Remembering Don McCrabb and the Ministers Who Shaped Our Mission: An Advent Reflection
This Advent, a season defined by longing, hope, and holy waiting, our CCMA community finds itself holding both sorrow and gratitude as we mourn the passing of Donald R. McCrabb. Don was a beloved leader, mentor, and friend-someone whose life was poured out in service to the Church and especially to the young adults seeking Christ during their college years.
Don believed to his core that campus ministry is one of the Church’s most essential missions. He carried a contagious, steady hope-the kind that made you believe that God was always doing something new on our campuses, even when we could not yet see it. He led with humility and pastoral tenderness, forming not only programs and structures, but people. Anyone who encountered Don walked away feeling more grounded, more encouraged, and more aware of Christ’s presence.
This year, we also grieve the loss of Mary Katharine Deeley, Ph.D., Fr. Albert Pace, OP, Fr. Jude DeAngelo, OFM Conv., and other cherished ministers who quietly and faithfully shaped the lives of students across the country. Each of them embodied the mission of accompaniment in their own unique ways-teaching, preaching, counseling, and loving young people into a deeper relationship with Christ.
Advent teaches us something essential about grief.
It teaches us to wait with hope.
To hold memory as a sacred gift.
To trust that God is coming close-even in darkness, even in sorrow, even when we feel the absence of those we love.
As a community, we need to hold these memories well.
We need to let ourselves grieve.
We need to speak their names, share their stories, and give thanks for the ways their lives shaped our own.
And we also need to remember that love does not end in death.
In this season of expectant hope, we remember that those who have gone before us continue to accompany us in new ways. I often pray to what I call my “undeclared saints” - the holy men and women who formed me, inspired me, challenged me, and loved me into the person I am today. Don, Mary, Fr. Albert, Fr. Jude, and so many others now join that quiet communion in my heart. They still walk with us. They intercede for us. And they inspire us to keep going.
Their legacy is a light-one that Advent invites us not only to remember, but to carry forward.
As the candles on our Advent wreath grow brighter each week, we are reminded that the light entrusted to us through their witness is not meant to dim. It is meant to illuminate our ministries, our campuses, and the lives of the students we serve. Their devotion now becomes our call.
Their hope becomes our strength. Their love for Christ and His Church becomes a path we continue to walk.
May this Advent be a time of holy remembering and renewed mission.
May we honor their lives by embodying the same joy, courage, and faith they shared so generously.
And may we move forward together-accompanied by our “undeclared saints,” strengthened by Christ’s promise, and filled with a hope that does not disappoint.
With peace and gratitude,
Rosie Chinea Shawver, Executive Director of CCMA
PS Here is Don’s obituary: https://www.kwadefunerals.com/post/donaldmccrabb.