In the past, I have told others that with Brother Ryan, one could always feel a great love, and also an immense reverent fear, similar to how we all feel about God.  In our faith, we always strive to love our God with all our heart, all our soul, and all our mind.  At the same time, we experience a “fear of the LORD,” which is essentially our submission to and respect of the omnipotent and omniscient being who is God the Father.  Much of what we know of our Creator comes from Biblical stories.  We no longer see the earthly forms of God, like Moses’s burning bush.  Yet, to this day, we still love and revere our God entirely.  Similarly, in this community, it never mattered how much you knew about Brother to understand his influence on so many people and the respect that we all had for him.  And, whether or not he knew your name, he loved all members of this community with his entire heart just as God the Father does.  Many have only heard the legends of Brother Ryan, but all understood his impact, the reverent fear, and the love.

            However, this is not the only way in which Brother was like our God, for He also became man in the person of Jesus Christ.  Every day, Brother Ryan strived to become more of a man like Christ, and, undoubtedly, he always succeeded.  Like our savior, Brother laid down his life for the service of all of us, God’s people, by teaching the faith and leading us back to righteousness.  He lived simply with the other brothers who always see beyond the mundane and focus their lives on the journey towards everlasting life.  A humble man, he never called attention to himself, and never wanted anyone to worry about him.  He had great enthusiasm and zeal for every act of service he performed.  He trusted God in his vocation to consecrated life, and let the Lord guide his spiritual journey.  A compassionate soul, he consistently set aside anything in order to help and to suffer with anyone through their grievances and their hardships, all the days of his life until his last.  On the last day, Christ gave His life for all the world.  Every day, Brother did his best to lay down his life for all those he could.  Every aspect of the man that Brother Ryan was fully imitates the life and spirit of Christ.

            I was home on Sunday, September 15, when I heard the news of Brother’s passing.  At first, like many, I was in shock.  I had no words.  I could not believe that the bedrock of this community had disappeared.  Because it was Sunday, I went to mass. I went alone.  I reflected; I prayed, and I grieved this loss.  I needed to hold onto my faith.  I needed to know and believe that there exists the possibility of life after death.  I needed to know that Brother had the chance to see paradise and be at peace in the fullness of God’s love.  After mass and throughout that day I reminisced about the stories from his class.  I loved the civics projects we did with him, and I truly enjoyed class discussions about the history of the Supreme Court.  Every day even after freshman year, I, like so many, looked over to the bookstore waving to Brother Ryan.  My reflections on the past gave me hope for the survival of Brother’s memory.  I have confidence that he will never be forgotten.  It was not until later that Sunday night that I sat down to read Facebook comments and scroll through the Instagram reposts of the school’s announcement.  In this, I saw the love that this community had for Brother and the outpouring of admiration for his long life of service to others. But where does this love come from?

            Mr. Bell told our class early freshman year that the Holy Trinity consisted of the Father and the Son, and that the love that existed between the two was the Holy Spirit, spread and shared throughout the world to this day.  Each was, is, and ever shall be God.  While we may no longer see the overt appearances of God the Father like in Biblical times, and even though Jesus Christ may no longer walk the earth, the Holy Spirit remains within all of us as a divine indwelling of God’s love.  There may no longer be new stories of Brother Ryan, and the man we knew and admired may be gone, but the love that he instilled in each and every one of us lives on eternally and bonds us together as one community.  As one family.

            I would like to share one anecdote from my time as a student of Brother Ryan.  Of course, this story requires a reminder of Brother’s beloved Thelma Todd, an early twentieth century actress and star of films such as “Horsefeathers,” which he showed us in class.  In my recent reflections, I remembered our civics class discussion of First Ladies, and Brother’s trivia question for our class: “Does anyone know the name given at birth to Former First Lady Pat Nixon?”  Our class of course did not know the answer, and after a few seconds of hopeful waiting he grinned and said, “Her name was Thelma Ryan.”  I laughed, and after class I asked why Brother loved that name so much.  He said something along the lines of, “it lets me think that a little bit of Thelma Todd lives on in me.”  It was only last week that I learned that Brother’s full name is Thomas Francis Ryan, which led me to reflect on my full name:  Sean Thomas Francis O’Sullivan.  In recent days I’ve really come to admire my name.  It gives me hope that a little bit of Brother Thomas Francis Ryan lives on in me.

So long for now Brother, till we meet again.