A Morning Offering, Thanksgiving Edition
November 26, 2020
What’s a #PrayerStory?
March 14, 2021
The first thing you’d notice was not his collar, but his smile. Despite the great sorrows he had experienced — or perhaps because of them — Fr. Ubald Rugirangoga was full of joy. I think that this joy was actually a source and sign of his healing gift, for both things emanated from the same place: an unshakable trust in the God who never failed him.
Not when he lost first his father, then his brother and mother and dozens of members of his own family, in the genocide against the Tutsi people.
Not when his own parishioners cast him out of the parish he had served faithfully for ten years … and went on to slaughter thousands of their brothers and sisters in a matter of days.
Not when thousands of people pressed him from every side, desperate for healing. It happened everywhere he went — from the big diocesan cathedrals to tiny country parishes here in the US, to churches across his homeland in Rwanda, and especially at the Center for the Secret of Peace, which he labored so hard to build as a testimony to the power of forgiveness in the heart of a nation. (Something we need so desperately today.)
And not when this lady editor he met by chance at a women’s conference in Minneapolis pushed and pushed him to tell his story. He took it in stride, and together we created what I’ve come to consider the most important project of my professional career: Forgiveness Makes You Free: A Dramatic Story of Healing and Reconciliation from the Heart of Rwanda.
Sadly, I had not been in touch with Fr. Ubald for some time before he died; like many authors, his friendship was a gift to me for a time. Now that he has gone to his reward, I can only look back on those beautiful days and thank God for what he taught me about being willing to let go of anything that does not keep us in the presence of the Father. And how the willingness to forgive and to be forgiven is the first and more important step to finding healing for our deepest, most painful wounds of body and spirit.
RIP, Fr. Ubald. Pray for me still.
#FrUbald #CenterfortheSecretofPeace #ForgivenessMakesYouFree
9 Comments
Fr Ubald touched so many lives. I’ve been praying for him daily. When I heard the news, I broke down and sobbed. Not for him. God bless him. A new saint is born. But for this world. It has lost a beautiful soul. Thank you for sharing your beautiful testimony.
Thanks, Kathleen. Yes, we will all miss him.
Thank yuh Heidi for your words . I am so proud to have been able to present his book at the last Lamar U Educational Research Conference in 2019. I gave it out and just recently heard from a genocide survivor in response to it.
I met him at a CPA conference in 2014-15. We took a picture and will have to find it . We were blessed to know him! Yes his joy is complete ! Love, Trish
Thank you for your words . Loved him …Trish
I posted from my other account as well.
Thanks, Trish. Yes, he was a beautiful man with a beautiful soul.
My deepest sympathy Heidi. He will now work from heaven. You were blessed and many. I believe many will now promote his book more.
I already prayed to him for my husband Al. He has pneumonia and back in ER with shortness of breath. He is 83 and post polio and wheelchair bond. Thanks for all prayers.n
Lord, please touch Al and give both him and Pat the strength they need for the days ahead.
I am saddened to her that Fr. Ubald has left us. At the same time I am happy that he is in the express lane to get to heaven.
After I first heard about him last year, I immediately read his book from cover to cover in a short period of time. He inspired me further with his daily rosaries on Facebook, especially when he would relay that Jesus was healing individuals with specific ailments.
I feel blest to have prayed with him.
I pray that Fr. Ubald will intercede for us and ask Jesus to forgive us for our short comings. I believe Fr. Ubald will be canonized to sainthood.
Thank you Father in Heaven for allowing Fr. Ubald to be with us.
Thanks for sharing your story, Tom — I’m glad you liked the book! Working on “Forgiveness Makes You Free” with Fr. Ubald was one of the greatest privileges of my publishing career. I’m grateful to have known him.