“font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; line-height: 14px;”>Paul Reiter’s family and friends said farewell to him Saturday morning in an elegant Memorial Service conducted at Carmel of St. Joseph Carmelite Monastery.
“font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana;”>Religious services, conducted by Patrick Quinn, SJ, were framed by Honor Guard ceremonies due to Reiter as a veteran of the U.S. Navy.
“font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana;”>Gospel readings were selected by resident nuns, including Reiter’s sister, Sister Paula Marie. After readings from Isaiah and Revelation, Father Quinn deeply touched the sentiments of an overflowing group of mourners when he delivered the parable of the Good Samaritan (told by Luke).
“font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana;”>As was widely reported in local media in the days before the Memorial Service, Reiter lived and died a Good Samaritan. He was shot dead the morning of May 9, 2011, according to St. Louis police, while interrupting the back-door burglary of a neighbor on Idaho Avenue in South St. Louis. He was 58.
“font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana;”>The Good Samaritan, of course, was a man who rescued a traveler who had been waylaid by highway robbers and left for dead. Two previous passers-by, including a priest, stepped past the dying man without helping him. The Samaritan stopped on the road, bandaged the injured man’s wounds, then took him to an inn and left him in the care of the innkeeper. The Samaritan gave the innkeeper some money and promised to reimburse him for any other medical expenses when he returned from the road.
“font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana;”>The parable spoke deeply to the mourners’ sense of Paul Reiter and what his life had meant. There was sobbing in the pews and among the many people standing in the aisles as Father Quinn related the story. He then based his homily upon the parable’s simple teaching: that one must take risks to be a good neighbor.
“font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana;”>“When you suffer the loss of a brother to violence and death, do you lose hope?” Father Quinn asked. “Or do you hope all the more?”
“font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana;”>He asked mourners to summon their favorite memory of Paul. He waited for a moment. Then he said, “Grace does not fade or go away. You just need to remember it.”
“font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana;”>A sparkling quartet of singers culled from The Ambassadors of Harmony in St. Charles then sang an Irish Blessing song. “May the sun shine warm on your face,” they sang, in radiant harmony, accompanied by Abbie Steiling on solo violin.
“font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana;”>After Communion was celebrated, Donald M. Suggs delivered a eulogy from his perspective as publisher of
“mso-bidi-font-style: normal;”>The St. Louis American Reiter served as circulation manager for 22 years – 22 years of the paper’s 83-year history.
“font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana;”>Suggs said he wanted “to affirm in this holy place” Reiter’s service to the community and to suggest how Paul was “a model of what a real Christian should be,” which is precisely the message of the Good Samaritan parable.
“font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana;”>For most of the eulogy, Suggs read from an open letter that Ishmael-Lateef Ahmad wrote to Paul after he heard of his former colleague’s senseless murder. Ahmad was a longtime reporter for The American who writes with a piercing insight into the kind of man the community has lost.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“We could always count on you. Call Paul and you’d appear, ready and able to help with any task,” Suggs read from Ahmad’s letter.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“For all of us, death is always near and often unexpected. Now, you are the story, the news. And we get to speak about you – your life, your times, your being Paul. And while the manner of your death makes it doubly surprising, it forces us to take stock of our own lives and how we live them.”
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>(Ishmael-Lateef Ahmad’s “font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>moving letter to Paul Reiter may be read in its entirety
“http://www.stlamerican.com/news/columnists/article_aa564662-80d5-11e0-bb57-001cc4c002e0.html” target=”_blank”>here
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>At the end of the dignified service, Paul’s brother Mark Reiter rose from the first pew, turned to the large crowd of mourners, and said, “As Paul would say, ‘See ya!’”
