In memory of a board member, friend, and mentor
He was a husband, father, and working layman whose favorite career paths had a missionary bend. He was a very ordinary American man, who enjoyed pizza and ranch dressing, but he lived his life in an extraordinary way. I’d bet his wife, six children under 14, and the thousands of people who knew Luke, followed their family through his sickness, and participated in the funeral either virtually or in person would agree.
Luke Condit served on the Board of Directors for the JP2 Project during the last few years of his life. However, my story with Luke dates back nearly 20 years before his passing, when I was a young adult myself of only 18 years old (yes, I’m that old). Then, I would never have guessed that years later, I would become peers with Luke, and his mysterious out-of-state girlfriend from Michigan would become his wife and one of my closest friends and role models.
As Luke died a year ago, on January 31st, the feast of St. John Bosco, Patron of the Youth, I wanted to honor this mentor, friend and JP2 Project Board Member through this tribute.
Luke’s local diocese published a wonderful article about his life and their family’s story. I highly recommend it!I Here’s a link to the beautiful eulogy that describes how he models sanctity for us all. While this essay doesn’t compare, I wanted to add some paint to the picture with this compilation of mostly silly personal stories over the years.
Stories from College
It first began at Ave Maria University. Luke was working in the Student Life office. I was among the few freshman who did not have a liberal arts background (Plato?? Playdough?…), and completely inexperienced in living the Faith, though desiring to live and share it. Luke believed in young people, never looking for perfection, but encouraging their efforts toward promoting the good. Every initiative I brought to Luke, in my youth and inexperience, from reading clubs to awareness campaigns, Luke supported. Once, he even let me plan and run an entire pro-life concert on the campus green, as a freshman! I crack up at myself now for doing this event, but it was really impactful for me then and was actually a huge success on campus. Thanks for the trust, Luke.
Later on, when Luke was Director of Residence Life, Luke hired me as an residence assistant in the dorms. I was so humbled by this gesture, and so grateful to work under his leadership. I remember Luke’s training talks to us were always so powerful. They were done on a couch in a living room, unscripted and down to earth. He taught us about what it really means to be a servant-leader. And like St. John Bosco did with his youth, he played with us. Training week included a late-night game of laser-tag, having the full run of the YMCA after hours. It was epic! Later, as a married man with a baby, I cherished the times Luke had the team over to his house for a game of white-elephant, or just invited me and my friends over for pizza. (As a side note, it was in one of these latter encounters that his wife connected me with the family of their favorite saint, Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati. This connection turned into a whole history of apostolate that our alumni know first-hand, and is worth another article.) Thanks for the mentorship, Luke.
It’s not that I spoke with Luke all the time. He was simply the awesome boss who exemplified holiness for me and the others. Then one day as a junior, when I broke up with my then-serious boyfriend, I somehow found myself in none other than Luke’s office, crying my eyes out. How embarrassing when I think about it now! I don’t remember what he said. He was probably just waiting for it to end. But his welcoming presence, and the few words he managed to pass on to this emotional college girl left me feeling encouraged. Thanks for the patience, Luke.
I worked my way through school but still took out school loans. The reality of the loans began to sink in, and as an upperclassman, I once again found myself in Luke’s office, sharing my financial situation and asking if he knew of any scholarship opportunities. He listened and said something along the lines of, “Let’s see.” A few months later, something new mysteriously appeared on my invoice: a substantial amount for a “Leadership Scholarship”. Thanks for going out of your way, Luke. You’re the man!
Family Man & Friend
During the fall of 2018, Joe and I took the first-class relic of John Paul II on tour across the US for two months…yes, with our toddler and baby in tote. I was stoked to visit Luke and his wife, Anna, and meet all their children.
Two things happened when we brought the relic to their house in between events. At that time, Luke had a sales job that was very draining and unfulfilling. While he excelled at his work and was grateful to put food on the table for his family, he struggled with depression during this time. Luke and his wife shared this with us, and so we prayed for the intercession of John Paul II for Luke to have a new job. Shortly after this visit, Luke landed a sales job with eCatholic, a company and position that weaved his skills and faith together in a fruitful and uplifting way.
Joe and I joked with the Condits about how our real reason for doing the tour was to figure out where we wanted to live in the States. His wife, Anna, made these joking remarks, “Well, I do know that it is God’s will for you to move here.” Those jokes became prophetic as we moved to a town in Michigan near the Condits that next year. This move led to the blossoming of a beautiful friendship with Luke, Anna, and their children.
While less interesting, I can’t avoid mentioning the impact of the sometimes weekly get-togethers we would have with the Condits. Joe and I always left wondering why they were friends with us. Joe would even joke that he wanted to steal Luke’s boxers as a relic one day. Their home, while nothing extraordinary and full of those normal imperfections, was always so welcoming. We loved coming over. Luke clearly had a wonderful relationship with his children that was worth making into a life goal as a parent.. He loved them and they loved him, which shines in the tribute video his oldest son created.
