Read the daily readings from the USCCB website here!
I received an email today regarding a wedding I was invited to at the end of May. Like so many others, the big day that they dreamed of and have spent a year planning isn't going to go as they imagined. I saw really creative pictures of a wedding that happened earlier this week with the bride and groom front and center and all of their guests spread six feet apart behind them with encouraging signs like "Love is contagious." I've seen Facebook profile picture frames that say "Class of 2020 Strong!" Proms and graduations are cancelled.
Families are separated. Jobs are lost. People are dying alone regardless of whether they're dying of Covid-19 or not.
My fiance and I are waiting things out for a month to see if our wedding in June might be able to move forward as planned, though we know it's unlikely.
It's okay to grieve these things. Have you noticed the process in your own life? Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. Life has changed radically and things won't be the way they were "supposed" to be. We're dealing with a lot of loss. God knows.
"Many are the troubles of the just man,
but out of them all the Lord delivers him."
The Church has talked a lot about the devastating loss of the Eucharist and the sacraments; how our time away from it will just increase our hunger and appreciation for it. Why?
Our hearts are restless until they rest in God. We are made for an intimate relationship with Him. The things that we suffer in this life are a result of the presence of sin in the world, but Jesus came in order to save us from death that results from sin! So often I hear people say that there's just something about going to Mass that makes them feel better. Stop and consider what that is. If you are what you eat, then we become Jesus when we receive His Body and Blood in the Eucharist. We become what we are made to be. We should feel its absence in our lives.
"When the just cry out, the Lord hears them,
and from all their distress he rescues them."
The first step in healing is addressing the wound. What are the things that you're grieving right now? Give yourself permission to be sad about them. If you're like me, I'm just trying to keep moving forward like I don't care about the sacrifices that the Lord is asking me to make, but that's not what He wants at all.
"The Lord is close to the brokenhearted."
Let yourself have a broken heart, so that He might draw near.