Dad's prayer shawl was constantly around his shoulders as he was always chilly even through the summer months here. Pat reminded me that we rarely missed sitting on the porch for our rosary each day even in the heat.
Breakfast was his best meal always, and here was no different! He would rise at 5a in his home in St Croix Falls, and by time I would get up around 7a - he would make me wonderful breakfasts and join me for his 3rd breakfast!
Looking back on his 6 months here - I was taught by him although he never came into the kitchen here. He suggested that I make large plate sized pancakes rather than the smaller ones. He instructed me on how he liked his oatmeal, he was disappointed in my "over easy" eggs and soon I learned that if I used my skillet - I could make him happy! Yes, I was less than gracious towards his suggestions and complaints time to time, but I did learn and he was right!
Monday was his big day of prayer where he prays for his family first and middle name for all 58 great-grands and his 34 grandchildren! I only helped him with a few just days before his death! Sharp of mind to the end!
Thursday morning he ate breakfast as his final meal, by lunch he was no longer awake enough to eat or take his meds, and the following morning at 9:10 he took his last breath while Pat and I were beside him praying with him. So peacefully did he leave this world!
The Gospel today struck me as I had written dad's Eulogy last evening and his amazing spiritual life poured out of me! Today it is the planting of the mustard seed! My father shared with me that his immersion baptism as a young man sealed his life for Jesus! It was evident throughout his life and all the times that the Holy Spirit was speaking to him and he answered "yes Lord!"
His mustard seed tree is one of great many branches and leaves and nests for birds and homes for squirrels and cattle laying in the shade peacefully resting from the noonday heat, and a blanket with a picnic and family sharing "social hour."
Gospel LK 13:18-21
Jesus said, “What is the Kingdom of God like?
To what can I compare it?
It is like a mustard seed that a man took and planted in the garden.
When it was fully grown, it became a large bush
and the birds of the sky dwelt in its branches.”
How we loved sharing that Way, that Truth and that LIFE - one of my dad's most favorite verses!
As we prayed each day he would marvel at the beautiful readings, prayers and moan with recognition of the Lord that he loved so much and gave his entire life to! I was so privileged to share that love of Jesus, Mary, the Saints and The Church with him! We see totally eye to eye on every little bit of The True Church.
Yes!!! We embraced the cross of aging, this and that physical complaint, declining health and strength, more sleeping throughout the day, days and nights mixed up at the end, shortness of breath with oxygen for the last few weeks, but always sharp of mind! Through that we were perfected in the LOVE that Jesus asks of us to die to self so that He may live in us!
The Divine Office of Deacon Robert Cross - well worn and filled with his insights and love of Jesus!
Breakfast and prayer - thinking of dad, who just a week ago awoke from a near death episode to have oatmeal and pray. "I don't remember any of that morning, why did I not die?" You had 5 more days for family to come and to call and for your prayers to be said and heard. The tiny seed had grown to be shade and shelter to 130 in your family! Your life is a masterpiece - a thing of great beauty!
Dad's youngest great-grandchild - #58 Birdie Barbara! He was aware of #59 in the womb, and we are lifted up now by the combined prayers of mom and dad united in heaven forever! Dad shared with us this Truth he discovered about mother in heaven - "She is now praying for perfectly praying for her family!" Yes! Now they are teaming up in prayer for us! So powerful!
Jude and Birdie are a little over a year apart, and they love to watch each other! Birdie is totally enthralled with her brother, who is very active and smart and sweet! How I enjoyed my two hours with them yesterday between dad leaving for his job and mom coming home from hers!
Such a good baby with her thumb! I should know how great this is for a mom! All 4 of my girls - her 4 Aunts were thumb suckers! She also looks like a Verly girl, which she is actually is! The first Verly girl!
So powerful writing my wonderful father's Eulogy last night!
Eulogy of Deacon Robert Merrill Cross
Dad shared that at his emersion Baptism as a boy of 8 in a Baptist Church... that he felt the finger of God upon his life. His life was no longer his own, but the Lord's!
