Cardinal Timothy Dolan on keeping faith during the coronavirus outbreak
Pope Francis delivers world blessing in an empty Vatican City; Archbishop of New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan speaks out.
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Do you sometimes wake up feeling anxious, concerned the world is collapsing in on itself, taking with it the wonderful life you’ve loved for so long?
Worry is everywhere these days, from concerns about our physical health to economic survival and countless related issues over the coronavirus and its scourge around the globe.
President Trump has provided some much-needed hope this past week, broaching the possibility that parts of the country could begin lifting some restrictions, perhaps as early as two weeks from now on Easter Sunday.
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His comments were met with scorn from critics and skeptics, many of whom think such a timeline is too soon. It might be. But the president seems to understand that when you’re going through a tough time, looking forward to good things is therapeutic, even critical, if you’re to maintain a hopeful spirit.
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My first thoughts each morning have been prayers – specifically for patients, doctors and nurses, President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence and their teams and the countless heroes working behind the scenes and around the clock.
When I sense my anxiety rising, usually when I realize how helpless I am in this fight against this invisible viral enemy, I’ve found great comfort reciting two well-known prayers.
The first is the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr’s “Serenity Prayer,” a masterpiece composed in 1932. Over the years, versions of it were used by Alcoholics Anonymous and other 12-step recovery programs. Here is the original full prayer:
God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things which should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.
Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time, accepting hardship as a pathway to peace, taking, as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it, trusting that You will make all things right, if I surrender to Your will, So that I may be reasonably happy in this life, and supremely happy with You forever in the next.
Amen.
You could spend a month of Sundays pondering the truths within Niebuhr’s divine petition. Like Lincoln’s address at Gettysburg, its few words say a whole lot.
From realizing that accepting a situation grounds us in reality to the suggestion that courage and bravery are necessary to grow in the midst of the storms and struggles of life, the prayer concludes by reminding us that ultimate happiness comes when we’re willing to accept that God’s plan is always better than ours.
The second prayer dates back to a similar era and the beginning of World War II. James Dillet Freeman was a poet and minister of the Unity Church when he was asked in 1940 to write a “Prayer for Protection” for a Christmas Eve service. He agreed to do it and later adapted it for a pamphlet that was distributed to encourage prayer for Allied soldiers in harm’s way in the European and Pacific theaters of the war.
Here is the prayer:
The light of God surrounds me. The love of God enfolds me. The Power of God protects me. The presence of God watches over me. The mind of God guides me. The life of God flows through me. The laws of God direct me. The power of God abides within me. The joy of God uplifts me. The Strength of God renews me. The beauty of God inspires me. Wherever I am, God is!
Some soldiers and their families recited this prayer every day for years. Col. Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin even took the prayer with him to the moon during Apollo 11’s historic journey in 1969.
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In good and bad times, prayer keeps me in constant contact with Mission Control, lately reminding me that despite all appearances to the contrary, the fate of the current crisis is in good hands.
So, go ahead and pray one of these prayers – or both. You may not change God’s mind, but He will inevitably and eventually change you.
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