Backbone in a Time of Corona Crisis

In our separate cloisters, we follow the practices developed by ancient monastics:

The monks greet the morning with song.  We, too, sing to distract our attention from rising case numbers.

The monks eat nutritious food at set mealtimes.  We eat an orange when we remember.

The monks balance work, prayer, study, and sleep.  Our work becomes the reading of ever more epidemiology articles and sending them to others on our social media feeds, a blurry liturgy of prayer.

At the end of the day, we need something to soothe us into sleep.

We turn to the words of Psalm 91, the backbone of Compline.

"You will not fear the terror of night,
nor the arrow that flies by day,
nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,
nor the plague that destroys at midday."

                 Psalm 91:  5-6 (New International Version)