Here and with you

Yesterday evening a pandemic-heavy conversation somehow arrived at the Poor Clares of Arundel, who had recently released a CD, Light of the World. Their lovely, ethereal singing has soothed and resonated with people across the world, and led to the album topping the UK classical charts last year. And with this has come interest in the sisters' lives, and the source of their clear joy and serenity. I recounted a clip I'd seen last week from their appearance on This Morning: the presenter was in tears as two sisters ended by assuring viewers If you're at home and you're fed up... or feeling depressed... we're here and we're with you, and we're making the journey as well. 

A community of enclosed nuns proclaiming their normally hidden call and mission, to be with others in their pain and struggles, through the intensity of their prayer and the strength of their love and concern...

I had seen this clip in a tweet from This Morning, which I'd retweeted from our Province account, adding these words: Wherever love is, or is needed, wherever pain is, as much as joy... whether or not you see this tweet... God is here, and so are we, and we too are with you. We can't sing as beautifully as these sisters, but we can pray and love. 

And here we were... A community of apostolic-contemplative sisters, proclaiming our own call and mission, to be with others in their pain and struggles; through our presence and our work, as much as through our prayer and our love, and the abundant depths of the Love we are called to make known. 

Whether in a monastery, a street or a place of work or worship; whether online, distanced or in person, at the heart of being for and with God lies being for and with God's people. Every day, even - especially - on bad days, our hearts and our very being say to God: I'm here and I'm with you... And every day, in this frightening, deadly, depressing pandemic, this is what our lives need to proclaim to the world: We're here, and we're with you... and we can pray and love...