The Archdiocese of Los Angeles (United States) published the last recorded homily of Bishop David (Dave) O’Connell, assassinated on 18 February at the age of 69.
George Gascón, the prosecutor for the District of Los Angeles (United States), reported on 22 February that Carlos Medina, husband of the Prelate’s housekeeper, admitted having committed the crime.
Gascón explained that Medina could receive a sentence of between 35 years in prison and life imprisonment.
A few days before Archbishop O’Connell’s funeral takes place, March 1-3, the Archdiocese shared, in its publication Angelus News, the homily he delivered at the Los Angeles Cathedral on 11 February, the feast of the Virgin of Lourdes.
In his homily, Bishop David O’Connell told the faithful that “the heart of our Holy Mother is full of love for you. I have a special love in my heart for Our Lady of Lourdes, because, the few times I have been there, you can really feel her de ella love de ella very present ”.
In this sense, he assured that for all those who have made the pilgrimage to Lourdes, it has been “a beautiful experience”, and he recalled that the last time he was present he cried with emotion just arriving at the entrance, where the procession was beginning.
Immediately “the memory of when I used to come home to Ireland came to my heart, to my mind, when my mother lived and waited for me at the door. It was always a great joy to see her, and a joy to see how happy she was that I was home,” recounted Bishop O’Connell.
“When I went to Lourdes the last time, I had exactly the same feeling. That our Holy Mother was…; she could almost feel her joy de ella that I was there, and she could feel her love de ella for me, welcoming me home, ” he shared.
That day, the Gospel reading was about the Wedding at Cana, in which Jesus performed the miracle of turning water into wine.
The Prelate recalled that the Virgin asked Christ to help the couple because the wine had run out and, although at first, He replied that “my time has not yet come”, Mary turns to the servants and asks them to do what Jesus tells them.
“If you need help in your life, I think it’s great to talk to Our Blessed Mother first,” Bishop O’Connell stressed.
“What she does, what she wants most, is that we love Jesus and do his will. He told the servants: ‘Do whatever He tells you.’ I think he tells us that too, because when you start to live in the will of Jesus and do what he asks you to do, you enter a kind of space where you will be blessed. And that space, that place is where the healing happens,” he continued.
“That is where the new life is given. That is where the comfort occurs. That is where a new hope arises, living in that relationship in which you put yourself completely under the authority of Jesus”, stressed the Bishop.