SHELTERING IN PLACE—An October Reflection By Nancy Massaro

Sheltering in place was a term I had never heard of in my life. It did however become my way of life as the Covid 19 virus came into all of our lives.

While sheltering in place (which is what I did for 4 months and still continue to on a limited basis), I had time to entertain many thoughts.  Thoughts of how my life was before the pandemic.  How my life was when I was a wife and mother of 5 children who needed me.

The children are all adults, most with families of their own living near and far.

I am now living alone in the home I shared with my late loving husband and those 5 children.

I had some choices. I could sit around and feel sorry for myself, or I could use all of the technology I had at my fingertips. I spoke to family and friends—many with whom I had not spoken for months.  I emailed and texted daily—I sent out prayer requests etc. I spent a great deal of time in prayer.  Jesus was my constant companion.  I had my faith.  I found that faith is difficult to live solo in isolation; faith becomes  real to me when I share my faith experiences with likeminded believers.  Hard for me to do alone.

I was missing our monthly Ultreyas seeing all those beautiful Cursillistas who have become family to me.  I was missing our monthly Evening of Prayer. I was missing everyone I had gotten to know through the blessing of Cursillo.

And then through the magic (at least I think it’s magic) of Technology, ZOOM came into my life.

By virtue of technology, namely Zoom, our Cursillo faith community was able to connect and be together at the monthly Ultreyas. Prayer groups met. We met weekly with Opening the Word, an evening for scripture study with Lisa Brogan. Joe Amato facilitated St. Paul’s Spiritual Enhancement, a monthly evening of faith sharing by Cursillistas who have been living their 4th Day.

Those evenings for me were faith filled.  I was able to spend time in the company of the people of the Cursillo Community who were  present to me in the quiet of my home.

It was important to me to share my faith and my situation with others. I know that the feeling of barrenness can very often cause depression and sadness.  I was aware of that constantly and made sure that I didn’t give into feeling sorry for me.

I looked forward to seeing the faces  and hearing the voices of my fellow Cursillistas at those faith sharing evenings.  I felt included, emboldened, and necessary.

One of the gifts of Zoom is that we had Cursillistas from all over the country, people whom I haven’t seen for years.  It was a Virtual Party and Jesus was the Guest of Honor.

Tom Leavens was the technology genius who was able to keep this community together connected as were Lisa Brogan, Anne Marie Dodd, Angie Vasquez and Darlene McGovern.

I know that there are contemplative religious orders who pray in silence around the clock.  That is a gift I don’t possess.

For me, Faith is never to be lived on a mountain top.  When faith is experienced in a Community such as ours, it comes alive for me.