Well, isn’t this interesting? Of any scenario I considered as we were preparing to move to Montréal, global pandemic was not on my radar at all! Like you, I watched the news out of China with mild curiosity, but now? Yes, it’s a bit more front and centre, and directly impacts us as we stay home. Accordingly, our new reality thoroughly embraces isolating. We still get out for walks daily, but we smile at pedestrians from a distance. The picture below is from Wednesday. Normally you would NEVER be able to take photos in Vieux Montréal without having anyone else in them! I feel for parents of younger children, as the three of us can all keep ourselves happily occupied (and know how to read). By contrast, I’ve seen many parents at local parks, looking hopeful that the trip will expend some of their kids’ excessive levels of energy. However, physical isolation hasn’t meant social isolation. We’ve had great video or text chats with many people, chats that probably wouldn’t have happened if we were all still on our regular schedules. One couple we’ve connected with are new friends from university. She’s in our French classes and asked Val if we would be willing to help her and her husband with their English. They already speak Chinese, Korean, and Japanese; she speaks French too. What’s one more language? So, we meet every week in English, and share life with each other! Before classes were cancelled throughout the province, we were invited to co-teach a pastoral counselling class at l’Institut Biblique du Québec (IBQ) in Longueuil by the prof, Freddy, who also coordinates our internship at the church on behalf of the FIT4M program. We had about 30 minutes to teach… in French. We put together an outline (less than a page), but needed over 15 pages of script to say exactly what we wanted to say in French. While we aren’t yet fluent by any means, it was satisfying to have these pastors and adult students nod in agreement with something one of us said. They understood us! Another thing we’ve been able to do a lot more of these days is reading. Amongst the things I regularly read are daily reflections by Father Richard Rohr, a Franciscan priest from New Mexico. He had this to say about COVID-19: Right now I’m trying to take in psychologically, spiritually, and personally, what is God trying to say? When I use that phrase, I’m not saying that God causes suffering to teach us good things. But God does use everything, and if God wanted us to experience global solidarity, I can’t think of a better way. We all have access to this suffering, and it bypasses race, gender, religion, and nation. We are in the midst of a highly teachable moment. There’s no doubt that this period will be referred to for the rest of our lifetimes. We have a chance to go deep, and to go broad. Globally, we’re in this together. Depth is being forced on us by great suffering, which as I like to say, always leads to great love. What else can I say? We are living in strange times indeed, but I am praying and hopeful for greater depth and love for all of us as a result. With love from Montréal!
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