Fr. Don's Daily Reflection
Former student, now Judge Nick, catches me after Morning Prayer and shaking my hand vigorously says, “Inspiring messages every day; we need them. Keep it up!” Or I hear: “Thank you for the morning email with down-to-earth, kind, cheerful, challenging thoughts.” Couple all that with the following. A colleague says to me, “I haven't seen you much the last couple days.” I tell him how listless I have felt. He, always a model of graceful imperturbability and youthful energy, names it, “You were in a funk.” The next day a young lady on the staff suggests: “Why not admit that to your readers and encourage them by telling your story.”
Nevertheless, I figure my down mood as at least partially brought on by the news: hurricanes, flooding, earthquakes, the adolescent taunting of world leaders, senseless shootings in a synagogue or a store, deadly fires, the miserliness of the nations toward fellow human beings trying to escape war, poverty and oppression. It probably doesn’t help that I am reading a book on the readiness of fellow human beings to prey on fellow humans when most vulnerable, fleeing poverty and oppression. There is much to be upset about.
An hour-and-one-half walk as I repeat calming and prayerful mantras helps me shake the gloom. But being able to do this is another luxury not given to all of you. For instance, how would a mother of, say, a three and a five and an eight-year-old, how would she get away from her funk? How do I encourage and lift up others when I myself seem flattened by the sadness and evil in our world? Calling on all my reasons for gratitude is probably my best weapon against the funk. In many ways the most palpable result of Christ’s teaching is hope, a belief that God, Christ and good will prevail. Further, hope gives us courage and energizes us. – This too may help, a prayer from the Anglican (England) clergy’s prayer book:
Jesus, our companion,
When we are driven to despair,
Help us, through the friends and strangers
We encounter on our path,
To know you as our refuge,
Our way, our truth and our life.
