We all face loss. And what do we do with it. How is it expressed and how does it change us? Loss can be if employment and position in society. It can be financial, or more frequently, the loss of friends and loved ones through death.
The kindness of strangers is only the beginning. It becomes the kindness of acquaintances. The effort to be kind, and for some this may truly be the case, forces us to choose the selfish egoist path or enter the road of contact and sharing. Kindness is the key - a recognition if the need of another and a decision to help in some way this other person. How much we offer is another issue but we learn that kindness is priceless.
...don’t give up searching for one if you feel the need to have one. Perhaps the priest you meet really is too busy for this very demanding work or too occupied with the myriad of of issues in his multiple parish assignment. Keep praying, and going to Mass, especially daily if possible, read Scripture and the works of the saints and Church Fathers...
When David Livingstone travelled through southern Africa in the 1880s he came upon a large lake which he called the Lake of Stars.
Our relationship to others is crucial to out life in the world. We are social beings. We are interconnected through family and friends. Often this is taken for granted. But we are also connected to “other” the people around us we do not know. This other is the one we may a family member, or could simply be an ephemeral other.