Posted on 08/21/2020 1:56:46 PM PDT by Former MSM Viewer
My wife & I went to Mass yesterday for the first time in over a month of the churches being shut down. While it was joyful to be back in church, I was initially angry at the procedures and spacing. I noted the bleached out backs and sides of the pews from the repeated wiping. It was distressing to see our priest speaking the word of God through a mask. It was like nothing I have ever seen when he squirted his hands with sanitizer before offering us the Host. Then I thought of Christians around the world, in Iraq, Egypt, Poland, former Soviet Union, many places that endured extreme persecution over the centuries. This current disturbance in the force of Christianity pales in comparison to those. This is not historically even on the scale.
The Bill of Rights is the Founder's attempt at limiting governmental power over its citizens. I am reminded that our cherished Freedom of Religion is enshrined as the number one right they wanted to protect. Guns, free speech, right to a jury trial are vitally important, but in their wisdom, they placed Freedom of Religion above all else.
Even though there have been a few pastors, priests & ministers detained, warned, even arrested, this is nothing when compared to historical events. Currently, it is necessary to exercise caution when in gatherings. We should all be mindful of this virus. But let's also be careful of the virus of ever encroaching governments around the world & over the millennia.
American history tells of a brutal response to oppressive British officials during the time leading up to the (first) American Revolution. Patriots would tar & feather the offending British official. Our Patriots did not tolerate their God given rights being trampled on. Applying hot tar to someone caused severe burns and even death. The objective was to punish & cause public shame upon the offender. Molasses & feathers would have accomplished the same objective, but it's doubtful the early Patriots thought mercifully of the British. Today’s world does not include such responses, but the thin veil of civility can be easily blown away by injustice. Let’s seek to eradicate this virus without bankrupting families, businesses, churches and municipalities. Let us not kill the patient with overreaching requirements dictated by overzealous bureaucrats and politicians.
Destroy the economy, the church, family. Make them dependent on government, medical, control the schools...on & on. The plan is in the works.
Indeed.
All Part of their LONGTIME Plan™
My family enjoys Catholic Mass every Sunday on TV. I didn’t think I would but it’s not bad. Our church shut down April 1st or so.
The government is successful in convincing people that their strength comes from governmnet, not God. Churches are in for a big falling away.
We shut down on March 25, and were closed for close to two months.
That said, the Priest had daily parking lot adoration up and running within a week, and drive in confessions four days a week.
We’ve had to add an extra Sunday Mass token up with the social distancing, and back to adoration in the Church.
Backwoods Ontario.
Sounds like a traumatic experience.
Probably not as traumatic as being in the ICU on a ventilator. Until you finally just die.
You might want to put your priorities in order of importance.
It is why I went back to Mass the first moment I could. If you don’t have God you have nothing.
Our bishop opened up our diocese for car masses 2 weeks after Easter and opened the churches a couple of months ago.
I don’t love the spacing and we have a sanitizer that doesn’t bleach.
I know people who won’t go to Mass because they are scared and some who won’t go because you have to wear a mask, I do what it takes to worship my God in the place built for Him and to receive the Eucharist. I pull my mask down below my nostrils during Mass and remove it the moment I step out of Church.
That all said, I should have fought harder to keep our church from closing.
Well, then I guess it is due time to punch back twice as hard at those who mean to oppress us.
JoMa
Our priest takes his mask off to talk.
If a priest can hear confessions through a screen or whatever it is he should be heard through a mask. Or he could be a hypocrite like the politicians and take it off when he’s going to speak and outgas even more.
Or he could do everyone a favor an point out that masks are useless and not wear one in the first place.
I don’t wish to belittle your point, because you are absolutely correct. Destruction always starts small.
Father Mike Schmitz is so good. One great thing that has come of this is his homilies. I miss the eucharist though. I don’t miss the shaking hands and terrible modern “hymns”
My Lord you are pathetic
Maybe they can put up some plexiglass at the pulpit, so he can speak without a mask. Theoretically, no worshipers would need to be that close to him, to endanger themselves.
Well, at least he is not meeting a group at midnight at a secret place in the woods at offer Holy Mass on a Mass Rock, neither is he yet hiding in a priest hole. You should have good hiding place available though in case they are needed in the future.
This is partly why I look forward to the flu season. Usually the Archdiocese will suspend this novelty and I can get focus on the Lord vs a meet-and-greet.
I used to go to Church in NYC where Fr. George Rutler was pastor, and even in non-flu times he always skipped right past the 'sign of peace' section. That made mass so much better, though I'd crawl through glass to attend one of Fr. Rutler's masses.
Btw, they don't shake hands in the Latin Mass...I'm just sayin'....
We watch the 8:00 am Sunday mass on EWTN.
Lots of incense and lots of Latin.
Dominus vobiscum!
Funny, I don’t miss the old hymns and Latin.
I guessed you used the story about the preacher who insisted on having church services with no distancing, etc. the next week he was dead.
Now THAT is pathetic. Not whiners who complain about some minor inconveniences in life.
Yup. There was no big First Amendment fight. The leaders of our churches meekly surrendered.
Well, as a Christian, my priority is God and my life on Earth is just a short prelude to eternal life and happiness.
What is a life cowering in a corner in fear? Is that life? You could be mangled in a car wreck, a tree could fall on you, you could be murdered, you could get any of a myriad of diseases but do we dwell on those things daily and stop living our lives?
I’m willing to put my life in God’s Hands. None of us are going to get out of this life alive and unless you do yourself in we don’t know when or how that will happen, we just know and accept that it will.
The chances of a healthy person dying of Covid are really very low.
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