Many thanks to Robin Slater for offering "Robin's Web" as a feature in our Newsletter, as part of our efforts to be a more broadly inclusive Community of Faith.
ROBIN'S WEB
CONNECTING DIVERSITY
This week I’m contributing strands of the communal safety net which is offering expressions of comfort and hope to anyone in need.
First, in a lighter tone from our Catholic friends:
You think you’re bored at home? St. Simeon Stylites lived on top of a column for 37 years.
I’m also rather relieved to learn there actually is a St Corona, who ironically is considered as one of the patron saints of pandemics.
To escape quarantine, symbolically at least, visit these musical sites for uplifting comfort:
- The CPO & ESO Quarantine Project (Elgar’s Nimrod Variation IX from the Enigma Variations - this is a joint effort between musicians of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra) They wish health and care to the people of Alberta, and around the world.
This is Passover, as well as Easter, and the Seder liturgy is being revised to include references to our current plague. A prayer from a 2020 Haggadah:
Standing on the parted shores of history
we still believe what we were taught
before we ever stood at Sinai:
that wherever we are, it is eternally Egypt
that there is a better place, a Promised Land,
that the winding way to the promise passes
through the wilderness
that there is no way to get from here to there
except by joining hands, marching together
A beautiful Buddhist prayer specific to this epidemic and our role in containing it, from the Shambala Centre in Nova Scotia:
We come to understand that this is a struggle against our habits and not against a virus. This is an opportunity to turn an emergency into an opportunity of solidarity and unity.
Let's change the way we see and think.
I will no longer say "I'm afraid of this contagion" or "I don't care about this contagion", but it is I who will sacrifice for you.
I worry about you.
I keep a distance for you.
I wash my hands for you.
I give up that trip for you.
I'm not going to the concert for you.
I'm not going to the mall for you.
For you!
For you who are inside an ICU room.
For you who are old and frail,
but whose life has value as much as mine.
For you who are struggling with cancer and can't fight this too.
Please, let's rise to this challenge!
Come together...nothing else matters.
We can also join with our Indigenous brothers and sisters in healing ceremony, safely from afar by virtual connection:
We are coming to a different understanding of our relationships. Pope Francis has offered morning Mass for the homeless, noting how these days of “sorrow and sadness” are bringing to light problems that are often hidden from view, but who in a moment of crisis stand out. At the same time we are acknowledging, in prayers, bells and kindnesses an updated version of the Beatitudes: "Blessed are those who no one else notices. The laundry guys at the hospital. The night shift emergency workers. Blessed are the invisible forces who are keeping us safe."
