a holy celibate...what would the world be like today? And so on for each of us....what next?

You are each in my prayers and thoughts as you move through your every moment in time, may you truly be all that you can be.