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Pentecost Sunday Pentecost Sunday Pentecost Sunday Pentecost Sunday May 31, 2020May 31, 2020May 31, 2020May 31, 2020
PastoralStaffFr. Bill O’Donnell, C.PP.S. (Pastor)
Fr. Jim Smith, C.PP.S. (ParochialVicar)
Br. Nick Renner, C.PP.S.
Deacon Jerry Buschur
Deacon Randy Balster
Deacon Gregg Elking
Of�iceStaff Pat Stachler Karen Heath
Sue Nietfeld Amy Brunswick
Rachel Niekamp Joe Hemmelgarn
ParishLifeCoordinatorsSharon Ranly - St. Aloysius
Kelly Jo Siefring - St. Bernard
Mary Schmitmeyer - St. Francis
Carmen Beyke - St. Henry
Karen Post - St. Wendelin
ClusterAddress
272 East Main Street
Box 350
St. Henry, OH 45883
sthenrycluster.com
Phone 419-678-4118
Fax 419-678-8285
MassSchedule
beginning06/01
St.HenryChurch
Monday-Friday 8:30a.m.*
St.HenryChurch
Saturday 4:30 p.m. *
St.BernardChurch
Saturday 7:30 p.m.
St.BernardChurch
Sunday 7:30 a.m.
St.HenryChurch
Sunday 9 a.m. *
St.BernardChurch
Sunday 9:30 a.m.
St.HenryChurch
Sunday 11 a.m. *
*streamingonline
St. Henry Cluster ParishesSt. Henry Cluster ParishesSt. Henry Cluster ParishesSt. Henry Cluster Parishes Phone ................................................................................... 419-678-4118
Priest Residence ................................................................. 419-925-2075
Fax ......................................................................................... 419-678-8285
Cluster Website...............................................www.sthenrycluster.com
Fr. Bill O’Donnell, C.PP.S. .................. [email protected]
Fr. Jim Smith, C.PP.S. .................................... [email protected]
Br. Nick Renner, C.PP.S. ............................... [email protected]
Deacon Randy Balster [email protected]
Deacon Gregg Elking ...................................... [email protected]
BusinessManager- Sue Nietfeld [email protected]
ClusterSecretary- Pat Stachler ....... [email protected]
BulletinEditor- Amy Brunswick............... [email protected]
DirectorofYouthMinistry .......................................... 419-678-4118
Joe Hemmelgarn..............................joseph.hemmelgarn@focus.org
CoordinatorofChurchMusicMinistry ................... 419-678-4118
Karen Heath.................................sthenryclusterliturgy@gmail.com
ParishLifeCoordinators
St.Aloysius- Sharon Ranly ..................................... 419-678-3227
St.Bernard- Kelly Jo Siefring.................................. 419-852-9884
St.Francis- Mary Schmitmeyer ............................. 419-336-7745
St.Henry-Carmen Beyke........................................... 419-678-0172
St.Wendelin- Karen Post .......................................... 419-375-2380
Religious Education Religious Education Religious Education Religious Education RachelNiekamp419-678-3811/ [email protected]
Facebook:St. Henry Catechetical Center JillGelhaus ............... 937-459-6771 / [email protected]
Precious Blood ResidencePrecious Blood ResidencePrecious Blood ResidencePrecious Blood Residence 1509 Cranberry Road, St. Henry OH 45883
Bulletin DeadlineBulletin DeadlineBulletin DeadlineBulletin Deadline Deadline for bulletin information is Monday of each week at 12:00
noon. Notices should be in writing or emailed to
Address, Phone & Email changesAddress, Phone & Email changesAddress, Phone & Email changesAddress, Phone & Email changes Please contact your Parish Life Coordinator or the Cluster Of9ice at 419-678-4118 if your address, phone numbers or email has
changed so we can keep our records up to date. Thank you.
All publicly scheduled celebrated
Masses and liturgies are temporarily
suspended until May 31.
Public masses will resume Monday, June 1. This is a week later than previously announced due to the dramatic increase in cases of COVID-19 in Mercer County.
BaptismsBaptismsBaptismsBaptisms
Please contact the Saint Henry Custer of9ices if you would like to schedule a baptism. Baptisms are currently scheduled at St. Henry Church and St. Bernard Church on the 2nd and 3rd Sundays of the month, limit of 2 children per baptism.
MarriageMarriageMarriageMarriage
To schedule a date or for more information contact the Cluster Of9ice. The Saint Henry Cluster requires at least 6 months before the date to begin the wedding process. An initial meeting is required before a date will be scheduled at the church for your wedding.
