Search
Coping with COVID through Corde Patris: Salt Lake City Retreat Presentation
-
March 19, 2021The events of the past year have unfolded with breath-taking speed as the COVID19 virus extended its global grip. No respecter of geography, of person, or even of seeming preparedness, the virus has taken literally millions of lives and has driven us into a place akin to the silence and isolation of Holy Saturday: we no longer work as we did, socialize as we did, shop like we did, eat out like we did, go to school like we did … We are trying to find news to cope. We are trying to uncover meaning in what has happened. We are trying to see the face of God. We peer into the darkness, yearning for a glimmer of hope.
With his Apostolic Letter Patris Corde (With a Father’s Heart), Pope Francis declared 2021 to be the Year of Saint Joseph. He writes: “My desire to do so increased during these months of pandemic, when we experienced, amid the crisis, how ‘our lives are woven together and sustained by ordinary people, people often overlooked. People who do not appear in newspaper and magazine headlines, or on the latest television show, yet in these very days are surely shaping the decisive events of our history.’” These are the ones in our own lives as St. Joseph was in the lives of Mary and Jesus.
The presentation explored three aspects developed by the Holy Father from the life of St. Joseph that give us suggestions for coping, hints for meaning, foundations for hope, and evidence of how “The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob [and Leah!] is our stronghold" (Ps. 46:7). St. Joseph is the man of creative courage. St. Joseph is the man who discreetly remains in the shadows, teaching us the value of work. St. Joseph is the man who dreams dreams, showing us how to connect our dreams to that of the Eternal Dreamer.