Priestly ingenuity to the ban

By Modesto P. Sa-onoy

The enhanced community quarantine has put so many out of work and are just loafing at home. Some could not resist the temptation to get out of confinement and they got arrested. From the elderly, the most common word they say was “boredom”. This is the first time that people had been so confined on a massive scale that “doing nothing” has become a problem.

For the priests whose function is to administer the sacraments, especially provide spiritual help and perform religious rites, the difficulty of the limitation to their movements can be harder.

I view the present pandemic as God’s chastisement, a call for us to get back to God and thus an opportunity for what Cardinal Luis Tagle said after his Holy Rosary for World last Wednesday night, a renewal. For renewal the priests are vital. Well, some priests exhibited ingenuity during these challenging days to ensure that the faithful, denied of gathering for the Mass, are not neglected.

In Kabankalan, Bishop Louie Galbines had directed his priests to expose the Blessed Sacrament. He had also led a procession with the Blessed Sacrament, an act that has many precedence in Catholic Church history when confronted by a plague. And as history recorded, God heard the cry of His people and “healed” their land.  I know that the Adoration Chapels are not closed because I visited one. But now as a senior I cannot get out of the house though I am not bored at all with so many things to write about aside from this column.

Let’s look at what other clergymen had done to seek God’s intervention.

Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas asked all bishops, priests and deacons to “find creative ways to give Our Daily Bread to the faithful members of the Body of Christ.” As noted, the clergy around the world had already begun to answer the call to find innovative ways to deliver the sacraments and otherwise keep the faith alive in their parishes and dioceses.

“The virus is horrendous but spiritual death by starvation is worse,” he continued. “May the Eucharist truly be the source and summit of our life in Christ.”

Fr. Lamansky, a priest studying in Rome, echoed this call: Come up with creative ways of making sacraments available!”

So, there are “ingenious ways” that came out of the internet. There is a photo of a priest sitting in a parking lot before the monstrance with the Sacred Host on a table that he had set up. People come and go without leaving their vehicles. The priest also gave Holy Communion through the car window and then thoroughly sanitized his hand each time.Top of Form

“Just because public Masses are suspended doesn’t mean people should be without the sacraments. Think outside the box. Come up with ways to make sacraments available in a manner that avoids contagion and respects diocesan policies and civil laws,” added Fr. Lamansky.

A parish Facebook post showed Fr. Shaun Whittington of St. Nicholas Catholic Church in Sunman, Indiana, offering Mass in the parish parking lot, not unlike drive-in movie theaters of times past.  He had a trailer perched on a hill above the church parking lot where parishioners participated from their parked cars.

The post said that the “parking lot Mass was a success! We had positive feedback! Thanks to Fr. Whittington for coming up with an innovative solution so that we are able to attend Mass and receive Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament while also being compliant to the COVID-19 safeguard directives.”

 

Another St. Nicholas FB posted a message that while the parish’s planned St. Joseph feast day dinner has been canceled, parishioners are encouraged to “bring bread to be blessed and taken home.”

I don’t know how the devotees of St. Joseph celebrated his feast day with the traditional meal, but this St. Nicholas innovative way kept alive the tradition symbolizing the father providing for his family as St. Joseph did for Jesus and Mary.

Fr. Sean Coyle, formerly assigned here, but is now home in Ireland sent me this message. He said that “at noon today in our chapel we joined the rest of Ireland in the Act of Consecration of Ireland to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Every night, from 7 to 8, we have an Hour of Adoration before the Blessed Sacrament.”

Continued tomorrow.