For the first time in my life, I couldn't take a photograph.  Usually I capture  moments which draw my heart, but I could not focus my camera last night because of the tears streaming down my face.  Sister Christine and I went on our nightly ministry to the train station in Przesmyl to see if any women with children needed a place to stay and we wait for the trains bearing Ukrainian refugees to arrive. As we were walking underground between railroad platforms, two old women, who reminded me of Naomi and Ruth in scripture,  were coming toward us. They were clinging to each other for life and sobbing aloud as they slowly plodded along.  Following behind volunteers carried their meager belongings.  

This intimate encounter did not need to be recorded by a camera because this moment of fear, aloneness and helplessness is seared into my heart.  The memory haunts me this morning.  What have their eyes seen and hearts suffered?  They could be my grandmother, mother, aunt or Sister.  They are our sisters for we are all one family of God.   "No elderly person should be an "exile" in our families" (Pope Francis)

Another casualty of this war are our brothers and sisters who suffer with mental illness.  While at the train station, Sister Christine and I saw a young pretty woman standing alone and looking very dazed.  We  asked her if she needed a place to stay.  She was frozen in her spot and couldn't move in any direction.  First, she wanted to go to Warsaw to look for work, but then wanted to stay. We were concerned about her plan because the city is overwhelmed with its number of refugees who are sleeping on cold sidewalks while waiting in line for help.  I was worried by her vulnerability as a woman. When she heard me me slip and say an English word, she began to speak in halting English.  The young woman is suffering with schizophrenia and had stopped taking her medicine because of the side effects. Blessedly, a volunteer came over and we encouraged the young woman to go with her to the doctor onsite.  We pray that this young woman will receive whatever she needs.  

The media particularly the international photographers focus on mothers and children.  Like the elderly who seem to be ignored, our brothers and sisters who are suffering mental illness are one of our most vulnerable populations. In the US, we witnessed how Covid added such stress to anyone who struggled with anxiety or depression. Can you imagine how this war affects this vulnerable population?  Yesterday, a young woman and child staying with us received a phone call that her entire family was dead.  Her response was to withdraw from that reality.  She was comatose while her child wailed for his mother.  Eventually, the Sisters took her to a psychiatric hospital where she could get help and her child taken care of.  I keep thinking that my heart cannot bear to hear anymore suffering, but then Grace abounds and gives me strength.  I know that  God is working on all that is "not yet" and that all shall be well someday. 

Thank goodness for the blessing of your prayer and journeying with these Sisters.  At dinner, we just laughed and laughed to let go of the pain of the day.  Now, my understanding of Polish has been pretty good, but I have a difficulty with numbers.  I would ask the time for prayer, Mass or dinner and the Sisters would tell me, but sometimes I would show up on time and on other occasions I would be late or miss it completely.   Finally, I asked a Sister to write down the time and I looked at the paper and laughed and laughed.  .Duuhhh.....just like my lack of familiarity with Polish addresses, I did not realize that they always used military time  No wonder sometimes I got the timing right.  I'm being stretched in ways that I could not imagine!