WE ARE RESILIENT!

Gigi is an Oblate of Our Lady of the Rock and has a home here on Shaw Island.  This is from her Blog which she kindly said I can use as I felt some useful info.  Everyone is so concerned about supplying toilet paper that one wonders what their pantries at home look like?

Gigi is a professor at Western Washington University in Bellingham and the author of the newly published book  FOODWISE.

Western Washington University

Posted by GIGI BERARDI (ALLAWAY) on MARCH 14, 2020     FOODWISE BLOG

WE ARE RESILIENT

This has been a very challenging week, for sure, as institutions around the world, including in our own country, have implemented coronavirus-containment measures–and that includes cancelling a lot of events. As for my own institution, Western Washington University, I’m pleased that it is doing the sensible thing with isolation procedures for the entire community of students, faculty, staff. 

Certainly, the situation is changing daily, and in a month, much less two, things will be very different. What’s been happening recently just highlights this world of uncertainty and risk in which we live. There are ways to reduce risk, though, and build adaptive capacity and resilience. This is especially important around food, and I’ve included a link to an article on a “catastrophe” (subduction zone earthquake? Flooding? Coronavirus?) happening in our own corner of the world—the Pacific Northwest, and what we could due to plan for it: Our Pacific Northwest–food in times of disaster (downloadable for WWU).

Does the global food system have an Achilles’ heel? How regional food systems may support resilience in regional disasters:

        Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences

             Rebekah Paci-Green and  Gigi M. Berardi, W W University

Read it, if you like, that’s all part of being informed (yes, that “I” in WISE). But, if academic stories is not your thing, try this for a light-hearted response to coronavirus: Quarantined Italians sink to coronavirus

I know that information overload is a problem (a very FoodWISE theme), and that’s what we’re living with right now. But, I do think that information is very powerful, and it’s useful, too! I am quite interested, for example, in these articles.

This article looks at the decline of new cases in China: Cases on the decline

This article essentially describes that the epidemic can be brought under control with a stringent enough response, and after a while: Lessons on containment

2ND SUNDAY of LENT- SILENCE IN THE RULE AND FAMILIES

The first word of St. Benedict’s Rule is Listen. But to listen, one must first not speak and be quiet. One must encounter silence. St. Benedict uses two words for that: silentium and tacituritas.

The first is literally closing your mouth, while the second is an interior attitude of docility, humility, and wonder. Both are necessary and both are possible.

This emphasis on silence is so that we can learn to listen to the Lord more acutely. Yes, He speaks through the Scriptures, but also in the depths of our heart. Silence allows us to step back from the noise and clutter in our lives in order to reflect on what is most important in our life. It clears the way for us to hear His voice speaking to our hearts.

St. Benedict says (chapter 42) we are called to strive for silence and in chapter 4, we are called to have a love for silence. So many who come to us today are seeking a more prayerful life for themselves and their families. I have three young women with children who want to be Oblates as they want their family to have a more balanced life. We already have young families relating to our monastery that are trying as much as possible in the chaotic world, to bring focus on the things which will bring us eternal life- prayer and love of Christ - into the lives of their children.

Tomie dePaola- Days of the Blackbird

“I see all these young children around me and they’ve got these huge backpacks on like little old workers—like worker ants—and they don’t have any time to sit and be quiet...  if I had two younger children, we’d take a walk, look at everything in nature, and sit on the bench and be quiet.” (Our friend Tomie dePaola)

FREEDOM FROM FEAR

Dr. Christina Lynch, a supervising psychologist for Denver’s St. John Vianney Theological Seminary, told CNA (Catholic News Agency- a great site for Catholic daily news) that fear of the pandemic is normal.

Ljuba Adanja- Toronto, Canada

“Being frightened about something that we don't understand is normal. I think the first thing we have to do is normalize our emotions and realize it's okay. We all are uncertain. We don't know what the future holds. We fear the unknown. We want to be in control.”

“It's a very normal reaction to be fearful or concerned…[but] you don't want to fan the flame of that fear. So what are the steps that you can take, knowing yourself?”

“Breathing is one of the best self-calming tools we can have. You know, just relaxing and creating a habit twice a day to just take some deep breaths, close our eyes, hold our breath and exhale... You [may] pray a Hail Mary while you're holding your breath and then you calmly exhale.”

We should all know by now that we need to wash our hands, limit our outside activities- here in Shaw most of us are just staying home-, etc.  But there are things as Catholics we can do to assuage some of this feeling of panic, like praying a Hail Mary when we wash our hands, which takes 20 seconds, the amount of time recommend to wash hands.

We can watch Masses and other spiritual devotions on line. I recommend going to YouTube for movies, conferences, retreats- they even have some old wonderful ones by Servant of God Bishop Fulton Sheen. Bishop Barron’s site and EWTN always have snippets of information that will nourish the soul.  Since many are hope now from work, be creative and don’t just idle away your time. Make it rather a time to face the Lord in a new way, maybe not preparing for your own death, but the death of others.

It is a time to PRAY!  And our theme this Lent of SILENCE fits here, as now there is less hustle and bustle.

Dr. Lynch says: “Maybe develop a habit of just spending five to 15 minutes every morning when you first get up. Maybe get up a little bit earlier and just pray, whether it's silent … reading scripture ... or praying a decade of the rosary.”

Dr. Lynch encouraged Catholics to see the spiritual opportunity in the weeks ahead.

“We're so used to being in control. This is a great opportunity to know that God's in control and to just give him more control and pray a prayer of trust to God every day.”

A BISHOP & CORONAVIRUS

 People should be more concerned about the epidemic of fear than the coronavirus outbreak, Bishop Pascal Roland of Belley-Ars has said.

