Tuesday, March 23
“People are singing to each other
across the empty squares,
keeping their windows open
so that those who are alone . . . ”
When I moved to the Colombiere rehab Center in February, all 60+ of us Jesuits were in lockdown, a tough slog of mostly isolation — not only masks and isolated meals off trays in separate rooms, but no access to our world-class fitness center: the very constraints Franciscan poet, Michael Surufka describes in today’s post.
Now, these months later, “lockdown” can suggest what The Spiritual Exercises, in its Second Week describes as a purposeful remembering of some part of one’s past that wants intimate sensual remembering (i.e., when returning to some event or moment. try to use all five senses to get inside that moment, to “get there” (Sp Ex # 121). I am finding sensual remembering transformative these months. Perhaps you will also.
Have a blest week,
john st sj
Today’s Post: “Lockdown”
Yes there is fear.
Yes there is isolation.
Yes there is panic buying.
Yes there is sickness.
Yes there is even death.
But,
They say that in Wuhan after so many years of noise
You can hear the birds again.
They say that after just a few weeks of quiet
The sky is no longer thick with fumes
But blue and grey and clear.
They say that in the streets of Assisi
People are singing to each other
across the empty squares,
keeping their windows open
so that those who are alone
may hear the sounds of family around them.
They say that a hotel in the West of Ireland
Is offering free meals and delivery to the housebound.
Today a young woman I know
is busy spreading fliers with her number
through the neighbourhood
So that the elders may have someone to call on.
Today Churches, Synagogues, Mosques and Temples
are preparing to welcome
and shelter the homeless, the sick, the weary
All over the world people are slowing down and reflecting
All over the world people are looking at their neighbours in a new way
All over the world people are waking up to a new reality
To how big we really are.
To how little control we really have.
To what really matters.
To Love.
So we pray and we remember that
Yes there is fear.
But there does not have to be hate.
Yes there is isolation.
But there does not have to be loneliness.
Yes there is panic buying.
But there does not have to be meanness.
Yes there is sickness.
But there does not have to be disease of the soul
Yes there is even death.
But there can always be a rebirth of love.
Wake to the choices you make as to how to live now.
Today, breathe.
Listen, behind the factory noises of your panic
The birds are singing again
The sky is clearing,
Spring is coming,
And we are always encompassed by Love.
Open the windows of your soul
And though you may not be able
to touch across the empty square,
Sing.
Fr. Michael Surufka OFM