First CommunionFirst CommunionFirst CommunionFirst Communion
First Communion dates and information will be announced once public masses and social gatherings are permitted.
Anointing of the Sick | Hospital NotificationAnointing of the Sick | Hospital NotificationAnointing of the Sick | Hospital NotificationAnointing of the Sick | Hospital Notification
Please contact the cluster of9ice if a member of your family is need of an anointing. At this time, hospitals and nursing homes are signi9icantly limiting visitors to address the spread of COVID-19.
Mass Streaming OnlineMass Streaming OnlineMass Streaming OnlineMass Streaming Online
St. Henry Cluster offers live-streamed masses online now. The streams are available on the cluster website, our pages on Facebook, YouTube, and Streamspot. The links are:
tinyurl.com/StHenryFacebook tinyurl.com/StHenryYoutbe tinyurl.com/StHenryStream
Air Force
MSgt. Danielle Kremer (SH) TSgt. Darren J Siefring (SB) Army
Sgt. Austin McClure (Reserves) (SH) Lt. Col. Charles (Chuck) Whitsett (SH) Marine Corps
LCpl Randy Albers (SH) LCPL David Dennings SSgt. Adam Wolters (SA)
Navy
AN Zachary Miller (SB) National Guard
PV2 Timothy Burrows (Army) (SH)
SrA Austin Clune (Air) (SH) Sergeant Klint Hemmelgarn (SH) Major Matthew Lauber (SA) Sgt. Cory Mescher (SH) Sgt. Christina Moore (SH) PV2 Jake Schlarman (Army) (SH)
Beginnings are frequently scary, and endings are often sad. But it is what is in between that is important. It is in the middle that we live. We experience beginnings and endings with heightened emotions. Beginnings are often a mixture of excitement and fear. What kind of parent will I be? Will I succeed in a new city or a new job? Will I be accepted in a new school? Am I ready for retirement? And today, how will I live through this time of pandemic, when we let go of what we thought was normal and expected and as we wait on what will undoubtedly be a new normal?
Endings are inevitable and often sad: good-byes to classmates and a familiar place and people; goodbyes to coworkers in the of9ice; farewell to a friend who moves away or to a spouse we lose in death. We feel beginnings and endings deeply. In those moments, life has our attention. So does our faith. We know that we need God in beginnings and endings. We need God to be present, and we pray for God’s help.
God regularly supports us with strength and consolation. In those moments, our faith is focused and clear.
But we need God beyond beginnings and endings. We need God in the middle of life. This is why Jesus’ gift of the Spirit is so important in today’s gospel. For the Spirit is the one who guides us through the
middle, in all those moments of low emotion and ordinary living. The Spirit is the one who calls us to live deeply, in all that day to day routine that comprises the majority of our lives.
It is easy to be the best parent we can be on the day of our child’s baptism, or on the day of their wedding. But we need the spirit to be with us when the kids 9ight over the video games or get on each other nerves or act out in an irritating way as they give in to boredom. It is easy to be focused at work on
the day that we receive a promotion or the business is facing a 9inancial crisis as continue to shelter in place. But we need the Spirit of God to help us sense the struggle or sadness of a fellow worker or a troubled family member. We need the spirit of God to help us 9ind some humor on those ordinary Tuesday workdays. It is easy to be thankful for a parent on their birthday or on Mother’s and Father’s Day or their funeral. But we need the Spirit to remind to call one of our parents or a family member who we have not heard from in a while or a friend we have grown distant from after a long silence or a spouse who is going through what I call a “dry spell”. Or simply to go out of our way to say “Thank you”
for the simple gifts we easily take for granted.
We remember the beginnings and the endings, but life happens in between. It is there that we invest our time. That we build our relationships that we become the people we are. So, on the Feast of Pentecost during this most unusual and uncomfortable time, we need to open our hearts, our eyes and our ears to
God’s Spirit, for God’s Spirit is the one who prompts us to live deeply in all those ordinary times. God’s Spirit is the one who calls to live more joyfully, more deeply, more faithfully in all those nondescript days which 9ill us most of our years.
Now I know that some of us because of the pandemic are dealings with beginnings and endings, caught up in the peaks and valleys of living. But most of us are in the middle. Therefore, we are called to open
our hearts to God’s Spirit who helps us remain focused, fresh and faithful. Come, Holy Spirit! Come into the middle of our lives. Come into all the ordinary time which surrounds us. Come, make us joyful, thankful and fully alive.
