March 28, 2020 Reflection
For me, the second week of our PLW suspension due to COVID-19, was a week of powerful prayers and some very intense moments with God that left me mentally and spiritual drained but with an increased faith and trust in God. Throughout this week, I bounced back and forth between being afraid and having strong faith and trust in God. I found comfort and peace from the Pope in his Urbi et Orbi (to Rome and to the world) and came to realize we are afraid, Peter was afraid and that through both the Pope’s message and God’s sacred scriptures that God is saying to us Do Not be Afraid. God wants me to trust and have faith in him.
This week, the Holy Spirt led me to Isaiah 26:20:
Come, my people, enter your chambers, and shut your doors behind you; hide yourselves for a little while until the wrath is past.
Through this sacred scripture, He said to me, Dora, COVID-19 is some serious evil stuff, I want to protect you from it but I need you to do your part – STAY HOME and don’t go out until it’s safe to go out and about again. But know it will pass.
During my meditation, the word “wrath” caught my attention, who’s “wrath”? Many are questioning how God could allow this to happen. Is God angry with us? Is this the end of the world? Surely this isn’t God’s wrath – God is a loving God. The Holy Spirit led me back to what God said to me, “this is some serious EVIL stuff” and that He “wants to protect me from this.” COVID-19 is not God’s wrath but the wrath of the Evil One. I began to think of some of the other bad things in the old testament and how they were presented as being God punishing us and being vengeful – was God doing those things or was it the Evil One? Wasn’t God through each one of these valleys loving us, leading us out of slavery and protecting us from the Evil One?
I read Isaiah 26, in full, to get a better understanding and discovered Chapter 26 is Judah’s Song of Victory. I found additional comfort in the following verses:
3 – 4 Those of steadfast mind you keep in peace- in peace because they trust in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for in the Lord God you have an everlasting rock.
9 – 12 My soul yearns for you in the night, my spirit within me earnestly seeks you. For when your judgements are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness. If favor is shown to the wicked, they do not learn righteousness; in the land of uprightness they deal perversely and do not see the majesty of the Lord. O Lord, your hand is lifted up, but they do not see it. Let them see your zeal for your people and be ashamed. Let the fire for your adversaries consume them. O Lord, you will ordain peace for us, for indeed, all that we have done, you have done for us.
16 O Lord, in distress they sought you, they poured out a prayer when your chastening was on them.
19 Your dead shall live; their corpses shall rise. O dwellers in the dust, awake and sing for joy! For your dew is a radian dew, and the earth will give birth to those long dead.
Through these verses, God told me I will find peace because I trust in Him. He is my rock, my fortress and shield. While I will ultimately die (either because of COVID-19 or some other future reason), I will have eternal life with him in Paradise because I have turned to Him and am steadfast in my faith and trust of Him. Those who do not trust in Him, turn to Him, see His majesty will be ashamed once they see Him and will be consumed by the Evil One and fire. COVID-19 is both a physical health and spiritual battle, a serious one – epic – but it’s just that – a battle – one which in the end He wins. Because God wins, I win too!
Another theme came to light – a sense of longing to see God. During a virtual Lenten retreat, I attended this past weekend, a mediation on God’s love was presented along with an excerpt from St. Anselm’s, a medieval cleric, The Proslogian, (English translation, Discourse on the Existence of God), written in 1077–1078. The Proslogian is a written prayer, or meditation, which serves to reflect on the attributes of God and endeavors to explain how God can have qualities which often seem contradictory. In the course of this meditation, the first known formulations of the ontological argument for the existence of God was set out. Certain content within Chapter 1, Exhortation of the mind to the contemplation of God, conveys our longing for God and the Holy Spirit led me to contemplate seeing God’s face which led me to the PLW Session #1, Encounter Prayer #65 Face to Face.
Day after day, Lord of my life, may I remain before You, face to face.
With clasped hands, I will stay before You, Lord of all the worlds, face to face.
In this world that is yours, in the midst of the exhaustion, of the turmoil, of the conflicts, of the impassioned multitude, I must remain before You, face to face
And when my duty in this world is finished, O King of Kings, alone and in silence, I will remain before You face to face. AMEN
Next I sung Psalm 24: We Long to See Your Face (Songbook #10) and I Believe in the Sun (Songbook #11). What powerful songs these are for the times that we find ourselves in! We sung both of these in Session 3, Pilgrims of Faith which had as its objective: Lord, I believe but increase my faith.
While I had intended to stay with Week 1 this week, God led me back to our Session 5, From Suffering to Peace and the Prayer of Surrender which we practiced together. As I prayed this powerful prayer, I found myself adapting it to address COVID-19 as follows:
- I peacefully accept life’s annoyances and setbacks – especially those caused by COVID-19 – being required to stay home, the PLW suspension, financial difficulties and struggles that I may suffer, being distant from my family, friends, and Church community, and having to sanitized everything
Refrain:
In Love I accept everything
Let your will be done
Into your hands I commend myself
In silence and in peace.
