We have just passed six months of coronavirus lockdown. It is taking its toll. I mourn those who have died from the virus — and those who have fallen ill — including three priests and one deacon from our diocese. But the lockdown itself has caused damage: ruined the economy, taken away jobs, destroyed businesses, closed schools, halted travel, and for us Catholics, interrupted our life of worship and community.
Most damaging of all on the spiritual level, the coronavirus has deprived us of the opportunity to enter our churches, kneel down, participate in the Eucharist, and receive Holy Communion in the normal way.
The truth is, for us Catholics, the Eucharist is the essence of the parish community. Catholic and Eastern Orthodox theologians have long taught, “The Eucharist makes the Church, and the Church makes the Eucharist.”
As Catholics, we simply cannot live without it.
We have adapted as best we can under the circumstances in our desire to serve you, while preserving your safety. Even the Pope celebrated daily live-stream Mass without a congregation, and conducted all his Holy Week and Easter services with only a dozen people present. Although understandable in a time of Eucharistic famine, our temporary rites of “drive-through” Communion, live-stream Mass without a congregation, or distributing Communion outside of Mass are not a substitute for real, live, actual participation of the priest and community offering the Eucharistic Sacrifice.
That is what makes this all so painful.
Cardinal Robert Sarah, head of the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship, issued a letter to all bishops of the Church this week urging a return to normal worship, as soon as it is safe to do so. I agree. The Cardinal stated: “As soon as circumstances permit, however, it is necessary and urgent to return to the normality of Christian life, which has the church building as its home and the celebration of the liturgy, especially the Eucharist, as ‘the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed; and at the same time it is the font from which all her power flows’ (Vatican II: Sacrosanctum Concilium, 10).”
Full story at The Catholic Voice.
Your Excellency it is the goal of the satanic Left to deny the Blessed Sacrament to the Faithful in the name of Christ resist these thugs offer mass… DEFY THEM
I know plenty of Catholics who are living without Mass and communion just fine.
Then they are Catholic in name only and the Faith means nothing to them.
And, how are you able to judge the state of their souls?
“By their fruits ye shall know them,” and they are good people.
Good people can end up in hell
“Good people can end up in hell”??????????????
If that’s what trad Catholics believe, I want no part of it. What a totally ridiculous belief. I daresay that’s heretical. What? God will send people to hell on technicalities? “Yes, Lisa, you were a good person but you didn’t do this one little thing (har, har, har,) so it’s eternal hellfire for you. Nope, sorry, no appeals and no mercy.”
No: Jesus said in the parable of the Last Judgment that the good go to eternal life. That’s the God of the gospels.
So many bishops keep saying the Eucharist is essential but they aren’t acting like it is. If it were truly essential and they really believed it, they would be doing everything they could to ensure as many people as possible receiving it as often as possible.
I haven’t received Communion for more than seven months. Don’t feel any different. Don’t feel I’m missing anything. It really makes me wonder whether the sacraments all reduce to psychology. I can’t be the only one thinking such things. Anonymous above is another indicator.
How many millions of Catholics used to receive Communion frequently who now receive rarely, if at all, and how different are their lives really for not receiving the “essential” Eucharist? Really, how different are they now?
If there isn’t any noticeable difference between receiving and not receiving, then it opens the question of whether there’s any real difference at all.
Kevin, those are legitimate questions. Yet, the “results” (for lack of a longer description) of the Real Presence of our Lord Jesus Christ depend significantly upon the disposition or faith of one receiving, even touching, Him. See Luke 8:42-48. Many people touched Jesus, yet only one was healed (and Our Lord identifies her alone as the one who touched Him). The sacraments are real, but not magic. Our Lord won’t force us to be better persons. That is on us. My prayer for you, for me and for all is that we seek Him more diligently. And, He will reveal Himself and change us as we recognize Him in “the breaking of the Bread,” a Biblical and early Church phrase used for the Eucharist. (Luke 24:30-35) May God bless you with an ever deeper awareness of His Presence and His love for you and all.
At last, I have something to agree with you Tom. The Bishops act like receiving the Eucharist is the most important thing in the world but dont act like it. I can remember as a child the pastor of the parish I grew up in telling the story of how a polish girl was murdered by the communists when they broke in to the church to profane the eucharist. The girl, we were told, tried to consume our Lord but was shot down.
I am 60YO and that story still impresses me.
Tom, it’s not about what you feel. Feelings come and go. We are just people after all and God knows our limits so well. They may not feel any different for not having recieved our Lord but their soul is. Worthy reception of the eucharist removes venial sin and will help keep us from worse sin. A fully sacramental life lived genuinely — frequent confession, adoration and reception of our Lord will get us in to heaven but will not make us Popeye after eating spinach. I so hope you can find that out. One help for you is to study and grow. Pls read “The Real Presence”, by St Julian Eymard. He is able to translate why our Lord gave himself to us in the bread of life and how it can change us IF we conform ourselves to his will.
Does God require the faithful to risk possible serious health consequences to attend Mass in person?
Mike – You are free to make the judgement for yourselt. Others like myself, having sufficiently educated myself on the virus and the current state are more than happy to attend Mass in person. Why is this so hard for you to understand?
Mike M, “serious risk to health” yeah its called a white martyrdom,, since you are complaining about it I am positive you will never survive a red one. Which is coming bet on it. The time for soft and easy Catholicism is long gone
Like deer that yearn for running waters….
No doubt this has been a trial for all of us. God didn’t promise us an easy life. He only promised that he would be emmanual, God with us. Always and without fail.
If in these days of trial we turn on one another, and call each other demons and diabilical, instead of helping each other get throught these dark and often orange days, we aren’t accepting the cross that is given for us to bear. We lash out. We demonstrate our lack of faith. We put others in harms way. This is not the way of the cross.
Peace, people. Peace. God is with us. That was his promise of old, and his promise to us now.
What has been the message sent by too many dioceses during these past six months.
Confession – No it’s not essential, just stay home and make a perfect act of contrition.
Open churches for prayer – No it’s not essential, just stay home and pray.
Mass and Communion – No, not essential, just stay home and make a spiritual Communion.
Message received by lukewarm Catholics was none of this was considered essential then, so why would we come back.
Oh yeah, one more thing:
Donations – Yes, extremely essential and necessary and send them in now.
Message received by faithful Catholics in many places was donations are essential and spiritual needs, not so much.
Maybe the message by faithful Catholics should now should be, “I’ve decided to make my donation a spiritual donation. If a spiritual communion was enough to suffice, you should make a spiritual donation suffice.“
There are plenty of good catholic media sources out there helping with our spiritual needs during the pandemic.They often boldly teach the truth without worrying offending the Marxist leftists. They could use our support.
Also thank God for those few priests who were willing to find ways to supply the sacraments to their flocks.
I agree. The Catholic Church has too often looked impotent during this pandemic, and many Catholics who have stayed away from Mass are deciding that Sundays at Mass aren’t that important after all. The Church has a lot of explaining and convincing to do, and even after/if things return to normal in society, Mass attendance is likely to be lower than it was prior to Covid-19.