that I tracked daily in what I came to call my ‘ plague journal ’. Loneliness and claustrophobia were daily companions , as is obvious from this entry in my journal from late March : ‘ I had a pigeon sitting on my ledge for a few minutes today . I was sad when it flew away .’
There was , however , a ‘ wonderful ’ category in my pandemic experience . At the top of the list was my new lockdown family . Archbishop Ian , Kamla , and I were essentially a ‘ household ’, and though we limited our interactions , we still had occasional meals together . These were wonderful times of friendship and fellowship . Worship went ahead as well , although with only three in the congregation , our singing was sometimes more brave than beautiful . Still , we discovered new hymns and discussed familiar Scriptures all through Lent and well into the
Carol Bechtel at Ca ’ d ’ la Pais , Val d ’ Angrogna
Easter season . To be able to share in the Eucharist and to pray together meant absolutely everything during those dark days . To paraphrase the words of an old hymn , ‘ we shared our mutual woes , our mutual burdens bore , and often for each other flowed the sympathizing tear ’ (‘ Blest Be the Tie That Binds ’ by John Fawcett , v . 3 ).
It ’ s safe to say this is not the sabbatical I expected . But in view of the human and economic devastation world-wide , it seemed selfish to waste too many tears on that . To paraphrase Humphrey Bogart in the final scene of the movie Casablanca : ‘ I ’ m no good at being noble , but it doesn ’ t take much to see that the problems of one little person don ’ t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world .’
Key to this realization was learning to ask , ‘ What does God want me to learn and do during this experience ?’. So , rather than rail against my own dashed expectations , I tried to lean into some new learnings . One of these was a Bible study series that I shared on my blog . Called ‘ Roman Roads ’, the series sought to address the grim realities of the pandemic from a theological / biblical perspective . Because Italy ’ s experience of the pandemic was at that time about two weeks ahead of the USA ’ s , I found that I could anticipate some of the issues that my readers would soon be facing . It gave the Bible studies
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