Today in plague news: My favorite Presbyterian church canceled its Sunday worship services for this week.
That probably is wise: I am admittedly a little fuzzy on the Calvinist doctrine of predestination, but why take an unnecessary risk? If Americans are, as I hope they are, turning to prayer in these anxious times, then they will be obliged to do so as the earliest apostles did, in their homes and in small groups. Thomas Merton argued that the monastery is not a retreat from the world but the very center of it, the place where truth is encountered and where real life is lived genuinely. If we are to have retreats necessitated by public hygiene, we might enter into those retreats with something of Merton’s spirit. We are not running away from anything but toward something. Stocking up on canned soup and Lysol is not the only preparation that is needful.
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