Dear friends in prayer,

Our beloved Cardinal Ignatius Kung was called to return to God at 3AM at Kung's residence in Connecticut this morning the first Sunday in LENT, ending his suffering of stomach cancer at the age of 98.

Some friends from different states in the East Coast went to pray yesterday in front of an altar in a prayer room next to the Cardinal's room. Msgr Hogan celebrated the mass, during which he gave the Eucharist to the Cardinal. Santa Maria was sung after the mass. In the homily, the Msgr reminds us that God is asking us to generously give a dear friend back to God. He expressed that we are coming to pray not just for a Cardinal, but more important is that he is our friend. The Msgr is 86 but could count the dearest friends in his life with one hand's finger. He knows how important a friend is to his life, and yet he must generously give the friend back to God. He asked us to do the same. Fr. Tou from St. Joseph Church in New York, who co-celebrated the mass, reminds us the suffering of the Church in China and the suffering of Christ in LENT.

We began at 3PM with the Divine Mercy Chaplet. There were prayers for the sick, rosary, hymns, mass, Stations of the Cross as well as individual silent prayers. We meditated over the suffering of Christ as we begin the first Sunday in LENT. We prayed over the suffering of the Cardinal and the suffering of the Church. We also prayed that the will of God be done.

We could not hold our tears as we meditated the suffering of Jesus. Our friends in the Church in China have chosen to follow Jesus in the suffering. The Cardinal, among many other followers of Christ, could have avoided these suffering had they followed the orders from the Communist government to denounce the universal church. He could have been spared from the over 30 years in prison. He had been persuaded to take very important leadership position in the Catholic Patriotic Association, which is under the order of the government to run a church separated from the universal church. The only demand from him is a simple yes to the government. A simple yes to denounce the Pope is all that is needed to buy him a high position in the Patriotic Association. Yet, he chose yes only to Jesus, even though he had to choose yes to suffering.

I cannot stop my tears when I see the suffering body of Christ in China as so many faithful servants had chosen to follow Jesus to face persecution.

Still I ask why God allowed his servant to endure the pain of cancer. As I watched the Cardinal suffered, God answered me that this is because we could not see the cancer in our own soul. And also because we could not see the cancer in the hurt in the life of our neighbors.

Dear Jesus, the soul of this World is suffering the most serious cancer. Thank you for giving us the light to see them with your own suffering.

Dear friends of the beloved Cardinal Kung, thank you for your prayers for the Cardinal and for the suffering Church in China.

New Jersey prayer group

March 12, 2000