“Lockdown” by Brother Richard Hendrick
March 13th 2020
Audio: Brother Richard reading his poem on BBC’s Radio London: here
Yes there is fear.
Yes there is isolation.
Yes there is panic buying.
Yes there is sickness.
Yes there is even death.
But,
They say that in Wuhan after so many years of noise
You can hear the birds again.
They say that after just a few weeks of quiet
The sky is no longer thick with fumes
But blue and grey and clear.
They say that in the streets of Assisi
People are singing to each other
across the empty squares,
keeping their windows open
so that those who are alone
may hear the sounds of family around them.
They say that a hotel in the West of Ireland
Is offering free meals and delivery to the housebound.
Today a young woman I know
is busy spreading fliers with her number
through the neighbourhood
So that the elders may have someone to call on.
Today Churches, Synagogues, Mosques and Temples
are preparing to welcome
and shelter the homeless, the sick, the weary
All over the world people are slowing down and reflecting
All over the world people are looking at their neighbours in a new way
All over the world people are waking up to a new reality
To how big we really are.
To how little control we really have.
To what really matters.
To Love.
So we pray and we remember that
Yes there is fear.
But there does not have to be hate.
Yes there is isolation.
But there does not have to be loneliness.
Yes there is panic buying.
But there does not have to be meanness.
Yes there is sickness.
But there does not have to be disease of the soul
Yes there is even death.
But there can always be a rebirth of love.
Wake to the choices you make as to how to live now.
Today, breathe.
Listen, behind the factory noises of your panic
The birds are singing again
The sky is clearing,
Spring is coming,
And we are always encompassed by Love.
Open the windows of your soul
And though you may not be able
to touch across the empty square,
Sing.
Rinascerò, Rinascerai (I’ll be reborn, you’ll be reborn)
Born of the coronavirus emergency, especially for the city of Bergamo seriously affected by Covid-19, all the proceeds from downloads, copyrights and editorial rights (Facchinetti / D’Orazio) will be totally donated to the hospital Papa Giovanni XXIII in Bergamo for the purchase of medical equipment.
The song is the desire for rebirth and hope, a dedication to those who have left us and their families, thanks for all those who work incessantly for the good of others: doctors, nurses and all hospital staff, are the heroes of these days. A prayer for a city that doesn’t give up.
watch video: here
Wisdom of St. Teresa of Avila
- Our goodness derives not from our capacity to think but to love. Book of the Foundations (1610)
- God walks among the pots and pans. Book of the Foundations (1610)
- The important thing is not to think much but to love much. The Interior Castle (1588) Mansion 4, ch. 1, para. 7
- Let nothing trouble you, nothing frighten you. All things are passing; God never changes. Patient endurance attains all things. Whoever possesses God lacks nothing: God alone suffices. ‘St Teresa’s Bookmark’; found in her breviary after her death
- Prayer in my opinion is nothing else than an intimate sharing between friends. Life of the Mother Teresa of Jesus (1611)
- There is no such thing as bad weather. All weather is good because it is God’s. attributed; H. Ward and J. Wild (eds.) The Lion Christian Quotation Collection (1997)
