30 Aug Dying of loneliness
Dying of loneliness:
In an audience, Pope Paul VI told how one day, when he was Archbishop of Milan, he went out on parish visitation. During the course of the visitation he found an old woman living alone. “How are you?” he asked her. “Not bad,” she answered. “I have enough food, and I’m not suffering from the cold.” “You must be reasonably happy then?” he said. “No, I’m not,” she said as she started to cry. “You see, my son and daughter-in-law never come to see me. I’m dying of loneliness.” Afterwards he was haunted by the phrase “I’m dying of loneliness.” And the Pope concluded: “Food and warmth are not enough in themselves. People need something more. They need our presence, our time, our love. They need to be touched, to be reassured that they are not forgotten.”
(Flor McCarthy in New Sunday and Holy Day Liturgies).