I knew Mas Canosa as a man of faith . . . Jorge, a devout worshiper of the Holy Virgin of Charity, attended [the Ermita de la Caridad] as a young man every Saturday morning, with his little children . . . After prayers, we used to chat, while he kept an eye on the children, who played in the grass by the shore.

That faith accompanied him always and he frequently gave testimony of it. Without a strong faith in someone who is more powerful than we are, nobody could have achieved what he did for the good of his brothers . . . Without that faith, twinned with faith and generous love, nobody could have arranged for thousands of impoverished refugees to come from many countries to the United States to rejoin their relatives and friends, to have a chance to rebuild their lives.

Without that faith, Jorge could not have reached the important political goals he sought so tenaciously, in his unflagging struggle for the freedom of Cuba. Whenever we talked about those struggles, about those goals, he would add: ''Thank God,'' ''With God's blessing,'' ''With God's help.''

Those words were constantly on his lips and just as his faith accompanied him in his successes, it accompanied him during the harsh trial of his illness.

. . . In his family, he found the greatest blessing from God . . . That's why it's easy to understand Jorge's love for his homeland, because a homeland can only be loved or understood as a great family, as the great home of us all.

. . . Every separation is painful and this one is a bit more so, because it's the pain of an entire people, which is subjected to slavery at home and to the wrenching pain of absence in exile. [It is the pain] of a people who may now be looking up at the sky, feeling defenseless, without a steward, discouraged.

Pepe Hernandez, president of the Cuban American National Foundation, told us that the last words Jorge said to him were: ''Like Saint Paul, I've fought the good fight and have kept the faith. Now it's your turn to carry on.'' What beautiful words, so full of Christian feeling, so full of patriotism! What beautiful injunction, left to us by a brother who has gone to heaven!

. . . Let us carry on the good fight to let Christ reign in the hearts of all Cubans, here and there. There is no other road to freedom. There is no other road to justice. There is no other road to peace. There is no other road to Cuba.

. . . Let the hour of liberation come. Let Christ reign. Let the soul of Jorge Mas Canosa and the souls of all who died rest in peace, through God's mercy. Long live free Cuba! Long live Christ the King!