The story of Irena, a doctor in Lithuania who is a member of the Focolare Movement in Eastern Europe who was infected with the Covid-19 virus. She experienced both the fatigue of illness and the strength in God’s love through prayer. “I’m inundated with messages and prayers. I don’t even know how my friends, acquaintances, colleagues hear about it. Even friends who I didn’t even know knew how to pray are praying. I had no idea that so many people could join in prayer for my health.” Irena is a hospital doctor, a member of the Focolare Movement who lives in Lithuania, in Eastern Europe. During these months that her country has been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, her work became exhausting, and she was infected by the virus and experienced all the fatigue of the disease. But her strength, she says, has come from her trust in God’s love. Her discovery of being united with many people in prayer rewarded her personal efforts and gave energy to her healing journey. Her experience was particularly hard. At first, work on the ward continued at the usual pace, but soon the contagion spread among her colleagues. Irena found herself working alone. “I had to find places for staff to be sent to isolation,” she explains, “to settle patients who had to be discharged because there was no one to care for them and contact relatives so they could take care of them. “There were no masks for the patients, and I would hand them out my own. Once, with a colleague who stayed after hours, we examined 37 patients. Only the night was calm, and I could pray.” After days in the hospital without rest, Irena was able to return home. Yet it was with the knowledge that she had contracted the disease. She was relieved to feel the spiritual closeness of Focolare founder Chiara Lubich. “On the shelf next to my bed there was a photo of Chiara smiling, and I saw her as if for the first time. She smiled at me and I smiled at her, everything became easier.” Gradually, the symptoms of the disease became more burdensome, but Irena did not give in to the pain. “I lost my taste receptors and realized that even the sense of taste is a gift from God. I offered my suffering for my colleagues and for my country. The nights were very difficult, but Chaira was with me smiling.” When the disease became more aggressive, hospitalization became inevitable, and this brought new challenges. “I no longer had the strength to speak, and I underwent an experimental treatment. The person in charge took care of me, but the nurses forgot to bring me my medication and didn’t ask if I had the strength to take food from the cart. But I could offer these hardships as well.” Here, too, help came from those close to her. “In my room there was a lady with cancer, and she brought me food, drinks. We became friends, and when I felt better, we prayed together.” Feeling united in prayer with the many people who prayed for her allowed Irena to feel loved, by God and by her brothers and sisters. “I am grateful to God for the indescribable love that I experienced during my illness,” she says, “because I always felt him near me, and for the beautiful experience of common prayer, which has huge power, and God has allowed me to experience it live. I feel reborn.”

Claudia Di Lorenzi