Lenten suffering

Our Indian students leading
the Way of the Cross with
their congregation

Wacky weather. Friday was back to sunny summer but Saturday the winds were cold. Today its very sunny but cold. Practically every other person is coughing. So I'm not the only sick one. But the wheezing and coughing is very bad these few nights for me. I have been walking on the terrace for hours to stop the fluids accumulating in my lungs ... but it means no sleep at all. I am very very exhausted and tired. Went to see the doc just now and he insisted I go to hospital. He suspects bronchitis or an infection of some kind. Life has become very difficult and painful as I suffocate every minute. No steroid or inhaler can help right now. The very thought of going to bed is a nightmare. That's when the most severe attacks occur.

Well all this suffering fits in with Lent I guess. Right now there's an amazing influx of tourists and pilgrims. Local arabs from other cities are coming to make the Way of the Cross. Thousands of chinese, indians and africans are also here. Total chaos in our courtyard as it's packed shoulder to shoulder. The noise is unbearable. Nothing sacred about it. An unholy chaos of wrangling, pushing, shouting adding to muslims trying to sell cards, crosses and other stuff.

News of more attacks on the church in India and Pakistan is upsetting many of us: a 71 yr old nun gang raped and 2 churches burned. What bothers us is that the rest of the Catholic world is silent, totally disinterested in the suffering of other fellow catholics. We have reached a stage of the lack of charity or care to such a global degree I wonder if the word "catholic" means anything at all. Or if Lent means anything at all other than non eating meat, wearing veils, to kneel or not kneel at communion. Here in Syria, ISIS has attacked and destroyed more christian villages. Egypt has also recently witnessed more attacks on Coptic churches. I think catholicism as widely practiced today has lost its conscience. It has lost its soul. It is no longer catholic or universal in its charity ... it's all about the self.