DIVINE MERCY IN MY SOUL
It's late. I wake up an hour into the Funeral Mass for Pope Francis in Rome.
I turn on the television. The station that comes on is City News and it has distracting news headlines crawling across the bottom of the screen. With that said, my remote control is not working again. So, because I can't change channels easily, I surrender to the couch and prepare to watch the whole thing on one channel.
Today is also the vigil of the Feast of Divine Mercy. My lectio last night was from St. Faustina's Diary (884): "Oh, how beautiful is the world of the spirit! And so real that, by comparison, the exterior life is just a vain illusion and powerlessness." The camera zooms in on presidents and heads of state, watch my temptation to judge.
Deep breath.
At the beginning of this post I mentioned distracting news headlines. I don't know what moves me to write them down in my journal while watching the funeral? Maybe for me they are a kind of necessary Canadian context given I'm watching a funeral across the pond? I don't know?
Canadian leaders echo messages in final push to election day.
Hudson Bay liquidation begins at final stores.
Court declares mistrial in former world junior hockey sex assault trial.
Big tech carries Wall Street.
Woman who accused Britain's Prince Andrew in Epstein sex trafficking scandal has died (by suicide).
Billy Idol on his first album in over a decade.
Pause.
In the crowd in St. Peter's Square, I see a single white sheet with big blue words painted across it--Grazie Franciscus: I imagine another white sheet with big blue words painted across it saying, "Thank you Virginia Giuffre for your valiant effort to live too." I say this to myself. I say it to all others who struggle with their own situations and various different losses, griefs, gifts, and traumas.
I want to end this post with the chorus of a song I will hear tomorrow.
They need you,
They need me,
They need Christ.
