Fr. Wagner will be removed from life support at 3 pm today.

Please pause at 3 pm PST (or whenever you read this) to say a prayer for this holy priest from the Archdiocese of Seattle. As you may know, he spent his childhood in Communist Poland and was prompted to answered the call to the priesthood when he traveled back to Europe for the funeral of St. John Paul II. Pastor of Holy Rosary Catholic Church in Tacoma, WA, he suffered a massive brain hemorrhage while offering daily Mass in mid April. My family knew him when he was a newly ordained priest serving as vicar at St. Mary Magdalen parish in Everett, where my, uncle, Fr. Olson, is pastor. He told us stories of his childhood in Poland under the Communists, and he was so devoted, kind, and solemnly funny. He loved children, was well-read, celebrated the liturgy reverently, and was just an all-around wonderful priest. His CaringBridge site is full of wonderful stories about him in the comments section.

His favorite devotion was the Divine Mercy Chaplet. We are asked to offer this powerful prayer for the dying at 3 pm for him today. This is when his artificial life support will be withdrawn and he will make his final journey to the Father. Jesus died at 3 pm and poured out his mercy on us at that hour. Today, Fr. Wagner will enter into his own death and into the mercy of Jesus at that same time.

A sad part of family life is that, at some point, we will all face the deaths of those we love: our parents, grandparents, spouses, siblings, children, and other relatives. Though we don’t like to think about it, these good-byes will inevitably come. Just as Archbishop Sartain sat with Fr. Wagner in his hospital room this week to say good-bye as his spiritual father, we will sit at the bedsides or stand at the graves of those we love to say good-bye, to tell them we love them, to pray for them, and to encourage them to hope in God’s mercy.

Even the Holy Family faced death. Jesus and his mother, Mary, must have sat at Joseph’s bedside to say good-bye as he died, since we hear of Mary in Jesus’ adult life in the Scriptures, but not Joseph. How wonderful to die in the arms of Jesus and Mary. That is why St. Joseph is patron saint of the dying.

Over the years my own devotion to St. Joseph has grown. I pray this prayer (almost) every morning, and one of the things I ask St. Joseph for afterwards is the grace of a holy death for me and my family and friends when our time to die comes.

Let us prepare ourselves now for peaceful good-byes when they come by making our relationships with our family members as right and loving as they can be. Let us forgive old hurts, release grudges, affirm and thank them, and show our love each chance we get. Let us be as generous as possible with these gifts.

When those bedside good-byes come, we have two powerful prayers to help us. The Divine Mercy Chaplet brings great graces to the dying person, as Jesus told St. Faustina. We can also ask St. Joseph to help our loved ones go to the Father in the arms of Jesus and Mary.