A Lesson From a Cockroach?
[I only heard of this story recently which was told by CES of Google
One day when sipping a coffee in a restaurant, a man saw a cockroach suddenly fly from outside and enter the restaurant. The cockroach sat over a lady in that restaurant. When the lady saw it, she suddenly became frightened and started screaming aloud. She jumped up and began shouting. Everyone in her group also panicked and moved from that table.
Finally, the lady tried to throw the cockroach out. Now, the cockroach was scared itself and it couldn't find a way to get out of that place. So, it went to another lady in the restaurant and sat over her. The same scene of shouting, screaming, and jumping happened again.
The waitress of the restaurant came from the crowd and tried to remove the cockroach. Now, the cockroach flew again and sat on the waiter. The waiter was patient and more confident. She stood firm without reacting and observed the movements of the cockroach. She suddenly grabbed it and threw it out of the restaurant.
Sipping his coffee, Jeff was wondering who was responsible for what had happened there. Was it the cockroach or the people who reacted so wildly in that situation? If the problem was with cockroach, how did the waitress not panic and remain calm while handling the cockroach situation?
Finally, Jeff concluded that the real issue was the attitude of people to handle the situation. As Victor Frankl, the author and Holocaust survivor, wrote, “B
etween stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lie our growth and our freedom”.
We are in a time for which we are unprepared; an unsettling time. We cannot control this pandemic but we can control our response to it. It can actually be a time of spiritual growth if we allow our faith and not our fears to shape our response. Our God is not absent but journeying with us through this. Trust God to guide you and calm you in these uncertain times.
Updates & Parish News
--This week we sadly said goodbye to Jenny D’Amico, Sister Johnica’s sister as we celebrated her funeral mass on Wednesday. Jenny had volunteered here especially in our Good Shepherd program for more than a decade. We will miss her and we offer Sister Johnica our prayers and sympathy.
--Even amidst all the adjustment we have been making we do not want to miss marking our parish’s anniversary. This year we will celebrate our parishes 47
th
year here in Westlake. Due to the virus we will not have our usual parish picnic but we will have a special drive by celebration on Saturday, August 15
th
. Watch for more details.
--A reminder that we have returned to public masses at our usual times of 5pm Saturday and 9 & 11am on Sunday. We have maintained our usual Confession times as well on Saturday from 3:30 to 4:30pm or by appointment. In case you need anything from the office, remember we are open Monday through Saturday 9am-5pm and on Sundays 8:30am-12:30pm.
--We know many are still not yet ready to return to masses but know you are welcome and we are doing all we can to make our parishioners feel safe. We continue to live stream daily and weekend mass. We look forward to seeing you in person soon.
Father Don
