Catechetical Cantations

Yesterday, Father Thomas Dubay crossed the threshold of hope.

I was privileged to have a face to face encounter with this Marist priest, and the memory I cherish most is the experience of his childlike joy in God.

A brilliant mind, a disciplined spirit, a lover of the Church. But above all Fr. Dubay was beguiled by the ubiquitous beauty of Christ, in a way that Joseph Mary Plunkett wonderfully captured:


I see his blood upon the rose
And in the stars the glory of his eyes,
His body gleams amid eternal snows,
His tears fall from the skies.

I see his face in every flower;
The thunder and the singing of the birds
Are but his voice—and carven by his power
Rocks are his written words.

All pathways by his feet are worn,
His strong heart stirs the ever-beating sea,
His crown of thorns is twined with every thorn,
His cross is every tree.

May the Lord grant you rest from your labors, Father Dubay,
and grant you eternal access to that beauty ever-new.

Réquiem ætérnam dona ei Dómine;
et lux perpétua lúceat ei.
Requiéscat in pace.
Amen.