The weekend arrives. There is an eerie, uneasy feeling at a time when the calendars show Palm Sunday coming up. Then another week, and it is Easter.
Meanwhile around Grand Forks and all over the world, there is a struggle with the disease called coronavirus. Most of us have worried about some health issue at one time another. Maybe it was measles or scarlet fever. Maybe it was tuberculosis.
None of us have worried about coronavirus.
Today, the streets are quiet. There is apprehension – feelings of helplessness.
When it first hit the news, it seemed like something that might happen in Wuhan, China. Not Grand Forks.
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Now it is here.
The streets are strangely silent. There is no springtime laughter and frolic.
At times like this, we look to our leaders. We are hunkered in our homes. And there are heroes among us. There are the doctors and nurses. There are the people who keep the city going and the stores open with essential items. Without the people who drive the ambulances there would be no hope.
But there is hope. And there is help. The Grand Forks Schools, though closed, are handing out mid-day meals.
In times like these, people turn to leaders such as Father Phil Ackerman now with St. Alphonsus Church in Langdon, N.D. He is concerned about isolation. On Fridays the church brings communion to parishioners otherwise isolated. He depends on a church deacon, Eric Seitz, to run a parish website.
Like other clergy people, Fr. Ackerman worries about the infirm and the sick in these times. And especially, he feels sorry about the high school seniors among us. He says they are finishing up at a time when there should be special events. There should be joy and celebrations.
Maybe the best we can do right now is to have faith in the future.