Fr. Bill O’Donnell, C.PP.S.
(through May 15) Sunday Collection EFT Easter Total St. Aloysius $1287 $50 $1300
St. Bernard $4330 $1151 $3425
St. Francis $3695 $665 $575
St. Henry $28707 $1525 $15925
St. Wendelin $225 $250 $430
EFT (Electronic Fund Transfer) excluding automatic electronic transfer already scheduled
Streaming Mass Attendance (UniqueViews)
Live Total
04/18 4:30 p.m. 212 467
04/25 4:30 p.m. 184 300 04/26 11 a.m. 100 100
05/02 4:30 p.m. 105 305 05/03 11 a.m. 72 72
05/09 4:30 p.m. 170 351 05/10 11 a.m. 81 81
05/16 4:30 p.m. 122 303 05/17 11 a.m. 93 93
Mass IntentionsMass IntentionsMass IntentionsMass Intentions Monday,June1 8:30 a.m. St. Henry .................................................................Al & Bernie Homan Tuesday,June2
8:30 a.m. St. Henry ............................................................................Rita Bettinger Wednesday,June3 8:30 a.m. St. Henry .................................................................... Faithful Departed Thursday,June4 8:30 a.m. St. Henry ....................................................................... L/D Hart Family Friday,March27 8:30 a.m. St. Henry............................................................Sacred Heart of Jesus
Nextweek’sReadings:June7-HolyTrinity
ReadingI: Exodus 34:4-6, 8-9 (Renewal of the tablets)
ReadingII:2 Corinthians 13: 11-13 (Farewell)
Gospel:John 3: 16-18 (Belief in the Son sent by the Father)
James Wehrkamp April 24 St. Henry Carl Spangler May 5 St. Henry Ron Wendel May 11 St .Wendelin
Willard Speck May 16 St. Henry
All masses currently at St. Henry Church are livestreamed online. You can 9ind information on the livestream on the
cluster website: sthenrycluster.com
Worship aids are available for download as well.
You can view the livestream on Facebook, YouTube,
or the player on the cluster website.
May31,2020
St.Henry:
AnnIII:MadisonBuschur, St. Henry, daughter of Trent & Jodi Buschur - AlexanderJutte, St. Joseph, Wapakoneta, son of Richard &
Stacey Jutte (6/6/2020)
Ann II: Jenna Guggenbiller, St. Henry, daughter of Marvin & Barb Guggenbiller - RobertCupp, Holy Trinity, Coldwater, son of Robert
& Pamela Cupp (6/13/2020)
Next weekend, June 7, The St. Henry Cluster welcomes the
following in the sacrament of baptism. Congratulations to them and their families. St.Henry(after11:00a.m.)
HenrySteven, son of Lance & Kayla Wacker
BayleeMarie, daughter of Dominic & Brianna Leugers
Wewanttoexpressourappreciationtoallourfamily,friends,andneighborsforthefood,1lowers,
cards,&donationsduringCarl’spassing.AlsothankstoFr.BillforthebeautifullivestreamedMassandtotheservers&
musicprovidedbyKarenHeath&RoseLefeldandtoBillPrenger.Weareblessedtoliveinthiswonderfulcommunityforalltheseyears.ThankyouandGodBless!
TheCarlSpanglerFamily
Pentecost
First Reading Acts 2:1-11
When the time for Pentecost was ful9illed, they were all in one place together. And suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it 9illed the entire house in which they were. Then there appeared to them tongues as of 9ire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them. And they
were all 9illed with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.
Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven staying in Jerusalem. At this sound, they gathered in a large crowd, but they were confused because each one heard them speaking in his own language. They were astounded, and in amazement they asked, “Are not all these people who are speaking Galileans? Then how does each of us hear them in his native language? We are Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya near Cyrene, as well as travelers from Rome, both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans and Arabs, yet we hear them speaking in our own tongues of the mighty
acts of God.”
ResponsorialPsalm Psalm 104
Lord,sendoutyourSpirit,andrenewthefaceoftheearth.
Bless the Lord, O my soul! O Lord, my God, you are great indeed! How manifold are your works, O Lord! The earth is full of your creatures.
May the glory of the Lord endure forever; may the Lord be glad in his works!
Pleasing to him be my theme; I will be glad in the Lord.
If you take away their breath, they perish and return to their dust. When you send forth your spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the earth.
SecondReading 1 Corinthians 12:3-7, 12-13
Brothers and sisters: No one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.
There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit; there are different forms of service but the same Lord; there are different workings but the same God who produces all of them in everyone. To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some bene9it.
