We are fragile beings in fragile bodies, and we ought to look out for one another.

My mother-in-law Mary has been facing some serious health challenges in recent days. Somewhat serious and unexpected, yet tied to her ongoing health challenges and the procedures tied to them – it has been an eye-opening, learning, and growing experience for us as a family.

Before taking the boys to visit her after Mass on Sunday, I took Holy Communion to two of our homebound parishioners. When I told the second one about Mary’s challenges, he just said, “We are so fragile – our bodies are so fragile.”

We talked about that and the depth of its meaning a bit. We don’t realize, until something happens to our bodies, how fragile they are – especially our “insides”.

When we stop to think about it, our bodies are actually very fragile – very beautifully, carefully constructed. And the smallest little thing can throw off entire systems within us.

This is true of our physical bodies and health, but also our emotional and spiritual health.

I have come to deeply appreciate this over the last couple of years as I journeyed a darker emotional period in my own life – and still find myself navigating it day to day at times.

I know that we each journey that to some extent, whether we see and understand it or not. Taking care of ourselves – physically, emotionally, and spiritually – is essential.

But so is looking out for each other!

Pray for each other…

Check in on your neighbor…

Raise your hand when you need a hand, or when you need a prayer…

Know that we’re all fragile, and we’re here for each other.

And above all, God created you for a specific purpose. He knew you before a hair was on your head, and before you were formed in your mother’s womb. He watches over and provides each breath.

For prayer & reflection:

Psalm 103:13-16:
“As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him. For he knows how we are formed, remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like the grass; he blossoms like a flower in the field. A wind sweeps over it and it is gone; its place knows it no more.”

Isaiah 40:6-8:
“A voice says, “Proclaim!” I answer, “What shall I proclaim?”
“All flesh is grass, and all their loyalty like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower wilts, when the breath of the LORD blows upon it.” “Yes, the people is grass! The grass withers, the flower wilts, but the word of our God stands forever.”

Matthew 6:26-30:
“Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you more important than they? Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span? Why are you anxious about clothes? Learn from the way the wild flowers grow. They do not work or spin. But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was clothed like one of them. If God so clothes the grass of the field, which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow, will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith?”

Psalm 139:13-14:
“You formed my inmost being; you knit me in my mother’s womb. I praise you, because I am wonderfully made; wonderful are your works! My very self you know.”

2 Corinthians 4:7-11:
“But we hold this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing power may be of God and not from us. We are afflicted in every way, but not constrained; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being given up to death for the sake of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh.”

1 Peter 5:7:
“Cast all your worries upon him because he cares for you.”