On the road, 2015, in ministry of reparation, in prayer for us all.
I first met Gregory in 2015; I wrote a blog entry on him and his beautiful, heroic vocation of personal reparation for the sins of the world. The blog entry is Reparation: Freely Suffering for the Good of Another.
I heard from Gregory again in 2018, and wrote a second blog entry to “update” my readers on his pilgrimage of prayer, on foot and in poverty, across this country, to religious sites honoring especially our Blessed Mother Mary. Her intercession, for the good of others, was the burden he carried in his heart. This blog entry is Update on Gregory the Pilgrim.
Now, today in 2020, I received a blog Comment about him, that he was taken from this earth following complications of Covid-19. The final message we have from him is a text message he wrote to his friend Tinsley – posted on the Facebook page “Gregory the Pilgrim” dedicated to him and his pilgrimage. Tinsley wrote:
got this text from Gregory last night he has Covid and pneumonia he has been in the hospital for the past two weeks please pray for him!!
Ave Maria ! ! !
Hi Tinsley.I woke up 2 am not breathing. So they told me the I need to be put on a ventilator with an induced coma.
I said no.
So they put me on a high pressure oxygen mask.
And now there going to move me to ICU.
My spiritual director told me to trust in the lord and go on the ventilator.
So I think this could be it with the ventilator.
So Tinsley please pray for me and if I pass on to the lord, that Christ will give me a Catholic burial somewhere.
Thanks for being such a good Sister and friend to me.
God Bless you Tinsley !
I post this brief note pondering deeply our need today for Gregory’s calling: persons willing to offer their own hardships and sufferings for the good of others. I am reminded of the prayer of Jesus (Luke 23:34) in the horrific sufferings of His Cross:
Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.
Every one of His followers has a cross to carry. May we each carry our cross in His Holy Charity, remembering and receiving the burdens of those who “know not what they do” in their offenses against Him and His Blessed Mother – today and every day.
Renew The Church! - website and Blog 
Dear Thomas,
Thanks so much for posting this sad but beautiful news of our friend, Gregory the Pilgrim. His story will bless many I believe — especially now when so many are suffering. I’m grateful that a friend of Gregory’s found out about his death and posted to one of the blog articles you had written about Gregory.
How grateful I am to the Lord to have brought Gregory into our lives so we could spend even just a little time with him! How precious to remember his humility and zealous love for Jesus and Mary and his desire to offer Reparation to those Pierced Hearts.
It is significant to me that we received this news on the First Friday of November, Month dedicated to the Souls in Purgatory. Somehow, I suspect Gregory only needed to make a short stop in Purgatory on his Pilgrimage to his place in the Home of Our Father where Jesus and Mary welcomed him.
By: Deborah on November 6, 2020
at 1:45 pm
I remember reading your post on Gregory the Pilgrim’s progress. Such a beautiful man. I hope he was able to receive a Catholic funeral. So much charity and hope and faith in that story. Thanks Thomas
By: Susan Scully on November 6, 2020
at 4:34 pm