Hello, my name is Elvira Vaqué, I am 21 years old, I am a member of the Home of the Mother of the Youth, and I live in Valencia. In the last two years I have had a lot of contact with Father Henry. I remember many funny anecdotes with him; he was great, he loved young people and Our Mother very much, but above all he loved the Eucharist immensely. It touched my heart when I saw him look at the Lord, especially at the moment of the consecration, it impressed me deeply, and many times I would ask God, “that I may know how to look at You as Father Henry does.” He was very good, simple, and humble, a great example for everyone.

He was not a superhero, he was flesh and blood, and in his simplicity he was also quite absent-minded, but that made him special. I laughed a lot at his forgetfulness, and it was an example for me of the kindness and simplicity with which he responded when you helped him find something he had lost or reminded him of what he had forgotten. It does not surprise me at all all the beautiful things I hear about him, since I was able to see all of them in person myself, and I can say that everything that is said is true; that is how our dear Father Henry was.

One of my favorite anecdotes with Father was a day when we had work encounters, with the members of the Home in Valencia. It was a day of a lot of work; the Valencia convent is very large and we had to prepare everything for the national encounter in February. I was around looking for where I could help and had been hearing, for a while, what sounded like someone hitting something over and over again, and there were so many bangs that I got curious to see where they were coming from. When I went out to the place they came from, I found Father Henry holding a very large sledgehammer in his hands, fighting against an old steel refrigerator that was lying on the ground waiting to be taken to a container, but since it did not fit in the van, Father was trying to separate two pieces by hitting them with the hammer. Father, who always supernaturalized everything, said that the refrigerator was sin and that he had to finish it off. I stayed there watching Father fight against the refrigerator, trying to finish off sin, and recording that very funny image in my head. At one point Father looked at me and said, “You have to finish this; only a strong woman can destroy sin.” My face lit up and I did not hesitate to grab the hammer. I could barely lift it; I did not expect it to weigh so much. Then Father began to encourage me, “Come on, you can do it, finish off sin, you have to defeat sin! Hit it hard!” In the end I managed to separate the pieces and Father was super happy and excited, like a child, and then he said to me, “You see, the woman has given the final blow; you could do it, only a strong woman is capable of crushing the serpent’s head, of defeating sin. That is how Our Mother did it.” What he told me that afternoon helped me a lot. He was able to supernaturalize everything; he always had his gaze set on the things above. He always insisted on this with us young people, on defeating sin; there was no homily in which he did not say a phrase dedicated to young people.

He always insisted to us on the danger we face by living in the world; he would say, “We cannot divide our heart; either we are of God or we are of the world.” “We have to extinguish any kind of ‘I want to be number one’ and say, Lord, I want to be what I have to be.” He also insisted that we should detach ourselves from the things of the world that did us no good, “take away from me what You want to take away and make me docile so I can receive what You want to give me.” One day he told us how the Lord asked him to throw away his video games and the music CDs he had bought; I was amazed because I did not know if I would have been capable, honestly; his desire for holiness was contagious.

Just on the very last day before the lockdown began, I was able to go to confession with him, and he was the one who celebrated the Mass. That was the last time I saw him. That confession helped me a lot; he insisted very much that it was going to be a time to make a great examination of conscience, that it was going to be a time of trial and sanctification. In that last homily he spoke to us with great enthusiasm about a book he was reading; in fact, right there he took out the book and read some phrases. The book was The Virgin, the Eucharist, and the End of Times. I wrote down many of the phrases he said, since they always helped me a lot. He said, “We don’t know what we have until it is taken away from us,” referring to the Eucharist and the pandemic times that were coming. He also said, “The Lord does not want empty lips; He wants hearts.” “Do not give up your heart in the face of the Truth.” “We have to take care of the Lord; He is the greatest treasure we have.” “I want to be a real Christian, someone in love with Our Mother.” And the last phrase I have written down... “One day we are going to die, and we must have that peace.” He had it, I am sure.

I had a very hard time on the day they told me he had passed away; I cried a lot, but it was more because of my selfishness, because I could not believe that I would not have him here anymore, and many beautiful memories came to mind. Now I know that he is very close, he is with me all day; I talk to him, I say good morning to him, good night, and I ask him for things. I know that he is now where his heart has been living for a long time, in Heaven.

I give many thanks to the Lord for having placed him so close to me and for his example, and I ask that one day I may love Him and Our Mother as Father Henry did, and that I may learn from his humility. I know that Father Henry is watching over me from above and helps me a lot; for that reason, I encourage you, who are reading this that I have written, to also dare to speak to him. If you did not get to know him in person, do not worry; introduce yourself, tell him what your name is, Father Henry made friends with everyone regardless of their age. Ask him to help you and to intercede for you.

Elvira Vaqué