Contemplative Prayer

In times like these, we are reminded that we can take nothing for granted. This past week, in light of the coronavirus pandemic, the subject of many of my conversations has circled around the fact that our world, and lives, have changed in what seems the bat of an eye. While we all long for life to return to normal, we fear that it never can. I remember many moments in my own life where going back, where returning to normal, became impossible. We might call such moments growing pains. May our current situation be this for us. Paradoxically, there are so many ways in which it can be, if we step up to the occasion.

The year that I was conceived, my father found himself in the middle of a volatile conflict. We had been receiving death threats, our family phone was being tapped, and he faced losing his livelihood for no good reason. To add insult to injury, my mother was struggling with severe neurological symptoms with a diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis. Doctors were telling her that she would likely be spending the remainder of her life in a wheelchair. My parents’ hands were full with two infant boys, and when my mother was pregnant with me, I’ve been told that my father was so upset that he didn’t speak to her for a month. Knowing my father, I believe it, though it was likely more out of depression and stress than anger—though I’m sure he felt anger, as well. My mother’s doctors were advising her to have an abortion as the pregnancy posed a risk to her health. Thanks be to God, here I am, born, like all of us, not into Paradise, but into a broken and struggling world.