Nov 10, 2024

Living in Unconditional Love (192)

 

“Love flows from God to humans without effort:

As a bird glides through the air without moving its wings-

Thus, they go wherever they wish united in body and soul,

Yet separate in form.”

–Mechtild of Magdeburg

 

My wife Eileen died from esophageal cancer in February 2020 one year after being diagnosed, 60 years after we met on Long Island. Then my brother Tom became ill (not COVID), and I spent a total of six weeks being with him in Ohio, but he died in October 2020. My sister-in-law Sue Mahoney died from Covid-19 in January 2021. On top of it all stood the pandemic, locking everyone down almost two years. Covid has proved to be a persistent problem, and many of the long-term effects are quite serious, and it has proven much more serious than flu.

11/10/2024                                                    Sigh! The world will suffer much over the next four years or more, and the long-term damage caused by the threatened withdraw of support for climate control will cause perhaps millions of deaths over the ensuing centuries.

All I feel like I can say at this point is to repeat a prayer from Pope Francis that I saw the day after the election. I saw it in the column by Matthew Fox. It is part of the Pope’s encyclical on saving the sacred Earth, Laudato Si.

 

God of love, show us our place in this world

As channels of Your love

For all the creatures of this earth,

For not one of them is forgotten in Your sight.

Enlighten those who possess power and money

That they may avoid the sin of indifference,
that they may love the common good, advance the weak,

And care for this world in which we live.

The poor and the earth are crying out.

O Lord, seize us with our power and light,

Help us to protect all life,

To prepare for a better future,

For the coming of Your Kingdom

Of justice, peace, love and beauty.

Praise be to You!

Amen.