On February 2, three students from the academy were on a Saturday afternoon shopping trip, and a fourth, Janine, the only woman in the group, took advantage of the ride to Combermere. She had an appointment with her spiritual director, Fr. Bob Pelton, at Madonna House.

They were taking a most unusual route. Instead of the highway, they were driving on the frozen lake.

All winter, they had seen vehicles and ice fishing huts near their school on Lake Kamaniskeg. But what they did not know, as the local people do, is that, though the ice on that part of the lake was quite safe, not all of it was. Lake Kamaniskeg is part of a river system and as such it contains currents. There are parts of it, especially in the middle, where the ice is never completely stable.

Their minivan fell through the ice. The two passengers in the front seats managed to get out; those in the back did not. The two who died were former working guests at Madonna House.

Paul Sanders, age 24, was in our six-month spiritual formation program for men discerning priesthood, in 2004—2005. Janine Lieu, age 22, was with us for four months last year, from May through August.

Both were beautiful young people of the type that certain commentators on the have been noticing in recent years. Some call them "the children of John Paul II."

Seeming miracles in our secular, decaying culture, these young people are full of life and hope and are deeply committed to God. They seek to know and do his will, and they completely accept the magisterium of the Church.

How many they are no one knows, but we have gotten to know some of them as our working guests, and they bring us tremendous hope.

Janine was the founder and president and Paul the most enthusiastic supporter of the academy’s newly established pro-life club. Both were moving towards religious vocations. Paul was seriously considering priesthood and the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, and Janine wanted to become a nun.

Paul was a talented young man who asked lots of questions. He loved the truth, and he loved to learn. He was outgoing, upbeat, quirky, and he dressed in a funky way.

Janine, too, was talented. She was quiet, reserved, and very prayerful. Her purity of heart shone in her eyes and in her smile, and though she didn’t say much, people who met her were touched by her.

Our Lady Seat of Wisdom is a tiny close-knit school. The teachers and the students were hard, hard hit. Priests, including some of ours, (one of our priests, Fr. Paul Burchat, is their chaplain and another, Fr. Pelton, teaches a course on liturgy), came to be with them, and several services took place, both planned and spontaneous—prayer services, Masses, rosaries, etc., etc. Many of us from MH attended the wake, wake service, and/or the memorial Mass.

The academy is a faith-filled school, and there are beautiful stories about what occurred especially during that first week of grieving.

The two survivors, too, were surrounded by loving support. They stayed for a few days at another faith-filled community, the novitiate for the seminarians of the Companions of the Cross, which is located in Combermere just up the road from Madonna House. The parents of the survivors had come and were with them there as well.

Janine’s wake was very moving. Her mother was on a visit to the Philippines when the tragedy occurred and was unable to come, but her father and two brothers came from Vancouver.

On the reception line at the wake, along with Janine’s family, were the two survivors and their parents. The crowds could not fit into the funeral home, and people could only file through. The line never ended the whole time of the wake.

When Janine’s father spoke at the end of the wake service, he spoke through his tears, and ended by addressing the two survivors. "Paul and Janine have accomplished what the Lord had in mind for them to do. You go forth and do whatever it is the Lord wants you to do." I doubt there was a dry eye in the church.

Janine’s funeral was held later in Vancouver not far from our house. Our staff there, who also knew Janine, attended it and said it was very beautiful.

Paul’s funeral was held in his home village an hour from London, Ontario and a six-hour drive from here. Fr. Tom Zoeller, the director of the spiritual formation program, and Cody Gabrielson, currently in that program and a close friend of Paul, represented Madonna House. Most of the students from the school also made the drive to southern Ontario to attend.

Cody had met Paul in Winnipeg at a time when he, Cody, was looking for a way to live a Christian life. Just knowing Paul, he said, showed him how to do it, and it was Paul who recommended the spiritual formation program to him.

People who were there spoke of the joy and hope at Paul’s funeral. Paul’s family, like Janine’s, is deeply Christian. His father’s immediate concern, when he was told of the death of his son, was for the two survivors. At his invitation, they stayed at his house when they went to the funeral.

Paul had many, many friends and more than 400 people came from as far away as Winnipeg, Florida, and Steubenville, Ohio, for his funeral.

Throughout the funeral time, it was obvious that God, through his words and through people, gave nourishment and support, and hope and even joy were evident amidst the grief.

The pain of loss and the shock and horror that such beautiful young lives ended so tragically were somehow grounded in the truth of the resurrection. One wonders how people without faith cope with such tragedy.

Death has a way of tearing off the veil that keeps the shining beauty of a faithful Christian hidden—whether that Christian is a mother of a family or a priest or a college student or whatever. That is one of the gifts to us of Paul and Janine: a manifestation of the beauty that we only glimpsed when they were alive.

Now they are surely either living in eternal glory with the God they so faithfully loved and served or soon will be. Though we grieve, we can in faith also rejoice with them and for them.