Today is the one month anniversary of Julia "heading off to the heavens" as she wrote on May 22. Today is the feast day of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton and at Mass at Seton Catholic High School (Nan's new very grateful for gig) Fr. Will talked about how a saint's feast days are on the day of their death--the day they accomplish their ultimate goal of heaven. So today we celebrate one month in for Julia, missing her so very much but hoping in things unseen.
As our family has talked in the weeks since Julia's celebration of new life, one of the kids talked about being very grateful that everything about the celebration was perfect. Now without a doubt Fr. Eric, our pastor, led us all in worship with so much wisdom and love, the musicians were a Dream Team (oh yeah), and the staff and so many loving friends at St. Pat's and beyond attended to every detail so generously...but it was all of "you people" (a beloved Newman Center phrase) worshipping, praying with us and for us on that day and for so many months, all of us hoping and praying together that made the time such a treasure for us. As always, we are so grateful to you. We know that we have friends and family who could not be physically present, but who were praying with us too, and we are grateful. We felt like we had a glimpse of heaven on that day, and the healing of our hearts began.
The kids posted the video tribute for Julia from the funeral at paulhillebrand.com. Here is a site that was up on st pats website about remembering Julia that also has the program for the mass.
http://rememberingjuliahillebrand.blogspot.com
We pray that 2011 may be a year of healing for us all, and that each one of us will begin to once again put our lives in the masters hand, knowing that he will lead us on the path to being who we are called to be.
Peace,
Paul, Nan and the clan-and Angel Julia forever in our hearts.