While on guard duty in the Philippines during WW2 dad reports that the strong feeling that he should become a minister came to him. Thanks to the GI bill he was able to attend college, and when he couldn't get into the first choice for college. He was accepted in Kalamazoo. He expressed how this was providential in his meeting Nancy Vercoe there. She kissed him on the dance floor on their first date. Robert and Nancy married while in college, graduated, then moved to Boston for seminary. While there they had their two oldest daughters, Barb and Marty. Then on to dad's first church assignment in Antrim, NH!
Dad was a deeply spiritual man, who seemed to have a special connection to the Lord's direction in his life! His answering the call to leave First Baptist in Antrim to Flint, MI and First Presbyterian, and his starting to work with alcoholics doing his chalk talks, his welcoming 6 more children always gave the sense that he heard the Lord calling him to serve and his answer was "yes." In 1961 dad and mom were prayed over to receive the Holy Spirit. Over the next 10 years some very important promptings from the Holy Spirit hugely affected dad and our family! In 1967 dad felt the Lord telling him to bring 4 orphaned children into our family of 9. Then in 1971 all 13 of us entered the Catholic Church, and dad made the hard decsion to leave his ministry.
No longer a minister? The Lord had an amazing plan for him to be in the first Deaconate class in the Archdiocese and allowed him to do all that he had done as a minister in the Catholic Church! Dad was ordained in 1976 and celebrated his 44th year as a Deacon a few short months ago. Marrying his children, baptizing his grandchildren, preaching, serving in prisons... Dad lived out the works of mercy in his life! He and mother shared The Prayer of The Church morning and evening together and his growing family knew of his prayers for all 130 - first and middle names!
Our parents were married 70 years, and now have been apart for 7 months until they are once again united in heaven forever! They loved their family and began some wonderful family gathering traditions... Christmas Camp and our vacation home/retirment home in Michigan, and before that Kewadin in the summer on Lake Michigan, and then the farm! Getting us away from the city for the summers, and showing us how to work. Putting much work and thought into how our family could come together and share our lives even though we are so many! Dad was always keeping up their homes and never idle. Don't we all picture him in his hat, long sleeves and work pants raking or fixing on the cabin? He provided for us, and was a model of hard work.
When mother passed away and Covid hit... Dad's prophecy that he would come and live with Barb if mom ever died came to be! He lived an entire growing season on the farm and from our porch we watched the earth worked, the seeds planted, the corn grow more with each new day - up to 7 feet tall! It put on ears, and looked to die as it ripened to a golden color with drooping big ears. Then the combine came and we watched the golden corn go into the trucks and soon the crop was out, the tractor came and the ground was back to black soil again to rest until next year. Dad took it all in and showed such interest in how it all worked. Praying for "Pat and all the farmers", along with many individual intentions, as we did the Rosary and chaplet each day at 3p!
Dad was able to see the beauty of hospice helping him come into the sunset of his life. He loved to tell family when they visited that one of his nurses would change his catheter and then cut his hair each month, and the other would give him a marvelous pedicure and manicure. His smile would be so big, and he was loved and cared for as he deserved in his final 6 months. 6 months of being sharp to the end, and doing the work of prayer of the Church, and for his family, and for the world! We have all experienced the result of his listening to the Lord in his life, and of his prayers for us! Thanks, dad for modeling for us how to be a person of faith - living the Gospel in this world! "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, mind and soul. And your neighbor as yourself." Matthew 22 - Robert Cross showed us how!
Jesus, how we love you with our ALL! May we die to self so that you may live and move and work and play and serve through us! How amazing for my father to model for us the beauty of dying a "natural death" after valuing LIFE from conception to natural death! Jesus, we trust in you. Amen and Hallelujah
Danielle Rose - take your pick!
Zach WilliamsIf you want me to - Ginny Owens
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