As the UK enters a period of lockdown, I am struck by how this health crisis is impacting my life and the lives of my friends. I am struck by how this virus, invisible to the naked eye, is gradually redefining every aspect of my life and the lives of those around me: the manner of interacting with my friends, the organisation of work with colleagues, the content of my meals, the layout of my home to accommodate smart-working and home schooling and, in some cases, even the matter of having separate bedrooms. Everything, all our actions, all our behaviour seems to be defined by this virus, this invisible thing, capable in a few days, in a few weeks, of reshaping my life.

Faced with this observation, I cannot help wondering when Christ, His Presence, came to define, with such force, the content of my meals, the layout of my house, the manner of interacting with my friends, my family... Not as a Presence that I must recognize, that I wish to recognize, but as a Presence invisible to the naked eye, and, at the same time, so obvious that it becomes the root of all my choices, of all my conversations, of all my actions.

In this non-ordinary time, I wake up with this question each morning: "How can Your invisible Presence, Oh Christ, prevail so forcefully in my life to the point of defining every moment?”

Signed letter#Coronavirus