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A Tribute to our very dear friend Phil Rushton - R.I.P.
Phil Rushton has been a very special friend to us over the years. He touched our lives deeply, we loved him, and his passing from this world has broken our hearts.
Nevertheless we have great hope and encouragement. The Penny Catechism taught 'God made me to know, love, and serve Him in this life, and to be happy with Him forever in the next.'
By God's Grace Phil did know, love and serve God in this life, and we now entrust him in prayer to the Divine Mercy to complete his purification and entry into the eternal happiness of God.
Alan first met Phil, and his dear wife Margaret, in the mid-1990's at First Saturday devotions to Our Lady of Fatima on Merseyside. Phil and Alan had both converted to the Catholic Faith just a few years earlier.
Phil had been given a thoroughly orthodox preparation and formation in the Faith by the incredible Father Godfrey Carney. (This great priest died last year at the age of 98 after a remarkable 74 years of service as a priest and is another much missed light of the faith - see this blog page 22).
Over the years Phil and Margaret became very close friends of ours.
Phil was a skilled plumber who remained a humble man with an endearing shyness. He was also great company. We have a treasury of happy memories from many shared days of banter and laughter, meals, cups of tea and cake, deep conversations, and games of Jenga! And, like not a few others, we too have our own tale to tell of an emergency plumbing rescue with Phil cast in the role of hero!
Phil lived his life for God, the Church and for his family. The reverence of Phil and his family at Holy Mass provide an eloquent witness to the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament.
Phil used his gifts as a plumber to provide for his loved ones and for the service of the Church. In recent weeks he had made the frame for the splendid Advent wreath at Our Lady, Star of the Sea in Seaforth and Margaret had dressed it in fine greenery and candles.
Phil used the opportunites his job provided to evangelise through his honesty, hard work, and words of witness.
His prayer life included novenas for family and friends.
Phil and his family also gave heroic pro-life witness through regular prayer outside abortion centres. As his children Stuart, Kate, and Phil Jnr wrote in his Requiem Mass booklet 'Our dad's primary prayer intention, both privately and in public places (outside abortion clinics) was for the unborn child and the end to abortion).
In October the family visited St. Therese's relics before attending such a vigil. They were then blessed to be used by God as instruments in saving 5 babies from the horror of abortion in one day!
Phil was devoted to Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Patroness of the Unborn.
The Lord called Phil to Himself on the very Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe - the 12th December - after falling gravely ill two days earlier on the Feast of Saint Juan Diego! He was visited by three priests and anointed. His family were with him as he went to God. Many family and friends were praying for him in his final hours. As his family said with great faith 'God is Truly Amazing!'
Phil's funeral has been the most hope-filled funeral we have ever attended. Indeed Phil and his family have given us all a powerful witness of how to live and die well. For we are not to live down here as though this was all there is. Rather this life is a time of decision and working out our salvation with the help of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and the Holy Catholic Church.
The night before Phil's funeral two priests led about 30 people in the Rosary around Phil's casket in his own home.
The next day the beautiful church of Our Lady, Star of the Sea, Seaforth was packed out for the funeral which was led by no fewer than 9 priests. (A priest commented later that he had never seen so many priests at the funeral of a layman).
The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass gave great comfort as the congregation prayed for the eternal repose of Phil's soul.
Phil loved the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. He also had great devotion to St. Joseph. We commend him now to them and ask that you pray for Phil and his family.
Perhaps we should conclude with the words of Phil's wife, our lovely friend Margaret, from the Requiem Mass booklet;
An Angel took my flower away
Yet I will not repine
For Jesus on His bosom wears
The flower that once was mine.
Sacred Heart of Jesus have mercy on my husband's soul.
Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, intercede for him.
Please remember to pray for the eternal soul of Philip George Rushton.
