"It's a Beautiful Life"- Genevieve Galvan Frenes

Today, I think people are praying.

Even for people who don’t normally pray, they might be curious to see what it will do. Or maybe, they won’t call it prayer, but good thoughts or good vibes.

Today is the first Sunday after our state declared emergency for a virus that is taking so many lives in other countries.

For Catholics, today is the Third week of Lent, and although today is a special day of prayer in our world, Sunday is the Lord’s Day and has always been a day of worship and rest in our family.

Since many dioceses have announced masses will no longer take place for several weeks, we decided to watch our mass online at the Cathedral of Saint Joseph in Sioux Falls. We watch on our big screen and enter the walls of a beautiful cathedral with enormous pillars outlining the perimeters of the pews. We see scarce patches of parishioners on the screen since they have decided to be brave by going into the church.

In our diocese, today is the last day masses will be held for awhile, and being the germaphobic that am, I tell my husband we should watch from home. He agrees.

For weeks before this announcement of schools closing and masses ending, we attended mass every Sunday like always. And being the teacher that I am, I cringed at the number of people or children attending mass who appeared sick. This feeling comes from working at a high school where many students tend to go to school while they are knowingly ill, just to avoid missing school or work.

As illnesses increased over the semester, I’d wipe down my desks with disinfectant wipes and remind kids to stay home when they became sick. It seems many still came to school ill. Now, only in the last few weeks did I notice an increase in students absent when they were sick. I’d get emails asking for work or extensions and I always stressed to get well before returning.

So the fear of illness has been with me even before this virus emerged. And despite what they say about teachers’ immunities, believe it or not, some teachers still catch whatever students bring into the classroom. I tend to be one of those teachers although precautions to avoid illness have helped. So this brings me back to the concept of faith.

As I contemplate our churches and the concept of God, I realize that there are many other religions besides our own praying or worshipping today. I believe many are certain that we will get through this terrible period of our lives where the future is still unknown. And yet, there is still an inkling of fear, because we tend to want to know everything and how life will play out before it happens.

With conflicting reports of cases near us, we pray that it doesn’t get too close to us. And with so called leading experts telling us people recover from the virus while others say not to downplay this virus and it’s effects, it’s difficult to know what to believe.

So as I sat in my living room with my husband and participated in most of mass (we couldn’t receive the Eucharist), I was grateful that I have a spiritual part of myself that is the center of my life. It reminds me that the core of my being is rooted in the idea that I’m part of a bigger community.

I have faith that all of us will do our best to stay healthy and help those around us to be safe and cautious. And if the time comes that we become ill, we’ll pray for strength to get through and hope that we have made peace with those relationships which haven’t been the best.

So whether you are one to pray or choose to think good thoughts for others, let’s face it… we’ll all have time to do both.

Stay blessed with those you love.