While aboard the plane, he had spoken as if the destiny of Brother Joshua's group were as clear-cut as the prayers prescribed for tomorrow's Office but both he and they knew that he had only been reading the palm of a plan, had been describing a hope and not a certainty. Afterward, he drove back to the abbey and to the remainder of his flock. The plane taxied onto the runway and roared aloft, He watched until it disappeared from view in the evening sky. He moved slowly down the aisle, pausing at each seat to bless and embrace before he left the plane. The sign outside the old gate had been removed, for there were women and children to be fed, clothed, and given shelter. The abbot had temporarily readjusted the "cloistered" areas of the abbey to give the refugees access to virtually everything except the monks' sleeping quarters. He swung himself out of his chair and went to stand at the window and look down on the courtyard where a crowd of refugees were milling around several hastily built wooden tables: The abbey, old and new, was overrun by people of all ages and stations whose homes had been in the blighted regions. With you also goes the apostolic succession, and, perhaps-the Chair of Peter.Īfterward, the conventual Mass was a Mass for Pilgrims and Travelers.Ībruptly, and with such force that he twisted the dial knob free of its shaft, Zerchi switched off the receiver. Theirs was but to wait for the end and pray that it would not come. Those who stayed behind had the easier part. That's what you and the government mean by better, isn't it? Is it? Better for whom? The street cleaners? Better to have your living corpses walk to a central disposal station while they can still walk? Less public spectacle? Less horror lying around? Less disorder? A few million corpses lying around might start a rebellion against those responsible. They hoisted it onto a table and began ladling out soup. He watched two novices carrying a steaming cauldron out of the emergence kitchen. Well, said the visitor, "it's certainly better than letting them die horribly, by degrees." I said "burden," not 'honor." Crucis autem onus si audisti ut honorem, nihilo errasti auribus."
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