- I peacefully accept my relatives and friends’ lack of understanding – of how serious this COVID-19 situation is that we find ourselves in – especially those who are not practicing social distancing and staying home – I must remember that God Loves them too. (Refrain)
- I peacefully accept the fact that after my death – either because of COVID-19 or some eventual future reason – the timing of which is God’s not mine – all will continue as if nothing has happened. (Refrain)
- I peacefully accept the fact of wanting so much and being capable of so little – I can’t stop COVID-19 by myself – it takes the whole world. (Refrain).
- I peacefully accept the fact that even with great efforts, the results will be minimal – a large number of people will still die – we can’t stop that from happening – (Refrain).
- I peacefully accept the fact of doing what I don’t want to do, and not doing what I would like to do. – At times, I am afraid – not of God nor my death – but of humanity and how it is responding. (Refrain).
- Into Your hands, I place what I should have been and wasn’t, all that I should have done and didn’t. – All the things I don’t do out of fear. (Refrain).
- I peacefully accept the fact that I am insignificant – only a grain of sand. (Refrain).
- I peacefully accept the fact that life goes by so quickly – and may be gone for me and other much sooner than we ever imagined. (Refrain).
- I peacefully accept the fact that I will grow old and I must die – because of COVID-19 or some other reason and I tie my suffering and the suffering of others to Jesus’ cross. (Refrain).
- I peacefully accept the fact that I have failed so many times – and will fail again. (Refrain).
- I peacefully accept the COVID-19 situation that I am living right now and that You know so well. (Refrain).
I have stayed in my home for the past 21 days, only to venture outside of my house twice to take walks in my neighborhood. During one of these walks, the Holy Spirt once again did his magic with a random shuffle of my iTunes and played Casting Crowns’ Praise You In This Storm and I am once again brought back to Pope Francis walking alone in the rain to deliver his message of hope and reminding us not to be afraid because God is at our side. I am always amazed at how the Holy Spirit leads us and God speaks to us when we spend time with him in our intense moments.
After our separate intense moment with God, Jessi, my PLW Guide and Sister-in-Christ, and I spent time in Community Reflection together. During this time, I shared most of the above with her. She shared with me how the Holy Spirit led her to the Encounter Prayer #46 Transfiguration, specifically the following:
But when I am with You, it is as if enthusiasm and energy were born again and came back to life
It is good to be close to you it is good to live with you. But Lord, it is even better to know that You are with me throughout my life.
Using the phrase “You are My Light”, Jessi leveraged the Elevation Prayer method to reflect further on God’s presence in her life now. (Note, we have not yet practiced this prayer method together – a description of the method can be found on page 129 in the 2016/2017 version of the Encounter Prayer Handbook). From here, the Holy Spirit led her to Psalm 46, a song about God’s defense of His City and People where God spoke to her through the following sacred scripture verses:
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam through the mountains tremble with its tumult.
God is in the midst of the city; it shall not be moved; God will help it when the morning dawns.
The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.
He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; he breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the shields with fire.
Be still and know that I am God!
Jessie reflected on how COVID-19 is impacting everything and everyone and how we are seeing earthquakes (in the seas surrounding Puerto Rico and mountains in Utah and other places). People are afraid but why should she fear, God is her refuge and strength and she experienced a great calm come about her. God is her stronghold and protector. She thanked God for allowing her to see His grace through this darkness as she goes on her daily walks through her neighborhood. On these walks she sees neighbors mingling from their front porches (social distancing of course); neighbors whom she has never seen before (she speculates she sees them now because they are teleworking) and she sees parents parenting again (because they are now home with their children and not out and about going from one activity to the next). She thanks God for allowing her the opportunity to see HIs grace.
She and I both ponder, are these sights signs of the positive outcome that will exist once the darkness lifts? How will the world be changed after this? We reflect on the message of the need for people of the world to turn our lives around – turn back to God- time to wake up and get priorities straight. A summary of our reflection is shown as:
| The Love of God, Family Friends and Neighbor Over The Sins of the Flesh, Work, and Material World | = Eternal Life = Priceless |
She then shared with me, what I already knew, our PLW sessions will remain on hold until the world emerges from this darkness. Until then, God is asking PLW guides to continue to spend our slated PLW session time, (Saturdays from 10AM – noon) in an intense moment with God. Immediately following, she and I will continue to participate in community meditation. This past Saturday’s is what is summarized above.
We encourage each of you to continue your daily sacred half-hour and to leverage your PLW Encounter Prayer Handbook, Songbook and Weekly Sessions 1 – 5 practice sheets. During this time, continue to practice the prayer methods and life experiences.
In closing, know we are praying for each of you every day. I am here for you – I am just an email, text, or phone call away – Please reach out if you have any questions, concerns or simply need someone to talk to or if you need any assistance.
May God Continue to Look Over You and Bless You and Your Loved Ones. Be Not Afraid because our God is with us always and will see us through this storm.
May God Continue to Look Over You and Bless You and Your Loved Ones.
Be Not Afraid because our God is with us always and will see
us through this storm.
