MONDAY OF THE SIXTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Perhaps this poem will connect with you.  I think of Dennis, our maintenance engineer, and Chip, our cemetery superintendent, and all of you who cut the lawn.

The Mower by Philip Larkin

The mower stalled, twice; kneeling, I found
A hedgehog jammed up against the blades,
Killed. It had been in the long grass.
I had seen it before, and even fed it, once.
Now I had mauled its unobtrusive world
Unmendably. Burial was no help:
Next morning I got up and it did not.
The first day after a death, the new absence
Is always the same; we should be careful
Of each other, we should be kind
While there is still time.

Let us continue to lift up in prayer our sisters and brothers, too many, who have died from the coronavirus, and their families and friends. May Jesus receive into His tender heart the heart-breaking cries of so many people across our land. Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord.

Father Bill +