I was surprised to see that you remembered what my mom told me when one of my brothers passed.sometimes God reaches down and picks the flowers I will never forget her saying that and now He has picked the most beautiful flower, her.
My mom was raised Catholic but later I think she was more Baptist or Pentecostal.
I like this part the best But “offering it up” can speed this salvific action horizontally. Any such offering, even if it is initiated by a feeling of resigned helplessness, has the potential to unleash an expansive love upon the world. It cannot be otherwise. To offer one’s aches and pains, one’s disappointments for the sake of others is always love-in-action, a redemptive act. There is a particularly true and hardy love that springs from an offering made for the intentions of another.
You highlighted the same passage that caught my eye - offering it up can "unleash an expansive love upon the world. It cannot be otherwise."
You wrote so eloquently of your mom - and your brothers! -
and I hope no more "flowers" will be picked until they have bloomed and gone to seed and passed their prime.
Be well!