Pause and reflect

Putting on my PPE, while visiting a care home to anoint one of its residents, I reflected on the heroic vocation that the key workers there have. I was struck by how friendly they were-greeting me with their smiles-amidst such challenging circumstances.

A few days later, the memory of this experience made me think about the opportunities we often pass by to pause and reflect. For those of us able to go out and, as the young people say, ‘retail’, let’s recall the process of queuing, two metres apart, when shopping. Do we ever use this time to pray for our nurses, doctors and carers?

Often, we are preoccupied in wishing the waiting would end. The silence of ‘two trolly’ distancing offers us the space to, consciously, unite ourselves with the worries, hopes and dreams of others -for a few precious moments, not least, in the process, being mindful of those in front and behind us, their families and the supermarket staff we are about to meet.

Fr Peter Conley