Thank God for Pope Francis. I don’t think another pontiff could have helped us weather the COVID-19 storm any better. In a blessing he gave on March 27, 2020, a month after the pandemic made its presence known around the world, he said: “We find ourselves afraid and lost. Like the disciples in the Gospel, we were caught off guard by an unexpected, turbulent storm. We have realized that we are on the same boat, all of us fragile and disoriented, but at the same time important and needed, all of us called to row together, each of us in need of comforting the other.”
If COVID-19 was the storm, our faith was the sails. Surely all of us, at some point in these past two years, emptied our hearts to a listening God. The staff of St. Anthony Messenger began to wonder: How did our readers’ faith help them through this? What have we learned? Where do we go from here? Months ago, we asked you these questions; the answers can be found in the pages of this issue. We hope this article, pieced together by managing editor Daniel Imwalle, provides some context for what we endured with the pandemic.
It’s been a sad and frustrating time for all of us—worsened by ongoing social and political unrest. Let’s pray for cooler heads and calmer seas.