As a body is one though it has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body, so also Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons, and we were all given to drink of one Spirit.
Gospel John 20:19-23
On the evening of that 9irst day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for
fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”
For daily readings, please visit: usccb.org/bible/readings/index.cfm
Sunday’sReadings
‘We’vealwaysdoneitthatway’ sometimes works to describe what we’re doing in a faith community. However, the past few months have given a nice slap-in-the-face to that phrase. Even now with this weekend’s liturgies resuming with congregations, we have not been here before, at least, not since 1918-1919. In order to resume public liturgies safely and effectively at this time when COVID-19 is still a substantial public health concern, in line with the directives from the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, the following steps are being taken at all Sunday masses in the St. Henry Cluster:
1. Archbishop Schnurr has dispensed everyone in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati from Sunday obligation. Parishioners over the age of 65 and those with pre-existing conditions are encouraged to prayerfully consider joining the cluster in prayer from home with the streaming mass. All masses from St. Henry Church will be streamed online. Also, those who wish to participate in the Sunday mass may attend any mass during the week and receive communion.
2.All parishioners attending mass in the St. Henry Cluster are asked to wear a mask. All
liturgical ministers at mass (servers, ushers, Eucharistic Ministers, etc.) will wear masks. 3.Doors to the church will be propped open for parishioners arriving. When sections in
the church become full, the door to the section will be closed. Parishioners are asked to enter only through the doors propped open. After entering the church, ushers will seat your family or you individually. Parishioners will be seated in every-other pew to ensure distancing. Separate households in the same pew will be seated at least 6 feet apart.
4.There will be baskets at the doors for collection envelopes or offerings. There will be no
passing of the basket. There will be no offertory. 5.Communion will be distributed to parishioners in the pews. Eucharistic Ministers will go
through the open pews to bring communion. 6.Ushers will dismiss individuals from their pews at the end of mass. Please wait for
instructions from the ushers before leaving. 7.The churches will be cleaned after every mass. Volunteers will be needed to help wipe
down pews, cleaning bathrooms and other common spaces. Please contact your Parish Life Coordinator or Fr. Jim if you are willing to help. Parishioners will also be asked to help after Sunday masses and daily masses to help with cleaning the pews.
At all public liturgies in the St. Henry Cluster, safe physical distancing will be followed (6 feet apart except for those from the same household). This is in effect for daily masses, baptisms, weddings, funerals, and all activities in the St. Henry Cluster beginning June 1, following public health guidelines and recommendations from the state, local of9icials, and the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.
ResumptionofPublicLiturgies
Following the recent coal mine disaster in West Virginia, many news stories focused on the dangers of mining and the risks miners face, like being trapped below ground without air or exposing themselves to the possibility of an agonizing death from black lung dis-
ease. Those who suffer from breathing dif9iculties recount how terrifying it is not to be able to
catch their breath. And as our consciousness rises about air pollution, we become ever more
concerned about the quality of our air, knowing that we cannot live without being able to
breathe clean air.
Breath is the very symbol of life and has been since ancient times. Indeed, the 9irst creation ac-
count in Genesis depicts the life force of the Creator as ruah, meaning “breath” or “wind,” which swept over the face of the primordial waters. And in the second account of creation, the 9irst hu-
man creature becomes a living being only when the Creator breathes the breath of life into its
nostrils (Gen 2:7). At Pentecost, it is this same divine life force that recreates a frightened group
of disciples into bold proclaimers of the gospel.
The symbols of divine presence described in Acts 2 are familiar from the Old Testament: thun-
dering noise, as God’s manifestation at Sinai; a whirlwind, like that from which God spoke to Job
(Job 38:1); and 9lames of 9ire, such as Moses saw at Mount Horeb (Exod 3:2). As in previous
times of critical need, God’s presence is visible and audible, profoundly transforming those who
experience it. The disciples, like anyone who has experienced the death of a loved one, would
have felt that something of their own spirit and zest for life had also been snuffed out with Je-
sus’ death. Huddled together, trying to comfort one another, they were unable to muster any
energy for carrying on his mission. Grief and fear had de9lated any impetus to continue the
movement into which he had drawn them.
In both gospel choices for today, we have a glimpse of some concrete ways in which the Spirit
brings them and us back to life so as to go forth again in mission. In John 14, Jesus is telling his
disciples before his passion that he will not leave them alone. He promises to send the Paraclete
to be always with them. Only the Fourth Evangelist uses this term for the Spirit. It comes from
the legal world, and connotes one who stands alongside another, as advocate, or as comforter.
