FROM DEACON STEPHEN SCOTT

A Spiritual Reflection – A call to Personal Prayer
It is in our nature that we to turn to prayer in times of crisis. Unfortunately, for us religious places are temporarily closed and the liturgy somewhat curtailed. People may feel hopeless. Getting through these testing times will require a lot of ‘spiritual innovation and collaboration’. Amid this situation, people are encouraged to make the home their primary source of Prayer “make your home in me as I make mine in you” and drawing on the available liturgical and Prayer resources. 

However, a call to pray from home transfers greater responsibility to Church communities. Praying from home will bring in a faithful realisation that all can have access to God through Christ Jesus. These unprecedented times are a time for understanding and a real opportunity for families to galvanise their prayer life together as the body of Christ. In a spiritual sense, the call to pray from home equally assures us of God’s presence in line with what Jesus said in the gospel of: Matthew 18-20 - ‘For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them’. Such a responsibility needs to be handled with faith. COVID-19 pushes us hard to rekindle our faith to see God’s intervention in overpowering the disastrous effect of coronavirus.

The present situation reminds us that we deep down are frail spiritual beings, whether we realize it or not, it makes us recognize that the problem of coronavirus is right here at the face of our global community; it’s a challenge that requires global cooperation and unity, a component of compassion to alleviate suffering, and a greater responsibility to exercise our faith in a different way. Though the COVID-19 crisis has brought the world to a halt and sadly, the impact on health, wellbeing and economically will be felt for sometime. I feel that from a spiritual angle, gradually the pros will outweigh the cons making us more of a global community with spiritual connectivity.

In a way, COVID-19 is also a challenge for our souls, a “spiritual challenge for the 21^st century”. 

Let us remember and give thanks in our Prayers all those who are currently in the frontline of caring for the sick in hospital and in the community and seriously ill and that those who have gone to their eternal reward May Rest In Peace.