Twilight Twitches

Dear Family,
Today we celebrate meeting the person of Jesus in Word, Sacrament and Each Other. Who could have guessed the meeting would look like it does today? Each Other is taking on an incredible meaning.

Somewhere I recall hearing an old Chinese curse that says, “May you live in interesting times.” I’m not sure about the accuracy of the origin, but you’ve got to admit, these are interesting times.

While everyone else was dealing with COVID-19, I was encountering hypotension. The one great aspect of said encounter is that I can use all the salt I want. There is a God.

Dear Family,
The following is a letter of Chicago’s Archbishop, Cardinal Blaise Cupich. It says what I wanted to say in this Twitch so much better than I would have.

May 31, 2020
The past nights I have watched in great person¬al pain as the pent-up anger of our people caught fire across our country. I saw the city where I was born, the cities where I have lived, the city I pastor now, catch embers from the city where I was educated and burn. Was I horrified at the violence? Yes. But was I surprised? No.

Dear Family,
I’m writing on Tuesday the 26th from the banks of Lake Sebastian. So far, the ducks have not appeared, but any moment I expect to see them swimming across the pond (aka the flooded green field.)

Boy, is there a lot of water. After the rainfall last night, I can understand why folk should always heed rising water warnings. I’ve never had pooling water in my backyard before. I guess this is one way of celebrating the Easter Vigil ceremony with the blessing of the baptismal waters.

Dear Family,
You know I write this bulletin a week ahead, but I’ve just heard that we open next week. Hope does not disappoint! What a way to celebrate Pentecost.

I’m trying to decide what we may have learned from this remarkable one-time (I hope) event in our lives. I can only speak for me.

I’m still working on it, but one thing I’ve realized is that my relationship with the Lord isn’t what I thought (or hoped) it was. As long as there were a hundred things competing for every one of my minutes, I was very engaged and active. But so much of that faded away in the isolation of shutdown, there was almost a void.