What an Anchoress does

After reading this very interesting summary of an anchoress’ day, I’m bound to admit that I’m too much in politics lately and not enough in prayer.

I’ll have to work on balancing that a bit better. Lately I am certainly a very chatty, busybody sort of anchoress…even if it’s only a persona.

Meanwhile, do go read this really excellent piece based on a homily given by Deacon Greg Kandra at his Mass of Thanksgiving two weeks ago. Here’s an excerpt:

But after 9/11, I realized with a blinding clarity that the tidy life I’d established for myself could vanish at any moment. Then, one day, on the way back from picking up bagels, I passed a homeless guy on the subway, begging for money. I offered him a fresh bagel. He thanked me with so much enthusiasm, you’d have thought I’d given him a fresh cut of sirloin. When my train came, I looked over my shoulder to see where he’d gone. And there he was, at the end of the platform: he’d broken his bagel in half and was sharing it with another homeless man.

This withered old man who had next to nothing gave half of what he had to someone who had even less. Deep in the recesses of my Catholic memory, something stirred. “And they knew him in the breaking of the bread.” Something began to speak to me.

I realized: I’d been given much. What could I give back?

He will be, I believe, an abundantly fruitful blessing to the Body of Christ.