The way they have done it here is that some hospitals are given to virus treatment but out own hospital is virus free now. They sent most of the patients home and so it has a very empty feel.
I had a sudden thought the other night. I imagined being in an ICU with the virus and for the first time actively considered the possibility of dying. It kind of gave me a shock on two counts; firstly that I had had the thought and secondly that I had never considered it before. It must be truly terrible for people without Faith , but even for people with Faith it can be quite trial. I was reading there an account from Dan Burke who very nearly died of the virus: https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/...aithful-catholicescapesdeath-from-coronavirus Dark night of the soul: Faithful Catholic escapes death from coronavirus 'It was the most black spiritual experience I've ever had in my life. I had no sense of God's presence at all,' Burke said. April 17, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — Dan Burke, the former president of EWTN News, sat down with me this week to discuss his recent diagnosis and recovery from the COVID-19 virus. Although we discussed a wide range of issues, including liturgical abuses, what stood out to me from our conversation was the “spiritual darkness” he said he experienced while suffering from the virus in the hospital. “I don't claim to be a mystic or any of that,” he told me, “and what I'm about to say could be audacious — and I don't want it to be — but if it's possible for a human being in any way to understand what Jesus suffered in the garden or what he suffered when he said, ‘my God, my God, why have you forsaken me,’ that darkness for me was a sliver of a sliver of whatever that was for Jesus.”
These things remind me not to be presumptious but to be humble and trusting in God. It's so strange the way these things work. I always take me temprature each day otherwise I would just keep imagining I had the thing. It reminds me that while Faith is a huge help, it is not a get-out-of -jail-free card. These times are a real time of trial for all. Still at the moment I find Devotion to Our Lady is central when all else is taken from us. Our Lady has said this over and over and over again, 'That my Arms (the rosary) will be your Final Recourse when all else is lost to you' So it has turned out.
Makes me wonder -- I said to my wife yesterday that there seems to be a spiritual dimension/aspect to this virus outbreak but she is a nurse so brushed it off -- It is a strange time so maybe I am just having strange thoughts But there appears to be something much deeper that I cannot put my finger on -
Dan Burke and John Henry Weston are great, I love listening to them. I feel God is really giving my father so many chances to come closer to him. My father a life long Catholic, great father and never really put a foot wrong. But was always a bit of a doubting Thomas which also matches his name name Tom. Lately I feel this 6+ weeks of radiation was a kind of purification and now being placed into an acute ward in the hospital no doubt near some covid patients is another trial and one which I pray willl help him forge a deeper relationship with God. I will be heartbroken if I loose my dad now but at least I know he has been really been given much of his purification on this side over the last number of years. When I returned home here a number of years ago after my second attempt to return he really was like the father in the prodical son. I hope he is ok, turns out they are not even letting my sister who is a nurse in the same hospital into see him.
It is hard to know where the mystical eye ends and imagination takes over. But these times remind me of a sunny day when the cloud suddenly passes and dims the sun and we get goosebumps. These are sun dimming goose bump days.. How strange to see such beautiful Spring days and to sense a deadly poison in the air.
That is to view things very much with the eyes of Faith. It is one of the greatest graces of our Faith to see suffering as having real meaning. I know of no other religion that gifts us with this. The Knowledge that the Cross stands at the very centre of everything. It is very,very rare to encounter someone who does not suffer in the death process. Every minute of their pain probably takes years of their Purgatory. My Pastor was talking to me about the Virus as a Chastisement yesterday and was saying how Merciful God was to send a Virus First, that it gave huge time for conversion. Other forms of Chastisement such as Earth Quakes or Nuclear Wars would not have done this. They would have been flash , bang over.
But these days are as though the sun had dimmed and shivers up the spine. No doubt about it. My Pastor was saying that he has heard reports from all over the place of other priests wishing to learn to say the Latin Mass. So interesting. I hope many, many people are converting. You can't tell from the media. But I hope so. How could they not?
I wish we had some thing in place such as the mass or preferably Latin mass for those who come to the faith. I hope Catholics will be as proactive as the evangelicals in handing and processing conversions if those terms are appropriate. I do believe the warning will have a very Catholic feeling or illumination.
I think the Illumination will result in a Second Pentecost . The First Pentecost of course being the Foundation of the Church. So the Second Pentecost being a kind of re foundation it will be that deep and radical. Because of the influx of Jews and Protestants in to the Church and the realignment of the East we truly will have a Paradigm Shift. In fact St Paul seems to indicate that the Jews will be back running the show. Something I am fine with. But who knows what that will look like? All these things happening at the same time? Who can guess?
I suppose the Church will be a little like a jeweller melting down a ring to make a new one. The gold and gems will be the same; the ring will look a whole lot different. A lot, lot, lot different.
I've been interested in the story of Claude Newman and the Miraculous Medal lately, which touches on the same themes. Must always remember to remain close to Our Lady and seek refuge in Her Immaculate Heart. O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to Thee! Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us now, and at the hour of our death!
Matthew 11:12 From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been subjected to violence, and violent people have been raiding it.