Not only does the Paraclete teach the disciples and remind them of everything Jesus told them,
but this consoling one is as near as one’s own breath. When Jesus speaks to those whom he
loves of their oneness with him and with the One who sent him, he speaks of mutual indwelling.
In John 20, the risen Christ breathes on the disciples and infuses them with the Spirit. He un-
leashes in them the power of the Spirit, who alone can bring peace and joy in the wake of terri-
fying woundedness. He directs them to open themselves to the gift of the Spirit that allows
them to receive and give.
Perhaps it is breath that best signals this intimacy. God, in the person of Jesus and the power of
the Spirit, is as close to each and every believer as is our very breath, taken deeply into our
lungs thousands of times every day, a constant vivifying force. Just as breath must be exhaled,
and cannot be kept within, so too does the Spirit’s power direct us outward to mission, exuding
the love, peace, and forgiveness we have inhaled from the Living One.
by Sr. Barbara Reid, OP
The re9lection originally appeared in AbidingWord:SundayRe1lectionsforYearC (2012: Liturgical Press).
GodasClosetoUsasOurVeryBreath
Love, which might be called the attraction of all things toward all things, is a universal language and underlying energy that keeps showing itself despite our best efforts to
resist it. It is so simple that it is hard to teach in words, yet we all know it when we see it. After all, there is not a Native, Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, Islamic, or Christian way of loving. There is not a Methodist, Lutheran, or Orthodox way of running a soup kitchen. There is not a gay or straight way of being faithful, nor a Black or Caucasian way of hoping. We all know positive 9low when we see it, and we all know resistance and coldness when we feel it. All the rest are mere labels.
When we are truly “in love,” we move out of our small, individual selves to unite with another, whether in companionship, simple friendship, marriage, or any other trustful relationship. Have you ever deliberately befriended a person standing alone at a party? Perhaps someone who was in no way attractive to you, or with whom you shared no common interests? That would be a small but real example of divine love 9lowing. Don’t dismiss it as insigni9icant. That is how the 9low starts, even if the encounter doesn’t change anyone’s life on the spot. To move beyond our small-minded uniformity, we have to extend ourselves outward, which our egos always 9ind a threat, because it means giving up our separation, superiority, and control.
Men seem to have an especially dif9icult time at this. I have had the pleasure of presiding at many weddings over the years. Three different times, as I prepared the couple to exchange their vows, the groom actually fainted and fell to the ground. But I have never seen the bride faint. To the well-protected and boundaried male ego, there are few greater threats than the words “till death do us part.” (I am sure women have their blockages too.) That may be why so many cultures created initiation rites to teach men how to trust, let go, and surrender.
Love is a paradox. It often involves making a clear decision, but at its heart, it is not a matter of mind or willpower but a 9low of energy willingly allowed and exchanged, without requiring payment in return. Divine love is, of course, the template and model for such human love, and yet human love is the necessary school for any encounter with divine love. If you’ve never experienced human love—to the point of sacri9ice and forgiveness and generosity—it will be very hard for you to access, imagine, or even experience God’s kind of love. Conversely, if you have never let God love you in the deep and subtle ways that God does, you will not know how to love another human in the deepest ways of which you are capable.
Love is constantly creating future possibilities for the good of all concerned—even, and especially, when things go wrong. Love allows and accommodates everything in human experience, both the good and the bad, and nothing else can really do this. Nothing. Love 9lows unstoppably downward, around every obstacle—like water. Love and water seek not the higher place but always the lower. That’s why forgiveness is often the most powerful display of love in action. When we forgive, we acknowledge that there is, in fact, something to forgive—a mistake, an offense, an error—but instead of reverting to survival mode, we release the offending party from any need for punishment or recrimination. In so doing, we bear witness to the Ever Risen and Always Loving Christ, who is always “going ahead of you into Galilee, and that is where you will see him” (Matthew 28:7). Un-forgiveness lives in a repetitive past, which it cannot let go of. But forgiveness is a largeness of soul, without which there is no future or creative action—only the repetition of old story lines, remembered hurts, and ever-increasing claims of victimhood for all concerned.
An eagerness and readiness to love is the ultimate freedom and future. When you’ve been included in the spaciousness of divine love, there is just no room for human punishment, vengeance, rash judgment, or calls for retribution. We certainly see none of this small-mindedness in the Risen Christ after his own rejection, betrayal, and cruel death; we don’t see it even from his inner circle, or in the whole New Testament. I really cannot imagine a larger and more spacious way to live. Jesus’s death and resurrection event was a game changer for history, and it is no surprise that we date our calendar from his lifetime.
by Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM The article below is taken from TheUniversalChrist(2019).
