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| A collage made by one of our “Flexible Pilgrims” 🙂 |
One insight I had this morning – it was something that I thought of off and on these last few weeks since Pope Benedict XVI announced his resignation. And that is this:
Jetlag is rough.
I say that as a 39 year old guy who’s now just had his second international flight and has been groggy all day. For Pope Benedict, at age 86, the demands of the papacy, especially after Pope John Paul II, is to truly be a visible shepherd who goes out to his flock, his people on every continent, every corner of the world. I can’t imagine what it must’ve been like for him him to have to go across the world, celebrate Mass before millions, have meetings, press attention, etc. and then fly home and get back to the work of leading 1.2 billion Catholics at his age.
Just reminds me of how we need to keep praying for our shepherds, especially our new Holy Father, Francis.
And a prayer for me that I’m fully awake and alert at Mass tonight would be appreciated 🙂
Jet lag is really, really tough. I don't know how people do it! And some of us are more susceptible to it than others. It would absolutely kill me to have to fly a lot.
In all fairness Jen, I have to admit this wasn't so bad after all this time. I read an article that suggested fasting for 12-18 hours including the time your in the air and then eating your first regular meal when you land at whatever meal time would be coming up and must admit, it's nowhere near as bad as it was last year for me.
Well, it's good that you recovered quickly, Father. I used to have to fly to Germany quarterly and it about killed me. The only thing that helped was flying into New York for a few days and then flying on to Germany. (I live in Los Angeles) Then it was manageable.
Thank you for your blog! 🙂