Edmund Rice

February 1st found me at Nemi, a beautiful little village in the hills at the back of Rome. After a beautiful (but cold) month of February I found myself in a really good place spiritually. I really valued the rhythm of the days, the twice daily centering prayer, the Eucharist, the journaling and most days the long after lunch walks in the nearby forests. But even as I walked Nemi's beautiful forests there was a storm beginning to brew. At first the term coronavirus was something I vaguely heard about 'over in China' – then in the North of Italy and as day followed day it became THE all-pervading presence in our days. Each night we would hear about the fear, the powerlessness, the confusion, the despair, sadness, grief that was gripping much of the North of Italy. Hospitals overwhelmed, families in despair as loved ones could not be attended to because of the sheer scale of the pandemic.