Mark Shea asks for prayers for his father

I admire Mark Shea, and am indebted to him for the part he played in my journey to Catholicism. I think he has posted this, or a variation of it, every year since I’ve visited his blog. He’s done it at least a couple times. This is the day his Dad died. And he includes in his post a picture of himself as a child sitting next to his Dad.

Now I don’t know why, but each time I see the picture, it almost brings a tear to my eye. And anyone who knows me knows I’m not the crying type. Yet it does. Perhaps because of the picture itself. Maybe I imagine that someday when I have gone my grown boys will look at a picture of them with me and reminisce the same way. Maybe it’s because I think of the pictures of my own Dad, ravaged by Alzheimer’s, barely recognizable, and remember those days gone by, mourning my own loss of innocence as much as his loss of identity. I don’t‘ know. But I know it moves me every time he posts this.

So yes, I will pray. Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him.
May he rest in peace.