Amidst the many losses of the Covid era, I keep coming back to something spiritual writer Richard Rohr wrote years back and reiterated this past spring as it was becoming clear the pandemic would alter church life for the foreseeable future. 

What wrote however many years ago was that he wished congregations could cancel all programming for a year and simply learn how to pray.  At the end of the year they could decide which programs served as extensions of their prayers and which were superfluous.

Richard Rohr’s prayers/wishes are apparently quite powerful because that year has arrived (I am aware that is horrible theology, but….that year has arrived nonetheless).

In my better moments, rather than being ever-aware of what we can’t now do, I ponder whether this is a year for all of us to learn how to pray. 

Joel