This week the hospital where I work started re-deploying many of its staff to help address changing needs during the current coronavirus outbreak. Instead of ministering to people in my usual physical therapy job, my new task is administering a thermometer, taking the temperature of each person who walks through the employee entrance, from 5 AM until noon. Whether placing me in this role (and so early in the day!) was Divine intent or merely comic relief, I don’t know, but I’m content with what I’m doing. It’s a simple and somewhat mechanical job—scanning people’s foreheads, one by one, while keeping vigilant about sterile technique. But I want to share with you all how it makes me feel and how it wakes me up—makes me more aware of our connection to the Spirit.
I could see my role as a kind of “Checkpoint Charlie,” keeping the infected folks away from the healthy ones. Very important and sad at the same time. There is a fearful power in my thermometer, with the potential for producing both dread and relief. With the authority invested in me by Mercy Health, I stand guard at this passage with the sternness of the old wizard, Gandalf the Grey. To those who would otherwise rush hastily by, I say: “You shall not pass!”
So, while I honor the necessary fierceness of my new ministry, I also find in it an unexpected blessing as well. To be greeting all of these people, my friends and co-workers, God’s children, at the back door of our hospital home, gives me such a spiritual kick. It really does! All I can say is: God bless them! Bless all of them moving past me on this medical conveyor belt, with their hands gripping their coffee cups, their minds so occupied, their hearts so full of the prayers, hopes, and sufferings of the day. Such a wonder and privilege to see them—their beautiful faces—and to reflect back, through my own imperfect face and manner, the love I know God intends for each and every one of them.
This is how I see and pray for each of them. And this is how I pray for myself and for the whole world during this excruciatingly sacred time of coronavirus. Please, take good care of yourselves and of one another. Amen.
Thanks Ray, i enjoyed that!
Miss seeing you Nancy! Take care during this pandemic.
Ray, this is a great message and very inspiring! Keep up the great work and enjoy the spiritual growth and sharing of love and faith!
Thanks Michael! Thanks for reading it. Hope you’re managing well working at home and schooling your kids as well!
You are beautifully positioned to bring laughter and joy into a frightening situation. Well-placed!
Hi Heidi! I imagine we are all well-placed indeed! Waking up to this has been a treat. Thanks for your comment. And thanks for your article about resilience in this unprecedented time. Peace.
I love “excruciatingly sacred.”
Hi Jeff!
Yes, this somewhat abrupt change in our lives is both excruciating to me and sacred. Kairos time is ascending over our notion of Chronos time. Kairos is opportune time, quality time, pointing to the eternal. Chronos is measured, sequential, everyday time. There is opportunity for a change in consciousness here during this world wide pandemic. Moving into a new sense of time, and responding to the grace being offered, was one of my initial thoughts in writing it and almost became the part of the title for the piece. But love is at the center of this intersection. My very insightful editor, Sabrina, suggested the new title to me: Love in the Time of Coronavirus.
It’s nice to hear a human response to how you’re affected by this public health crisis during this time of face to face social disconnection, and when our minds are inundated with public health information and guidance from healthcare and political leaders, journalists, and the ongoing conversation from experts in the media.
Hi Michael!
Yes, I think we all have a particular viewpoint worth sharing about the impact of this crisis on our lives and on our personal and communal concerns. I appreciate, for example, your brief analysis of our everyday situation with the seeming avalanche of information to the point where we seem to loose what you call a human response. Well noted. Thanks!
Ray, I appreciate your sacred and meditative approach to your new duties. I couldn’t think of a better person to truly see and potentially lift up those coming in to work “on the front lines” of this virus. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for being there to share with Kathleen! Not only did you take the time to read, but you reflected back to let me know how it affected you. Our blessings are ricochetting back and forth!
Please take care of yourself and that husband of yours. Peace… Amen.
I wrote a poem related to “Love in the Time of Coronavirus” on the day before Easter.
In This Season of COVID
April 12,Good Friday 2020
Heart cries within and sadness
Mixed with longing and fond hopes
Of recovery singe the soul as I
Begin this day numbered whatever
In this season of COVID
Heart cries within and it feels
Like feeling has the upper hand
In this place of pause between
Suffering and celebration
In this season of COVID
Heart cries and cries
But the tears as yet are dry
Above the mask and you
Cannot read my lips in
This season of COVID
Heart cries, yes, and can
Find no perfect rest in Easter
Spring or hopes confessed
Yet it feels so sorely blessed
In this season of COVID
Also, on a more upbeat note, I wrote about taking temperature checks.
Temp Checks
April 3, 2020
Through the Covid checkpoint
These people pass me and
I smile at all their faces
The light of life is hidden
in each- some knowing
others not yet knowing
And I think to myself:
God!
How good you are to me!
And, finally, this end to a prayer on March 31, 2020
Bless us all in your various splendor-ed ways, and bend all our intentions toward your light, healing and trimming our human weakness as necessary, mine included. I pray in your loving name, friend of mine. “Christie Lux Mundi Salvatore“. Amen.