Hello, companion on the road, nice to share with you again.<\/p>\n
Do you remember where you were when you first heard about the pandemic?<\/p>\n
At that time, when it was barely perceived as something that was happening on the other side of the planet, I was focused on the Confirmation Program\u2019s adolescents. I was also looking for how to navigate personal issues. And as a bonus, the most critical symptoms of the brain tumor I had without knowing were becoming more and more acute.<\/p>\n
In one of the confirmation classes, one of the teenagers, whom I will call Pedro, openly commented about the news of the pandemic spreading at that time in Asia; \u201cthat’s scary.\u201d I could see his worried expression. Other classmates began to comment the same, but not all of them had that expression of deep concern.<\/p>\n
A few weeks later, the way of life changed for all of us. How did you navigate the change?<\/p>\n
Our way of living changed so much and in such a short time. The fear of getting sick, sudden uncertainty, many close and not-so-close sick people dying, financial problems and family violence. How did we make sense of all this? There are questions to which we do not know the answers.<\/p>\n
In your life, have you experienced something equivalent to a personal pandemic? I guess you have. And like in the pandemic, sometimes, there is nowhere to run. But maybe it’s not about running.<\/p>\n
My personal \u201cpandemic,\u201dmeaning, the most critical moment of my life, overlapped with the global pandemic. It was during this season that I had emergency surgery after a brain tumor was discovered.<\/p>\n
When I got back home, my perspective on life began to profoundly change. My priorities were rearranged according to the gratitude for another opportunity in life, and for the love for my daughters. It’s not that I didn’t care about everything else, I just no longer focused on things outside of loving my daughters and taking care of their mom. When I was with them, my heart was filling with love, the same way a rechargeable battery charges with energy when you connect it to its charger.<\/p>\n
So I ask again, what has been your \u201cpersonal pandemic?\u201dDo you remember what helped you cope or get out of that situation?<\/p>\n
This experience of my \u201cpersonal pandemic\u201d opened a window for me to wonder how God copes with seeing us in difficult times, focusing on the love He has for us in the midst of our reality.<\/p>\n
Leaving the hospital, I was as useful as a sack of sand. I reminded my daughters that they could take steps and navigate their situations according to what they could. I encouraged them and loved them. It was all I could do at the moment. We have always been very close, and it was important for me to remind them that they could manage, one moment at a time.<\/p>\n
If the love that I have for my daughters is a small sample of the infinite love that God has for you and for me, we\u2019ve made it. There is no way we could be out of his love\u2019s reach, no matter what our world is like.<\/p>\n
Whatever is the moment of life you are in, I am sure that God encourages you and loves you. However your world is, God seeks you to let you know that you are not alone. God is with you, and people who love you will also be with you, as my daughters were with people who loved them.<\/p>\n
In your world and mine, on our beautiful planet, painful things happen. And it’s not the only thing that happens. Love things happen too.<\/p>\n
What do you see in your world, in your immediate environment? Perhaps what is painful can seem bigger than what is loving, and draws our attention more; but that does not mean that there are no loving experiences. It is in the middle of your world, where God finds you. God is where you are.<\/p>\n
I invite you to close your eyes, and breathe slowly and deeply. With your heart, observe your world. Continue breathing slowly and deeply, over and over again as you observe various areas of your life. It is your world, the one that God continues to love so much, where Jesus the carpenter was sent into your life. That world, that reality of life you are in, is where God finds you.<\/p>\n
Next, if the Spirit leads you, ask God what he sees in your world, and have him share it with you. God loves your world so much that Jesus looks for you there, in your reality.<\/p>\n
Marisol<\/p>\n
P.S. You can listen to Jesus describe the love that God has for the world on the Fourth Sunday of Lent, cycle\/Year B.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hello, companion on the road, nice to share with you again. Do you remember where you were when you first heard about the pandemic? At that time, when it was barely perceived as something that was happening on the other side of the planet, I was focused on the Confirmation Program\u2019s adolescents. I was also […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7705,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-2-2"],"yoast_head":"\n