My husband’s go to scripture is the book of Revelations. He told me when we first dated that he found it odd that Catholics didn’t have bibles in the pews for people to read during Mass. He shared that whenever he went to service, he would pick up the Bible and turn all the way to the back and read it like the scariest tale that was ever told. Where other discussions on scripture had failed, the conversations about Revelations were animated and even agitating. During my time in graduate studies, I was assigned the book of Revelations. The reality of this mysterious book is that the writer was in a prison and describing visions with beautiful poetry. He used numbers and symbolism. He created a tapestry of chaos, pain, and death and wove it into a new heaven and a new earth. 
 
“I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, God’s dwelling is with the human race. He will dwell with them and they will be his people ^* and God himself will always be with them [as their God]. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain, [for] the old order has passed away.’” (Rev 21: 3-4) 
 
As my husband and I discussed Revelations with new eyes and a new understanding of the purpose of the last book in sacred scripture, we were able to discuss distinct differences in our viewpoints of the world. Do I want to look at my life and my world as a prison that I am living in? Do I live in the reality that the second coming of Christ will happen one day? Do I want to be able to have hope and create a sense of vision for my life beyond these stay-at-home orders?
 
I leave you to reflect on this anonymous phrase that I found on social media. Solidarity and being connected to one another is a key social teaching from the church. Practicing this virtue is being “forced” upon us but it does give hope that a new world awaits us beyond all of this death and illness. Church Teaching on Solidarity
 
“When you go out and see the empty streets, the empty stadiums, the empty train platforms, don’t say to yourself, ‘It looks like the end of the world.’ What you’re seeing is love in action. What you’re seeing, in that negative space, is how much we do care for each other, for our grandparents, for our immune-compromised brothers and sisters, for people we will never meet. People will lose jobs over this, some will lose their businesses, and some will lose their lives. All the more reason to take a moment, when you’re out on your walk, or on your way to the store, or just watching the news, to look into the emptiness and marvel at all the love. Let it fill and sustain you. It isn’t the end of the world. It is the most remarkable act of global solidarity we may ever witness.” 
 
Holy Spirit, our source of light and strength, we thank you for having inspired the call to peace-makers from all over the world to meet in the dramatic situation of humanity to reconsider our responsibility, to deepen and promote the liberating and healing nonviolence of Jesus.

Merciful God, our Father and Mother, you sent your Son Jesus, our Brother, to reveal through his life and teaching your divine, self-giving Love and so incarnate in our world the power of nonviolence, able to overcome ALL forms of violence and to reconcile humanity in justice and peace.

We confess that for centuries our Church, people of God, has betrayed this central message of the Gospel many times and participated in wars, persecution, oppression, exploitation and discrimination.

Holy Spirit, as we meet as peacemakers, we count on your light and your strength to help revive in the Theology of Peace the nonviolent message of Jesus in which there is no place for violence and to offer to all Christians the arms of peacemaking, pardon and reconciliation.
Holy Spirit, we trust in your light and strength that this Conference may mark a new step for our Church, on its way to becoming a Church of Peace, in the spirit of our Brother Jesus and so respond to the cry of humanity for life in dignity and peace.
 
Hildegard Goss-Mayr, March 2016, written for the Catholic Nonviolence Initiative Conference