"I Said the Donkey"

Around eight o'clock last night, I got back to the house after a stressful and challenging day.  As I was putting my used mask into my "Dirty Masks Bag," and settling in, I heard that Sr. Jean Louise was on the phone.  According to custom, she had prepared the "advent practices" for the Sisters from our two convents, who normally spend Thanksgiving weekend together and exchange names for the year's prayer partners.  Due to circumstanes related to this pandemic, we were not able to be together this [liturgical] New Years Eve. :(

Sister informed my of my role in the nativity story for Advent, which corresponds with the "practice" for me to work on.  She said I was the "ass," but I prefer to refer to myself as a donkey.  My exhortation was to "willingly [bear] all the burdens obedience puts on [me], saying “Yes, Father” even in unpleasant tasks." 

I didn't feel so bad about my humiliating role (I'm not an angel, wise man, or St. Joseph) after one of my fellow Sisters told me that she was to be "the Ox."

All kidding aside, I think this Advent practice, this role as a donkey bearing burdens, has real meaning for me this Advent. 

For us at St. Anne's, striving to protect the most vulnerable during a pandemic has not gotten any easier.  We are living and working in very stressful times. 

This burden, as a donkey, I think, includes helping, as I'm able, to ease the burdens of my co-workers.  We are all stressed and burdened, but if I can recognize that my neighbor is just as stressed and burdened as I am, I can try to show her kindness and do what I can to ease her difficulty.

Last evening, as I was preparing for an early bedtime (being tired and facing an early morning), I couldn't help but think of the words of the carol, The Friendly Beasts: "I said the donkey, shaggy and brown..." (even though I did just give myself a haircut the other night).

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