The crane

The load on the crane currently outside the Castel Sant’Angelo is 24 tonnes. I know because I have just walked past it and happened to look upwards at its big circular base. High above the ground, the long arm of the crane is transferring valuable works of art from the exhibition inside the Castel to a waiting furniture van. Meanwhile another parked van waits for its own precious load to be moved in the opposite direction, and so a new exhibition will start its life.

Life is a continuing sequence of new beginnings. Looking backwards in time to Saturday and the beautiful Pentecost Vigil in St. Peter’s Square, it is hard to believe that the whole event was only the day before yesterday. In fact 48 hours ago I was battling through a thick crowd, telling anybody who objected to my efforts to move forwards that I was doing the English commentary for Vatican Radio and was already later than I’d actually intended, precisely because it was so difficult to make my way through the moving mass of people. It’s surprising how much space is needed by 350,000 people!

Yet that Vigil is already in the past and the world has moved onwards. Although it can be quite easy to live in the past, there’s little point in so doing. Today’s joys and sorrows are not the same as yesterday’s. Hopefully I have learned something from yesterday that makes me better and stronger today. Today will carry its own lessons for tomorrow. I don’t need to carry around a heavy weight of sadness, responsibility and guilt because I can make a new beginning today.

Today, as the saying goes, is the first day of the rest of my life.

Don’t worry about tomorrow: God is already there!

God bless,
Sr. Janet