My timely prayer is that no memorial like the National Memorial for Peace & Justice of the Equal Justice Initiative need be made ever again. With the racism now being perpetuated against Asians as a result of COVID-19, I will be praying all the more.
When Church doors are closed to laity and the sacraments aren’t available, it can appear as if the Catholic Church has stopped doing what it was meant to do. In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, a Jesuit religious reflects on the Church which is still working and is still very much alive.
The outbreak of COVID-19 has reminded the world, young and old alike, that we will face our own death someday. For many of us, this fear has never been more immediate. But the mystery of our Christian faith tells us that death doesn’t have the final word. How can our faith help us to find hope even amid the fear and anxiety of the current pandemic?
In this moment of our history, the places where people would seek solace, tenderness and mercy, those doors have been closed. All for the safety of the community, indeed, and yet the void of these sacred spaces is quite felt.
This is a time where people should develop an attitude of contemplation. How can we take a “long, loving, look at the real,” during the COVID-19 pandemic?
The gift of a scattered mind is that it reaches to the limits of everything I know and grasps to make sense of it. It’s the only way that a new baby girl, a recollection of old habits, a life in religious community, and a global pandemic can come together and remind me that love is greater than fear. Love is the only thing that brings my mind back to center.
TJP has a new resource to share! We have received lots of feedback over the years from educators and ministers who use our content in the classroom, on retreats, and for faculty formation. Introducing, the TJP Curriculum Guide. This guide includes articles and videos published by TJP, organized by nearly twenty different themes, with hyperlinks to the content. Check out the list of themes and click the link to view and download the new TJP Curriculum Guide.
Both the season of Lent and the current coronavirus crisis are desert experiences. Just as we adapt new practices during Lent, we are experiencing radical changes in our lives with the spread of COVID-19. Last month, we reached out to TJP readers about how they are praying, fasting, and giving alms this year. Many of you responded. Read the responses, along with the graces that readers are receiving. You’ll find that these words echo even stronger amid the uncertainty and anxiety of the current crisis.
One of the great images of Lent is Jesus being driven into the desert where he goes toe-to-toe with Satan. As real as Jesus’ temptations are to pleasure, fame, and power, they are but expressions of a more fundamental and deceptively obvious one: the temptation to forget who and whose you are.
There is something I find at Mass on Ash Wednesday that I don’t find elsewhere. Nowhere besides here do I step in line with old ladies in purple sweaters, fellow students, elderly widows, the nuns, the homeless, the workers on lunch hour, the priests, and the University president to face our shame, imperfections, and our transgressions, together.