Wednesday, May 6, 2020

A Paucity of Guests


Our front door is locked. The sign apologizes for our inability to welcome anyone. At the back door the sign says, “Please leave your delivery here outside the door. If you need a signature…” but they don’t need one. Delivery personnel are under the same strictures.

Staying safe at home are our oblates and friends of the community who may not join us yet for Liturgy of the Hours or the Eucharist we do not have. Each day we note your empty chairs with regret and continue to pray for your health.

We miss, too, the faithful volunteers who work alongside us in infirmary and garden. We long to provide employment for those businesses who were scheduled to repair or improve or install something. They, too, wait for change in “these uncertain times”.

On the entrance road which extends around the school, we see neighbors, walking in family groups and always “on the other side of the road”. Greet and move on. Wave to the Villa seniors inside cars who’ve come out to see their pictures along the road. The caution feels so odd. Here comes a person. Let’s cross the road.

May we never take any of you for granted. May we never lose the gratitude we feel for the place you have in our lives. We hold you in prayer, and when the time comes, we will be so happy to see you again face to face!

        Sr. Christa Kreinbrink, OSB

7 comments:

  1. Your words match my feelings to a T.

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  2. Thank you so much for putting words to feelings held by many, myself included.

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  3. We miss you all also!
    Some day this will be largely behind us, but we are clearly headed for a new normal. But many things will stay the same ... love, community, Benedictine values.
    Hope to see you soon.
    Mike and Mary Jo

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  4. Dear Sister, thank you for these good words. The present situation invites us to think in ways we usually don't. Quarantine, isolation, restriction, under the leash of control -- on all fours I look around me at my family, I'm the only one here who can't speak, and I can't hold a knife or fork but they feed me all right, I sure have feelings but so many of the two legs don't seem to understand it. They can be cold to me. Or in another place I was a high caste or a low caste -- ooh how different the world looked then. I wouldn't hear what was said about me, how they thought I was an angel, or they thought I was a --- it's good to use our imagination. Maybe we can think ourselves into loving one another a little bit more. God bless OSB amen Happy Eastertide.

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