We have never needed the message in this video (below) more.

Our nation-and the world-are slowly grinding to a standstill in the wake of a virus we were barely aware of a few weeks ago. How quickly things change…it wasn’t part of my ‘plan’ this year to have my kids doing all schoolwork at home, my college son’s commencement canceled, all public Masses halted. I don’t even think it has totally sunk in, honestly. I’ve been wandering around in a daze, trying to figure out what to do next and where to get Lysol wipes and eggs.

I already work from home, so that’s okay…but I’ve never had ‘co-workers’ before who need constant supervision, refereeing, and food every ten minutes. Thank goodness it is spring in Arizona and the weather is gorgeous…lots of outside play. I’m looking for the positives.

I’m also working very, very hard at staying in the moment.

It is the key to everything. Peace, trust, joy, faith. Keeping our eyes on what God is asking of us in each task as it comes, each person as he appears, each prayer as it is formed in our hearts, and leaving the rest to Him. It is the express manifestation of His Will for each instant. Can we stay there, with the Lord, and not be pulled into the past or the future? Regret and fear live there. We do not. And God certainly does not–He lives in an eternal now.

There is no moment when God is not manifest in the form of some affliction, obligation, or duty. – Jean-Pierre de Caussade

It is one reason why I love this video so much. Please see this post for a little background on the beautiful life of Chiara Corbella Petrillo: chiara-corbella-petrillo-shining-a-light-on-the-value-of-life/ but first, watch below. It is only ten minutes long, but Chiara’s husband Enrico seems to pack a lifetime of wisdom into a few words. Each syllable is weighted with meaning.

I’ll let you watch it…but one thing that struck me deeply was when he points out that in the Hail Mary we pray “now and at the hour of our death.” Those, he remarks, are precisely the moments in our life when we meet God.

Wow. Think about that when the word pandemic takes your mind a million places and none of them in there here and now.

In the sufferings of their life, Enrico says, he and Chiara were given a choice: live in the moment or go crazy.

What is God asking of you right now? Do that one thing. Do it well. Be faithful to it. Give it back to Him with a little more love than you thought you were capable of. And then do it again. Fill a lifetime with little obediences. He can do wonders with them.

Here’s to you, all of you, to staying sane and healthy and most importantly, holy in these coming weeks and months. May the God of Peace keep you squarely with Him in this-a most difficult-but very grace-filled moment.

Claire Dwyer is an unapologetically Catholic mom to six beautiful kids ages 17 to 3 and lucky wife to a great – and very patient – man, I find joy in the surprising little glimmers God gives us of Himself – unexpected suggestions of heaven in the everyday, even in the crumbs and chaos.I delight in the sacramentality of daily life; and in the discovery that everything points to something beyond itself. With that lens that we find in the deepest pockets of our prayer, we see the glimpses of clarity in the shadows. And sometimes, by grace, the sun startles us with its brilliance.  Her blog at “Even the Sparrow” can be read here.