Today has been a nice/sad/relaxing day. Nice, because I was home alone and got to be in an quiet house all too myself. Also the reason for the relaxing. Sad because it is the one year anniversary of the death of Matty Molnar. It doesn't seem like that long ago, but it was. Matty was a beautiful person, a holy seminarian, and funny as all get out. I only met him once, but he make a great impact on my life and my thinking.

We were at the first Kansas City Catholic Conference at Avila University and my friends and I decided to go see that "hyper seminarian" give his talk to the teens/pre-teens. We missed most of the talk, but we got to meet him afterwards. I shook his hand. We only exchanged niceties, but I miss him so much. He was a symbol of hope I think. He was so holy, focused, and kind. He died talking about the God he lived for. For those who don't know, he was out with some friends celebrating his birthday and got into a discussion about Theology. It got late, but Matty wanted to finish his discussion so he told the group he came with to take his car and he would ride with the guys he was talking with. There was an accident, the car rolled and Matty was killed instantly. I went to the wake; it took me an hour and a half to get through the line to view the body and I got there an hour early. He was buried in his cassock.

I ask those who read this post to stop a moment and say an Ave for (or too) Matty Molnar. I think there's a pretty good chance he's up there rooting for us.

I keep this quote of his on my mirror in my room. He wrote it two weeks before he died.

"if you're looking for details on why bad things happen-why the "good die young", I can't help you. I am here to say, "I'm with you, though" and I am becoming a priest as a witness to this.....God loves you.....and the bad things that are happening to you don't discount His great impending love and providence for you."

-Matty Molnar (August 28, 2005)