All the Circumstances and Events of my Life

For many years I in common with lots of other people have been using the prayer card to Saint Josemaría Escrivá. Indeed lots of us were using it when he was simply Monsignor, before being declared Venerable, later Blessed and in 2002, Saint Josemaría. One day recently as I was praying it silently the sentence “Grant that I too may learn to turn all the circumstances and events of my life into occasions of loving you and serving the Church, the Pope and all souls with joy and simplicity…” struck me like they never struck me before. All the circumstances and events!

The sentence is, of course, totally attuned to the spirit of Opus Dei and the message God revealed to its founder, St. Josemaría in 1928. All the circumstances and events of our lives typically meant our work, our family life, our leisure, even the more mundane things such as going to the pub, playing a round of golf and lots more besides. For some people, no doubt their lives did involve extremes – health care workers at the cutting edge of life and death, those living and working in war zones or attending to the needs of refugees and asylum seekers, Gardaí in special units fighting gangland crime, but for people like me who, I have to admit led a fairly sheltered life for three score and ten years up to now the circumstances were by most accounts, ordinary.

But now it seems there is a new “ordinary”. A little virus, in diameter less than a millionth of a metre has caused worldwide havoc, firstly in China and in other Asian countries and then in Italy and other Western countries. In fact nowhere on earth seems to be immune to it, though at the time of writing parts of Africa seem to have been less affected. The scale of its impact on the lives of nations and individuals is frightening – businesses closing, people losing their jobs, airlines grounding their entire fleets, schools closing, examinations at risk. The list goes on.

For all sorts of reasons, the restrictions and admonitions preventing gatherings including attendance at Mass are a huge body blow, particularly during the season of Lent and as we approach Easter. One presumes at the time of writing that attendance at Holy Week and Easter ceremonies will be impossible. One thinks also of the millions who normally gather in Rome and Jerusalem at Easter. Nobody is booking flights to those cities now. Other religions have been hit too – Saudi Arabia has had to do the unthinkable and close off Mecca and Medina.

Parallels are drawn to the Spanish ’Flu pandemic of just over one hundred years ago, but there are vast differences too. Extraordinary advances in medicine, the speed of communications and the rise of the mass media make the world a very different place to what it was in 1918. But therein lie problems. We get so much stuff on our phones – mine is normally good for a full day between charging but lately by 5.00 p.m it’s beginning to show red. I’m probably using it too much, but much of it is incoming traffic. People sending advice, not always correct, others sending stories from the front line, even some funny stuff. But I’m very wary of forwarding most of it – what some find funny might upset others.

When will it end? I can’t see anyone wanting to travel away from home for a holiday until there’s pretty clear proof that the destination is safe. I can’t see us being let attend social gatherings e.g. dinners where we all sit close together for a long time. And as for shaking hands and giving bear hugs, well as a certain advertisement says, they’re definitely gone – for a long time to come!

In all of our needs we look for inspiration. For Catholics and many others the example of Pope Francis is inspirational. As well as complying with the directives completely, the example of him walking in pilgrimage through the deserted streets of Rome to the Basilica of St Mary Major and the Church of St Marcello (in both of which predecessors of his prayed for an end to plagues in the sixth and sixteenth centuries) on 15th March, and the daily tweets (https://twitter.com/Pontifex) wherein he gives encouragement to all are just one example.

The dedication of front line heroes all over the world is also remarkable. In Ireland too we must give credit to the government ministers and the HSE. Outstanding among these has been Dr. Tony Holohan, the Government’s Chief Medical Officer and Paul Reid, CEO of the HSE, neither of whom would have expected to be playing such a visible role in advising (and calming) the nation when they stepped into those roles.

While there is no shortage of information (and disinformation) on Covid-19, it will serve us well to go to sources for spiritual guidance, – guidance to help us stay calm and pray. Simply googling the words “Covid-19 prayer” led me to a wide variety of links, including the very helpful “Prayer Resources for use during the Coronavirus pandemic” page on the site of the Irish Bishops’ Conference, to a whole host of prayers on the Church of England’s website, and a really uplifting report on a gathering (with physical distancing) of Christians, Jews and Muslims in Jerusalem to pray together.   

When will it end – when will we get back to “normal”? Who knows if things will ever be totally normal, as we understood them. Covid-19 has wreaked untold misery in several countries. One thinks of people dying in misery alone and their relatives being unable to give them a proper funeral. Let us ask God to spare the world any more of such scenes. Let us ask Him too to bring an end to the suffering caused by Covid-19.