When people freely isolate themselves, they fare better than when circumstances limit their freedom. Retreat—which one may not immediately classify as isolation—is freely chosen. Dealing with shifting moods on retreat happens. Knowing the end-date of retreat is one help.
Pandemic isolation is less easy to choose, yet people choose it to respect the lives of others and self. Jesuit David Lonsdale recalled that St. Ignatius of Loyola experienced both “necessary” and “voluntary self-isolation”. His “reflections on his experience of isolation…can offer us valuable help in our present circumstances.”
In a time of pandemic, when many of us are struggling to find hope, or to live in charity with ourselves and others, the prayer of ‘Contemplation for love of God’ in the #SpiritualExercises can help as an effective response. https://t.co/sg0GUkpI9u #coronavirus #AMDG— Thinking Faith (@ThinkingFaith) May 27, 2020
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