WhatLoveTellsUsAboutGod
LoveintheTimeofCOVID19
In 1985, Nobel Prize winning author, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, published a novel entitled, LoveintheTimeofCholera. It tells a colorful story of how life can still be generative, despite an epidemic.
Well what’s besetting our world right now is not cholera but the coronavirus, Covid19. Nothing in my lifetime has ever affected the whole world as radically as this virus. Whole countries have shut down, virtually all schools and colleges have sent their students home and are offering classes online, we’re discouraged from going out of our houses and from inviting others into them, and we’ve been asked not to touch each other and to practice “social distancing”. Ordinary, normal, time has stopped. We’re in a season that no generation, perhaps since the 9lu of 1918, has had to undergo. Furthermore, we don’t foresee an end soon to this situation. No one, neither our government leaders nor our doctors, have an exit strategy. No one knows when this will end or how. Hence, like the inhabitants on Noah’sArc, we’re locked in and don’t know when the 9lood waters will recede and let us return to our normal lives.
How should we live in this extraordinary time? Well, I had a private tutorial on this some nine years ago. In the summer of 2011, I was diagnosed with colon cancer, underwent surgery for a resection, and then was subjected to twenty-four weeks of chemotherapy. Facing the uncertainty of what the chemotherapy would be doing to my body I was understandably scared. Moreover, twenty-four weeks is basically half a year and contemplating the length of time that I would be undergoing this “abnormal” season in my life, I was also impatient. I wanted this over with, quickly. So I faced it like I face most setbacks in my life, stoically, with the attitude: “I’llgetthroughthis!I’llendureit!”
I keep what might euphemistically be termed a journal, though it’s really more a Daybookthat simply chronicles what I do each day and who and what enters my life on a given day. Well, when I stoically began my 9irst chemotherapy session I began checking off days in my journal: Dayone,followed the next day by: Daytwo.I had done the math and knew that it would take 168 days to get through the twelve chemo sessions, spaced two weeks apart. It went on like this for the 9irst seventy days or so, with me checking off a number each day, holding my life and my breath, everything on hold until I could 9inally write, Day168.
Then one day, about half way through the twenty-four weeks, I had an awakening. I don’t know what speci9ically triggered it, a grace from above, a gesture of friendship from someone, the feel of the sun on my body, the wonderful feel of a cold drink, perhaps all of these things, but I woke up, I woke up to the fact that I was putting my life on hold, that I wasn’t really living but only enduring each day in order check it off and eventually reach that magical 168th day when I could start living again. I realized that I was wasting a season of my life. Moreover, I realized that what I was living through was sometimes rich precisely because of the impact of chemotherapy in my life. That realization remains one of the special graces in my life. My spirits lifted radically even as the chemotherapy continued to do the same brutal things to my body.
I began to welcome each day for its freshness, its richness, for what it brought into my life. I look back on that now and see those three last months (before day 168) as one of richest seasons of my life. I made some lifelong friends, I learned some lessons in patience that I still try to cling to, and, not least, I learned some long-overdue lessons in gratitude and appreciation, in not taking life, health, friendship, and work for granted. It was a special joy to return to a normal life after those 168 days of conscripted “sabbatical”; but those “sabbatical” days were special too, albeit in a very different way.
The coronavirus has put us all, in effect, on a conscripted sabbatical and it’s subjecting those who have contracted it to their own type of chemotherapy. And the danger is that we will put our lives on hold as we go through this extraordinary time and will just endure rather than let ourselves be graced by what lies within this uninvited season.
Yes, there will be frustration and pain in living this through, but that’s not incompatible with happiness. Paul Tournier, after he’d lost his wife, did some deep grieving but then integrated that grief into a new life in a way that allowed him to write: “I can truly say that I have a great grief and that I am a happy man.” Words to ponder as we struggle with this coronavirus.
byFr.RonRolheiser,OMI.
Thisarticleoriginallyappearedonronrolheiser.comonMarch23,2020
TheGift-byMaryOliver
So, be slow if you must, but let
the heart still play its true part.
Love still as once you loved, deeply
and without patience. Let God and the world
know you are grateful.
That the gift has been given.
Be still, my soul, and steadfast.
Earth and heaven both are still watching
though time is draining from the clock
and your walk, that was confident and quick,
has become slow.
