Chicken 
LSU Fan
Jackassistan
Member since Aug 2003
7294 posts
| Charity Spotlight: Support Bridge House and Grace House of New Orleans (Posted on 3/3/11 at 8:44 a.m.)
Richard Michael “Buzzy” Gaiennie, CEO of Bridge House / Grace House, passed away on August 13, 2011 after 27 years of service to the mission of this organization and to the families and communities it serves. There were three strong and enduring passions which ruled Buzzy Gaiennie’s life: his family, his spirituality, and his dedication to the addicted. The first two lifted him to joy and peace, but the final one always brought him back to earth with the cries of those in chains echoing in his heart.
When Buzzy first came to Bridge House, it was little more than a place for alcoholics to sleep it off. Through the years, he turned Bridge House into a very well respected treatment center and, amazingly, one which admitted all without payment.
Buzzy touched the lives of thousands of people and their families, and we will miss him dearly. He was fond of saying, “it is almost impossible to live in this world and be in a position to help someone, to make a difference in his or her life, and just simply turn away or do nothing.”
Here is the Homily from his funeral by Fr. Clyde LeBlanc:
“I’ve had the good fortune in my life to encounter a number of saintly persons. As a high school student fifty years ago I met Dorothy Day at a lecture series organized by Loyola University’s Institute of Social Order, now the Twomey Center. Twenty years ago, at St. Peter’s in Rome before a Papal Mass honoring of the birth of St Ignatius and the founding of the Society of Jesus, I met Mother Theresa. Five years ago I met Richard Michael Gaiennie. The readings we’ve just heard no doubt helped each of us think about our own encounter with this man we have loved, lived with, and with whom the Lord has allowed us to work.
In the Book of Wisdom we heard “He who pleased God was loved.” And, “The witchery of paltry things obscures what is right and the whirl of desire transforms an innocent mind.” Richard’s family lived love patiently through his days of worldly desire, days so long ago many of us might find them hard to believe they ever existed. Most of us only know the man who, as St Paul puts it, “Lived for the Lord.”
Buzzy, right now, from the place the Lord has prepared for him, is delighting in the honesty of the opening words of John Pope’s newspaper article about him, “a recovering alcoholic.” He was a man who lived what St Ignatius Loyola called the third degree of humility, following Christ to the full.
We will, all of us, stand before the judgment seat of God someday. How do we think Richard is measuring up right now? St. Matthew, in Chapter 25, his depiction of the last judgment, gives us a good idea. Did Buzzy feed the hungry? Check. See a perfect stranger and welcome him? Check. Provide clothing for the naked? Check. Care for those who are sick? Check. Visit those imprisoned? Check. (I am leaving out the part about giving a drink to the thirsty.)
Hagiographers often try to find parallels to the life of Christ in their subjects, such as the story of St Francis being born in a stable. In the Book of Acts we read about Jesus’ first followers, freshly forgiven by the Resurrected Christ, beginning to perform miracles, God using them to carry on the work of his Son and performing miracles. Jesus restored life to the son of the widow of Nain. How many people have been restored to their families because of the miracles happening at Bridge House, at Grace House? How many Good Samaritans there have stopped, helped to heal wounds, and provided follow-up care? How many Prodigal Sons and Daughters returned to live lives the Lord had destined for them?
In an obituary about Buzzy in the Times-Picayune there are a couple of quotations, one from the protestant preacher William Barclay: “There are two great days in a person’s life--the day we are born and the day we discover why.” When did Richard discover the reason God gave him the life he did?
Evidence suggests he found it through a spirituality of encountering Christ found in the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuits. Buzzy was a Man of Manresa, and I think, perhaps, he found in Ignatius a man with whom he could identify. Ignatius had a somewhat dissolute life until his thirties; then, through a traumatic experience and a period of recovery, he found Christ, found Him through prayer and reflection. It was the same with Dorothy Day, who started the Catholic Worker movement, and with Mother Theresa. She said she had an encounter with Christ, but then often felt herself abandoned by him, for years even.
I’m sure Buzzy, like her, had many a dark night of the soul. But Buzzy loved the experience of Christ and returned often to the Exercises for renewal. So excited was he about their power, he helped begin a program at Manresa to bring Christ to the homeless. These were the last retreats he gave at Manresa. And he brought along, on the first one, a newly found Samaritan friend, Dwight Boyd, like him a former car salesman. So the work of the Lord goes on, comes full circle, and we must not let our hearts be troubled, even if we think Buzzy died too early.
Buzzy did know where he was going -- he just got there before us. Buzzy learned the way was in following Jesus, the one who showed him the Truth about himself and showed him the Way to the Father.
It's been said, “What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others, and the world, remains and is immortal.” Buzzy: well done, you have been a good and faithful servant.”
Donate today at www.bridgehouse.org
|
