Thank you for the lockdown

The confinement is an opportunity to advance.

From the beginning I saw it as an opportunity to practice being present.

My mind went to people that are incarcerated in prisons for years, and decades,

and amongst whom there are also many innocent people, wrongly imprisoned.

Then I thought of Marthe Robin, who was not only confined to her house,

but bound to her bed for all her adult life.

She was a young, normal, happy, outgoing young woman, who had plans,

who wanted to do things in her life, but because of a medical condition for

which there was no cure, and  which also caused terrible physical suffering,

she was to stay confined to her bed until she died as an old woman in 1981,

aged 79.


Out of that hopeless situation, in this one person, has grown a world wide

association of Foyers of Charity (Charity Homes); centres for teachings of

authentic catholic doctrine.

Marthe Robin lied in her bed, unable to get up, in a house on a farm in the
middle of nowhere; even to this very day, it is a place which is not easily accessible.

She needed help with the most basic of things, which caused her additional
suffering, because she knew she was a burden to her already struggling parents.

Out of this desperate situation she drew thousands of people
to her bedroom while she was alive, an estimated 100.000; amongs them hundreds
of priests and many bishops, they flocked from all corners of France and also from
other countries, just to be able to tell her their problems and ask her for help.

Every day, there was a queue outside her bedroom, visitors gathered in the farmyard,
before they were let in to continue waiting in the kitchen, until it was their turn to be
allowed in to spend some time with her, most of the time just chatting about normal
ordinary things.
Since her death, the number of visitors to her bedroom is much higher; reaching
up to 40.000 a year.

How did this happen?  What attracted these people, and what is it that continues
to attract people today?
After all, it was difficult to get there and there was no television, internet or
advertising campaign involved.

Looking at it from a worldly point of view, we would say that it is an extremely
unlikely scenario. But the facts are there, they are concrete and manifested.


The confinement as an imposed external reality produces a  

feeling of being confined,  so there are already at the outset at least two elements present.

As I cannot change this exterior reality, I have two choices;

I can stay with the feelings of annoyance and boredom, in other words

I can internally revolt and resist, thinking thoughts like:

"I do not like this, it deprives me of ..........and when this period is finished, 
I will do such and such....."  which reveals non acceptance of the situation
as it is, and which I do not have the power to change.  

It means that I miss the opportunity present in the situation,
which is the gift of being present.

It is a training program, and should be taken as such.
When I fail, I do not get discouraged, because I believe that I get a little bit
better all the time, but I have to learn to be patient with myself.

Patience is something that is completely new to me,
so I have to accept that I am a beginner.

The opposition, the resistance, is INSIDE me, not outside. 

Constraints, difficulties, problems, burdens, pain (crosses) are  

the Tools, the Material, The Dough in the making of the bread,

given to us by Jesus to come back to God.  If we accept them internally.

Jesus accepted to be chained to the pillar as he was being flogged,
and to be nailed to the cross.

My natural human nature, I recognize it, I am not in denial of it,
but instead of giving glory to it, (paganism), I go much further,
because I do not want it to end there!
I want more, I want God!
He already lives in me and in you!
Here and now.
It can only happen by going inside ourselves.

Hopefully it will produce cracks in our image of ourselves, in our defensive system,
our mentality, our perceptions, and produce true humility, which in turn produces true
love and compassion for others and ourselves.
It is an organic process, which includes every part of our lives, which is why it creates
unity within the person. Things come together.

We are in possession of freedom to choose;in any given situation.  FREE WILL.

 I have freedom to choose. I am free.