Prayer request. A good man died today — suddenly and at a young age. Fr Amin Abboud was a priest, a registered medical doctor, and a PhD in moral philosophy.

I’m not sure of his age, but he wasn’t old! I first got to know him when I was at university, long before either of us were priests. He was ordained to the priesthood on 27 May 2006, and died on 18 July 2013.

Fr Amin was writing a book on Peter Singer which Connor Court was due to publish soon I think. Here’s an article he wrote last year on the subject: No honour in gong for infanticide backer.

diaconate-ordination

Ordained to the diaconate

Greeting Pope Benedict at Kenthurst Study Centre, Sydney

Greeting Pope Benedict at Kenthurst Study Centre, Sydney

Concelebrating Mass with the Pope at Kenthurst

Concelebrating Mass with the Pope

Pray for him! Requiescat in pace.

UPDATE

In the comments below, Robert links to a news article on the Sydney Archdiocese website. It reports that Fr Amin died while on his annual retreat. I maintain he died too young of course, but what a blessed way to go!

Fr Amin would have spent the last few weeks preparing for his retreat, contemplating where he is in the spiritual life, where he is in his service to God, and resolving to renew and deepen his friendship with our Lord.

He may well have prepared a shortlist of items he would raise with our Lord, knowing that the retreat is in fact a unique opportunity for the Lord to raise some points with him, in an environment which lends itself to attentive listening.

The annual retreat is an intimate meeting with our Friend and Master, analogous to that face to face meeting we will each encounter at the moment of death. In Fr Amin’s case, the analogy has become the reality.

I guess we should be prepared to meet our maker any time, and live every day like it’s our last. Preparing for and entering into a retreat just focuses that. I can’t imagine a better preparation for a sudden and unexpected death. Blessed be God, and God bless Fr Amin.