Memorial service - Charles Michael Madison - (1952 - August 28, 2015

Prayer of St Francis of Assisi

1181 -  October 3, 1226 –

Born in Assisi, Italy

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

where there is injury, pardon;

where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair,

hope; where there is darkness, light;

where there is sadness, joy.

O, Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;

to be understood as to understand;

to be loved as to love;

For it is in giving that we receive;

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;

 it is in dying that we are born again to eternal life.

   Michael loved St Francis of Assisi.  A big frame image of St Francis hung in his room at Traceway and then out at Sanctuary Hospice.  Michael really exemplified the words of the Peace Prayer of St Francis of Assisi.  Michael brought the love and peace of God to so many people from so many different walks of life.  

     One of the last books that Michael read was the autobiography of St Therese of Liseaux, a cloister Carmelite nun who died at the age of 23 in 1897.  Both Therese and Francis are two of the most beloved members of the community of saints.  Therese said this in her autobiography - The Autobiography of a Soul - “A word or a smile is often enough to put fresh life in a despondent soul.”  I think of Michael when I think of that quote. 

     Michael was born an only child in rural Scott county in central Mississippi. As a child, he dreamed of becoming Catholic, something his dad told him would not be possible.  Michael grew up to be a Methodist minister, but he was very Catholic in spirit.  He even drilled his children in the teachings of the Catholic Catechism. 

      When I would visit Michael at the hospice, so many of the workers there commented how we looked like brothers.  Even though I did not know Michael for many months, he was like an older brother to me.  He called me his Father and his little brother.  I actually met Michael on a Friday afternoon in March at the Traceway - later that evening, he would be transported to Sanctuary hospice.  Later that weekend, I brought him into the Catholic church.  

      It still has not sunk in that Michael is gone.  I still think I can drive over to Sanctuary Hospice to visit him.  Every time I went over there he would be so welcoming - he would offer me a diet coke, a drink he knew that I liked.  We talked about theology and the saints and so many other topics.  I will miss Michael.  I know that he is dear in the hearts of so many.  We lift him up in our prayers today.  And I know that in so many ways his spirit will live on.