Rain and thunderstorms in my part of Central Illinois today but my spirits are sunny. We had our first drive-by communion at Saint Pat’s in Dwight, with blessing of vehicles thrown in. Photos courtesy of my bride. I have been eight weeks without the sacrament of the Eucharist, unprecedented for me since my First Communion 53 years ago. No man dying of thirst in the desert received water more gratefully than I received the Body of Christ today. Gratias Deo!
Cool.
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We could have gone today, but it was not advertised and I think maybe our priest jumped the gun a little.
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Officially, we can go next Sunday.
10 weeks for us. Our bishop nixes any Mass outside because it has to be celebrated on a consecrated altar. Never mind that we had a funeral Mass under a tent using an 8′ table on a dais or an outside Mass with the former bishop.
It looks like next month we are allowed outside confession with a following communion service. Starting this week per Governor Dr. Gosnell Northam churches can have services with only 50% capacity of normal attendance and social distancing of 6′ a must. Social distancing makes for a small crowd especially if the church building is small. So how are the lucky few decided upon? Pull the lucky winners’ names from a hat, a bingo cage, or by your envelope number or first X number of arrivals in the parking lot? There will be many, many unhappy parishioners. Some will drive to another diocese or the next open state to attend Mass. Their Sunday donation checks will go with them.
The bishop said 3 hours between Masses to disinfect. How strong is the disinfectant if it takes 3 hours? Fresh air outside is better than recirculated air in a building and with a mask on breathing in CO2 that’s been exhaled.
Baptists were the only denomination seen having an Easter service in their parking lot. Their outdoor services have continued every Sunday. While we Catholics had/have to be content with streaming Mass. I picked a church with beautiful high Mass in my son’s town and I send them a check with a note thanking them for streaming. I had to smile viewing Friday’s Mass. The rector was reminding the school children that it was the last day of school and how to spend their summer vacation. As he was speaking the camera panned over his shoulder to the pews and every pew had pictures of the students. A good focal point for the priest saying the Mass.
CAM,
We are just over 8 weeks. Most of the local diocese have continued to suspend mass until at least June 1, so we’ll catch up to your 10 weeks. One has decided to open mass, but they will only allow 10 people (including the priest) to be at any mass, regardless of the size of the church. Since there will probably still be servers, lectors, and some form of musical accompaniment, that effectively means that no one can go to mass. I wonder if they’ll still have ushers even though there is no one left to be in the pews.
Looks like I didn’t close the italics tag. Just in case it carries between posts I’ve closed it here
CAM: that is completely ridiculous that the bishop wouldn’t allow a mask outside because it wasn’t on “a consecrated altar.” Field masses were set up on the back of a jeep with an altar stone during Vietnam. It would seem this would certainly seem to be the same type of emergency circumstance.
Where do we get these bishops?
“Mass”, darn auto-edit