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THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY

Thought for the Day #76 – Saturday, June 20, 2020

“A New Essential”

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

We are all familiar with the concept of essential services. If you were asked
what services should be considered essential, you might reply healthcare,
(such as pharmacies and hospitals) and possibly the police for security
purposes. However, often, we do not necessarily consider the spiritual. If we
take another look back at our experience of this pandemic, perhaps one thing
we have learned is the importance of the spiritual.

Let us think of the people who are all going through this pandemic simul-
taneously. In our own personal lives, we may have moments of inquiry into
our lives. Where do we go to find the answers to the meaning of our lives? In
the spiritual, in the search for meaning, the meaning of suffering and danger,
the meaning of the unknown, the meaning of solitude, loneliness and isola-
tion. Spirituality is the path that helps the soul find the strength to carry on
moving forward.

For instance, we know that in every experience of losing a loved one, in the
affliction and grieving, there is a need that manifests the spiritual, because we
cannot go through grieving alone. We need to be accompanied. Who best to
accompany us but God himself. Therefore, we could say that the experience
of mourning opens us to the spiritual meaning, enabling us to rediscover this
need and its essential importance.

Think of all the wedding plans that people had to postpone because of the
pandemic. Marriage marks a milestone, a milestone moment in the lives of
those aspiring to embark on the journey of creating a beautiful love story but
they had to postpone their plans.

All this is understandable, - the need to postpone events, to have to stay
in confinement, to have to adjust, -it is all understandable! At the same time,
it makes obvious how much we need the spiritual, what an essential need it is,
because the human being is also spirit. Body. Heart, but just as much spirit as
well.

Now let us pray to the Lord, that, through this pandemic, we may all redis-
cover how truly essential is our spirit.

Collection of texts by the Most Rev. Christian Lépine 91