Last week we invited the many folks who serve on the Compassion Cluster and the Phone Tree to send us their reflections about the experience of intentional phone and email visits with the congregation and with their own families and neighbors. The response was overwhelming. From a few words to a few pages, a wide range of stories arrived in my email.
As we begin this Holy Week journey that opens with shouts of “Hosanna” and concludes with “Alleluia” we offer below some of their thoughts.
Cynthia
From Tricia McDuff
“A wonderful acronym for ‘HOPE’: How Ordinary People Exist.”
“We use Zoom on Sunday afternoons to play Trivia, Charades, etc from our three different locations.”
“When this is over, may we never again take for granted a handshake with a stranger, full shelves at the store, conversations with neighbors, a crowded theater, Friday night out, the taste of communion, a routine checkup, the school rush each morning, coffee with a friend, the stadium roaring, each deep breath, a boring Tuesday, life itself. When this ends, may we find that we have become more like the people we wanted to be, we were called to be, we hoped to be. And, may we stay that way — better for each other because of the worst.” A poem by Laura Kelly Fanucci
From Judith Landers
“So many are grateful to be called and checked on, but many express deep loneliness. Many were already living alone, but finding comfort in the companionship of neighbors or nearby family. Now, being completely isolated and many of them uncomfortable with computer technology, they are deeply sad.”
From Roc and Suzanne Carroll
“Such joy to see friends’ faces even on Zoom! Will never again take for granted the joy of that!”
“Grateful for the chance to replace busy-ness with solitude and stillness and think about God.”
From Judy Carpenter
“So grateful for artists who are using technology to bring music and other beauty to the world.”
From Cynthia
“Some folks who live alone in retirement homes are cut off from neighbors who had offered them solace when a spouse died. Now, they feel like prisoners in their apartments. The enforced isolation opens the door to give way to the physical suffering that many of them feel,”
“Many of our elderly folks are so incredibly grateful to be in resident communities where they feel protected from the virus and able to enjoy a modicum of freedom. Even so, they feel very constrained psychologically since they’ve already relinquished so many freedoms, and now feel pinched being told where and when they can move about.”
From Jill Mompers
“This is what I say on my morning walks around town: ‘O Lord, support us all the day long, until the shadows lengthen and the evening comes, and the busy world is hushed and the fever of life is over, and our work is done. Then in thy mercy grant us a safe lodging, a holy rest, and peace at the last.’”
From Daphne David
“Thankful for a neighborhood and friends who share cookies and flowers and homemade biscuits on the front porches, and a God and Mother Nature who brings Spring joy of color and new life to our lives!!!!!”
From JoAnn Manring
“Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. Grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal light.” A Prayer attributed to St. Francis, BCP, 833