“The glory of God is man fully alive” — and how radiant this truth was in Luke’s life. A man of prayer and faith, so full of joy, with a lively sense of humor. Yet, Luke was a normal guy with normal struggles.
He could totally relate to me confessing about my lack of patience with my kids. He and his wife had a beautiful marriage, but they benefited from marriage counseling at times. He felt the pressures of providing for his family, and the challenges when he worked from home. Sometimes Luke would walk around Home Depot just to get out of the house when he worked remotely. He and Joe would joke about how you should never tell God that he can’t ask something from you, because then you might get it. Luke would cry out, “Please, God, don’t ask me to be wealthy!”
I would share worries about my one daughter who had a difficult character and was particularly challenging to parent. Whenever I worried that there were some serious underlying issues, Luke would reassure me that everything was fine and normal. I would fight him on this, in disbelief. One day, to convince me, he sent me a video of his daughter—the same age as mine—grabbing her car-seat straps and violently screaming at the top of her lungs. He was chuckling, over the screams, saying, “See, Corinne, I’m sending this so you feel better. It’s normal!”
His Final Stretch
Luke’s battle with cancer all happened while we were back living in Poland. This was very painful for me not to be in Michigan, supporting not just Luke, but his wife and children. When Anna and Luke came to our side of the pond for a pilgrimage to Lourdes pleading for Luke’s healing, there was no way we could not go. We packed the family from Krakow and met them in Lourdes. He was feeling good at the time and looked healthy, but the pilgrimage group insisted that the teen volunteers pushed all the participants in wheelchairs. Luke joked that while at the grotto of Our Lady, he was tempted to jump out of his wheelchair with a countenance of disbelief toward the onlookers, and walk away gleefully.
Luke chose Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati as his patron saint for the illness. As he was one of my best friends in heaven, I pleaded with him endlessly for Luke’s healing. When I was in labor with baby number five, I knew for whom I had to offer up my pain, and with almost a demanding tone—as women in labor often do— I begged Pier Giorgio for Luke’s healing. But it didn’t last too long, as it turned out to be the quickest and smoothest labor yet, even though the baby came well before the midwife was on her way and with the cord wrapped around her neck, which Joe quickly maneuvered loose. Felt like a miracle. It turns out that Luke was in radiation during that time and offered up his suffering for me and the baby. I don’t want to insult God by saying that He didn’t receive my offering, but it’s obvious whose prayers were more powerful.
He lived his life as a husband, father, and friend in prayer, with his heart centered on Christ. When his illness struck, his relationship with the Lord only deepened even further and he became more and more transformed in Him through his suffering.
A Glimpse into His Faith
The last text message I received from Luke:
“Oh, and how are we doing? We are doing well. It is a daily need to remember to stay in the present moment, that is where the grace lies. Jesus has also been helping me see the need to acknowledge and enter into the pain, physical, emotional and spiritual. Too often I would just push it down, try to be “saintly” (in my opinion) and He is showing me that isn’t the way. What he wants is for us to be honest and then, as I enter into the pain, I am also supposed to let him come too! It’s there where He wants to be and help us. I have pushed it aside “offered it up”, (you know, the “Catholic way”-lol) but he wants more than that. Yes, we should unite it to Him but we first have to be honest about it and then invite him and with him offer it up. That is where the grace lies. The kids are good. Having a high schooler has presented new challenges, which neither Anna and I feel competent in dealing with- lol! So poor Jonah is our guinea pig. We make mistakes, sometimes being too hard, sometimes being too lenient. Man, parenting is not for the faint of heart-lol. Anna has been busy with homeschooling, and keeping the day to day. I just came back from a pilgrimage with my mom and sister to Medjugorje. It was a very peaceful and fruitful time. Health wise- the cancer has been stable. I have other health/pain issues, mostly with my legs, sciatica, nerve pain which is pretty constant. So that’s another opportunity to invite Jesus in! We are still praying for wisdom [regarding] medical decisions, doctors and all that jazz. God is with us though and leads us. He just doesn’t show us too far in advance what decisions are to be made. Another opportunity to trust. [laughing/crying emoji]. Okay, I think that’s the quick overview. We think of and pray for you often! We are so grateful for your friendship over the years! Keep up the prayers for us, they are TRULY sustaining us, giving us peace and are really felt. We love you MacDonalds! [3 heart emojis].”
There is a Polish woman named Marta who has been hosting our students for their educational pilgrimage in Warsaw since not only the onset of the JP2 Project, but since I brought students there while working study abroad in Rome. Her family personally knew the communist martyr, Blessed Jerzy Popiełuszko. She, her brother and friends would share stories about how he was such a normal guy that during his life, people would never have guessed he’d be the priest of the community—let alone a saint. Marta once shared this simple yet striking line: “the saints are among us.”How fittingly this applies to Luke—and to all those who knew him.
