Fr. Todd's Funeral

Wow, this one was nice. It was awesome to be there, there must have been 25 priests, three bishops. Long drive from here to Austin, not as long as some folks had though. Marcel and Greg R. came in from Lubbock. Several priests flew in from Sioux Falls, SD. Nathan was there from St. Paul with his wife and youngest. Some folks from up the road in College Station, and some priests from the Austin area who knew Fr. Todd when he was just Todd. And I felt guilty for enjoying all of their presence. I don't think that Fr. Todd or his family mind. He was a great guy. If you haven't checked out his blog yet, do so. Fr. Patrick Serna's remarks from the funeral were posted as an .mp3. Awesome. Fr. Todd lived his life preparing for his moment of death. He was ready to go. I have been asking him to pray for me, for my family and my children. Maybe one of my boys may wear a collar one day. Or maybe Fr. Todd will help me out with my blog.

Some things I learned on the trip:
There is no rush-hour traffic on I-35 between Waco and Hillsboro. Cub Scout's honor.

Gas is only $2.59 in some localities in Texas.

My '92, 195k mile Astro van can get up to 19 miles per gallon. Must have been a tailwind.

When I have to ride 200 + miles by myself, with noone else to talk to, I get a bit self-centered. No, more self-centered than I already am. Positively narcissistic.

Dave Jones knows something about everything, and probably that something is more than you know. Because he files away everything he hears, file away everything he says.

Fr. Todd was ready. Weekly confession ready. I think I know where I'll be this Saturday afternoon.

This weekend

Allison has an indoor soccer game at 3 today, Joseph has a race at 12-ish tomorrow and another state race Monday at 3. Then I'll be off to Fr. Todd's funeral on Tuesday. Gotta leave early for that. Anyone else coming down from D/FW to the funeral? Not that anyone other than me reads this. I guess just a rhetorical question, that.

Fr. Todd Reitmeyer, RIP

Man I'm going to miss Todd. He was great. He was this huge guy with a keen mind. He never shied away from a debate and he never tired of explaining the truth. I knew him from A&M. I think I met him through Nathan M., another St. Mary's guy whom I esteem greatly. But the best thing about Fr. Todd was that he blogged. He blogged like crazy. He knew that he had a life that others were interested in and that he had the opportunity to share. He actually started blogging before there were blogs, founding the aggiesaway website. After that, he went away to seminary and finally on to Rome where he started blogging. Getting ordained forced him to change the domain name to Fr. Todd dot com. I got the email last night about his death and read it this morning. Fr. Todd didn't get the chance to keep up with all of his friends from college or from Rome, most of that was our fault (it was certainly a fault of mine), but through a blog he enabled us to all keep up with him. He was more than just some guy I remember from college who got ordained (I know some of those). He was still in our conscious mind, still sharing his vital life. Really going to miss him.
Kim, my wife, noted that she feels like Satan is up to something. We've got one friend who's encountered a recent brain anurysm and now is having heart problems in the hospital. Another in the hospital with doctors scratching their heads about why she won't wake up. And then Fr. Todd dies. I told her that there is one crucial difference. Our friends are sick, they are hurt, their families are a mess, but Fr. Todd is home. It's where he always wanted to be.

More comments at Todd's blog, at Marcel's blog, and a nice memoriam at aggiesaway.