“More than the epidemic of coronavirus, we should fear the epidemic of fear! For my part, I refuse to yield to the collective panic and to subject myself to the principle of precaution that seems to be moving the civil institutions,”  Bishop Roland wrote in a column at his diocesan website.

“So I don't intend to issue any specific instructions for my diocese. Are Christians going to stop gathering together for prayer? Will they give up going see and help their fellow man? Apart from measures of elementary prudence that everyone takes spontaneously to not contaminate others when you're sick, it's not advisable to add on more.”

Bishop Roland pointed out that during the great plagues of the past, Christians joined together in common prayer, ministered to the sick, attended the dying, and buried the dead. They did not turn away from God or their neighbor.

“Doesn't the collective panic we are witnessing today reveal our distorted relationship to the reality of death? Does it not manifest the anxiety-inducing effects of losing God?” he asked.

Bishop Roland said that “we want to hide from ourselves the fact that we're mortal, and having closed off the spiritual dimension of our life, we're losing ground. Because we have more and more sophisticated and efficient techniques available, we claim to master everything and we obscure the fact that we're not the masters of life!”

Coronavirus is an occasion to “remind ourselves of our human fragility,” the French bishop noted, saying that “this global crisis at least has the advantage of reminding ourselves that we live in a common home and that we're all vulnerable and interdependent and that it's more urgent to cooperate than to close our borders!”

The bishop observed that “it seems we've all lost our minds! And in any case we're living in a lie. Why suddenly focus our attention on just the coronavirus?”

He pointed out that in France the ordinary seasonal flu sickens 2-6 million people, and causes about 8,000 deaths.

Continuing, the bishop said that he has no intention of ordering “churches to be closed, Masses to be canceled, eliminating the sign of peace at the Eucharist, or imposing such and such a way of receiving Communion reputed to be more hygienic (that said, everyone can do as they want!) because the church is not a place at risk, but a place of health. It's a place where we welcome the one who is Life, Jesus Christ, and where through him, with him and in him we together learn to be the living. A church has to remain what it is: a place of hope!”

The Bishop of Belley-Ars asked, “Should you shut yourself up at home? Should you raid the neighborhood supermarket to stock up on reserves to prepare for a siege? No! Because a Christian doesn't fear death. He's not unaware that he's mortal, but he knows in whom he has placed his trust.”

“And a Christian doesn't belong to himself, his life is given, because he follows Jesus Christ who teaches 'For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it.'”

“So let's not give in to the epidemic of fear! Let's not be the living dead! As Pope Francis would say: don't let them steal your hope!” Bishop Roland concluded.

PRAYER FOR THE TIMES

Salvador Dali

POPE FRANCIS’ PRAYER TO MARY DURING

            CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC

O Mary,
you always shine on our path
as a sign of salvation and of hope.
We entrust ourselves to you, Health of the Sick,
who at the cross took part in Jesus' pain, keeping your faith firm.
You, Salvation of the Roman People,
know what we need,
and we are sure you will provide
so that, as in Cana of Galilee,
we may return to joy and to feasting
after this time of trial.
Help us, Mother of Divine Love,
to conform to the will of the Father
and to do as we are told by Jesus,
who has taken upon himself our sufferings
and carried our sorrows
to lead us, through the cross,
to the joy of the resurrection. Amen.

Under your protection, we seek refuge, Holy Mother of God.

Do not disdain the entreaties of we who are in trial,

but deliver us from every danger, O glorious and blessed Virgin.

                                    Translation done by Catholic News

SILENCE BEFORE THE EUCHARIST

‘

We need to find God, and He cannot be found in noise and restlessness.  God is the friend of silence.  See how nature - trees, flowers, grass - grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence. We need silence to be able to touch souls.’ (‘Come Be My Light: The Private Writings of the Saint of Calcutta)

St Benedict, in the Holy Rule, which we still keep after 1500 years, used two words for silence: quies and silentium.  Quies is quiet, physical silence, an absence of noise.  It is a physical self-restraint that respects the presence of other people.

The second, silentium, however, is not an absence of noise but an attitude of consciousness turned towards others or to God.   Lent is the time for turning to our Lord and Savior, but we cannot do this if we are bustling around like  ants.

What greater attention can we pay to Jesus at this time, than that which we give in the presence of the Eucharistic. When we place ourselves in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament we place ourselves before the gaze of Christ who loves us and wants us to know that love.

St Jean Marie Vianney, the Cure of Ars, tells of asking an old farmer why he came into the church every day to sit before the tabernacle: “I look at Him” he replied “and He looks at me and we tell each other that we love each other.”  

SILENCE IN LENT

All great spiritual writers will tell you that God speaks to us in stillness. When the prophet Elijah encounters God on Mt. Carmel, he does not find the Lord in an earthquake, fire, or furious wind, but in a gentle breeze. All fine and well, but what does this say to us today?

I have written in past Blogs about the noisy world we live in. Often a cacophony of competing sounds, telemarketers screaming for your money, internet messages you would rather not see… too many distractions vying for our attention. There is constant  stimulation and yet when many get a moment when they could be quiet, they only add to this frenetic life by more things that keep them spinning..

Lent should be a time when we deny ourselves and too many still think it is necessary to go on a diet, give up coffee or chocolate, things they will only go back to when Easter is here.  How much more beneficial it would be for all to practice some of the things that keep them “going on the ferris wheel” like holy reading, a few minutes a week before the Blessed Sacrament – times to  practice silence  with focus on the crucified Christ.

Practicing silence when one is not used to it can be plain hard, as it means not just the practice of being quiet, but also developing the habits of stillness and attentiveness.

Our Benedictine monastic life has at its core  listening, stillness and silence, all of which  make little sense to a culture of noise. From the many who come to us for respite, I know there is need and desire in many people's lives for a more balanced path to holiness. It is not to be found in noise, but in the silence of God.