Fr. Don's Daily Reflection
Psalm 62: “In you alone is my soul at rest. My help comes from you.”
A week or two ago I quoted a reader as saying she had the "blahs” and I seconded that. That induced in a more recent reader a handwritten letter expressing her ‘mild indignation’. To herself she said, "There he is, in a beautiful place with regular meals, air conditioning, the Internet, Zoom, FaceTime, and he complains?"
Then she gave this list:
My dear friend Chuck turned 90 yesterday but I could not visit him because he is in a rehab facility following a fall.
Our eldest son is the distribution manager for an upscale luggage line; he has had to lay off 48 good workers.
Our youngest son owns three coffee shops. He had to close two of them and lay off all those employees.
Many of our parishioners are Latinos and both husband and wife have been laid off.
Our parish food bank serves 20 to 30 people a day who need groceries.
My friend Joanne was on a ventilator for five weeks and was buried yesterday.
She adds: "All that rushed into my heart when I read your posting. But this morning I reconsidered my original flare up. I know that you are aware of the hardship that the virus has wreaked on the world. You read the news and see the anguish of stressed healthcare workers. ... So, pardon me please, if I dumped on you that COVID-19 has done a lot of worse things than the ‘blahs’. Thanks for listening.”
Certainly, I am aware of all the horrors flowing from COVID-19. We all hear sad news and the media give us big doses of it every day. Because of that, my readers tell me constantly that they appreciate uplifting, hopeful, positive and encouraging reflections. In fact, they depend on them. So, without downplaying the horrors following from the virus, I realize that both for my readers and myself we must try to be of good spirits and keep up hope.
Psalm 27: “I believe I shall see the Lord’s goodness / in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord; be strong; / be stouthearted, and wait for the Lord!”
