Thanks, Christy for sharing this here.
I too, enjoyed reading Al’s posts here and it seems this might be a fitting place to commemorate some of the “best of Al” for those who want to reflect on and enjoy his contributions. The first one I’ll link to here might have been one of his favorite testimonies since he brought it up more than once: The Miracle of the Panel Truck (this link I think might have been one of the original and complete retellings of that story from a 2015 post of his on this forum.)
But he was also known for all his great rapport (with just about everybody so far as I could ever tell) and his gentle answers. Below I’ll link to some of his “most liked”.
Photos he shared here that he got from his younger daughter:
Sharing about suffering in the world, and his late nephew: Jackie.
And he had many, many more posts that were nearly as much “liked” as the above. If you want to read more of those, you can do like I did to get these: Use the magnifying glass (search) icon - top right of your Wordpress window here), and then in the little search window that opens, click the blue ‘options’ link in it. This opens up expanded search options. In the ‘Posted By’ box type ‘Al’ and then select “Aleo” (who will be 2nd in the dropdowns). Click the blue magnifying glass then to execute the search, and it should show a list of all his posts. Then you can use the ‘sort by’ box to make it show his ‘most liked’ ones (or ‘latest ones’) at the top.
According to that: his very last post would have been on January 8 of this year, and (where else?) but on the immortal Suarez thread.
The above shows that even in these last months of his life he was still sharp as a tack. And yet in all his posts - even while he might be disagreeing with or rebuking somebody; I’m struck by how gentle he always was. It also gives me pause to reflect on how none of us knows here the day or the hour of our own reckoning, and for all we know - what you are posting here now could be the last post we ever see of yours! Would we want our last words here to be some parting “zinger” with which we “stuck it to somebody” with whom we sharply disagree? (Well - okay - maybe some of us would love to go out on just such a note). But Al seems to have been attentive to the Spirit all the way to the end. Blessed is the servant who is faithfully attending to his tasks when found by the suddenly returning Master!
I didn’t know Al except from his exchanges here. And yet just from those, Al brings these verses to mind for me:
Proverbs 15:1
“A soft word turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.”
and from the end of Galatians 5 … the fruits of the Spirit:
“By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control”. Based on what I’ve seen of Mr. Leo here - I’m pretty sure he had all of these on full display in his life.
We miss you, brother - and yet we also celebrate with you your glorious Life that continues.