By Fr. Michael Surufka OFM<\/strong><\/p>\nYes there is fear.
\nYes there is isolation.
\nYes there is panic buying.
\nYes there is sickness.
\nYes there is even death.<\/p>\n
But,
\nThey say that in Wuhan after so many years of noise
\nYou can hear the birds again.
\nThey say that after just a few weeks of quiet
\nThe sky is no longer thick with fumes
\nBut blue and grey and clear.<\/p>\n
They say that in the streets of Assisi
\nPeople are singing to each other
\nacross the empty squares,
\nkeeping their windows open
\nso that those who are alone
\nmay hear the sounds of family around them.<\/p>\n
They say that a hotel in the West of Ireland
\nIs offering free meals and delivery to the housebound.<\/p>\n
Today a young woman I know
\nis busy spreading fliers with her number
\nthrough the neighbourhood
\nSo that the elders may have someone to call on.<\/p>\n
Today Churches, Synagogues, Mosques and Temples
\nare preparing to welcome
\nand shelter the homeless, the sick, the weary<\/p>\n
All over the world people are slowing down and reflecting
\nAll over the world people are looking at their neighbours in a new way
\nAll over the world people are waking up to a new reality
\nTo how big we really are.
\nTo how little control we really have.
\nTo what really matters.<\/p>\n
To Love.
\nSo we pray and we remember that
\nYes there is fear.
\nBut there does not have to be hate.
\nYes there is isolation.
\nBut there does not have to be loneliness.
\nYes there is panic buying.
\nBut there does not have to be meanness.
\nYes there is sickness.
\nBut there does not have to be disease of the soul
\nYes there is even death.
\nBut there can always be a rebirth of love.<\/p>\n
Wake to the choices you make as to how to live now.
\nToday, breathe.
\nListen, behind the factory noises of your panic
\nThe birds are singing again
\nThe sky is clearing,
\nSpring is coming,
\nAnd we are always encompassed by Love.<\/p>\n
Open the windows of your soul
\nAnd though you may not be able
\nto touch across the empty square,<\/p>\n
Sing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Construction on the Student Union offers today’s students, staff and faculty to send a message to their counterparts in the future through a time capsule to be placed somewhere in the expansion of the facility. Pamela Zarkowski, provost and vice president for Academic Affairs, made a put out a call …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":7376,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/88\/2021\/06\/Resized_R2.jpg?fit=360%2C270&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8Kcng-1UW","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7374"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7374"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7374\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7377,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7374\/revisions\/7377"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Construction](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/88\/2021\/06\/Resized_R4.jpg?resize=640%2C480&ssl=1\")
Construction on the Student Union offers today’s students, staff and faculty to send a message to their counterparts in the future through a time capsule to be placed somewhere in the expansion of the facility.<\/p>\n