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THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY

Thought for the Day #33 – Friday, April 17, 2020

“I Was Sick and You Visited Me”

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

“I was sick and you visited me.” Countless families are saddened these days
because they cannot visit a family member who is ill- either a mother, father,
uncle, aunt or another family member. It’s trying enough to be unable to visit a
sick person, but some circumstances have made it worse, such as those of one
of my colleagues. He was in the habit of visiting his sick mother regularly, and
he has just learned that she is at the end of her life. Every day he waits to learn
of the news of her death, without being allowed to visit her, to nurture her, to
comfort her.

Let’s be sensitive to this kind of pain and sorrow. It could be yours or mine.
We can confide all this to our Lord, whether or not we are directly affected by
this ourselves. Let us have compassion for those who are living with this
sorrow, unable to visit their family member, whether it be their mother or
father, in a hospital, in a residence or elsewhere and sick, sick with COVID but
not allowed any visitors because of the pandemic. Let us remember them in
our prayers.

And let us keep in mind that God visits the sick, He can visit our hearts. Let
us pray to God and ask Him to come into the hearts of sick persons, those who
have contracted the virus and those who are nearing the end of their lives on
earth. Let us pray to God with the knowledge and the confidence that He has
the power to be close to all our hearts.

Collection of texts by the Most Rev. Christian Lépine 44