Our soul waits for the Lord,
who is our help and our shield.
May your kindness, O Lord, be upon us
who have put our hope in you. Psalm 33:20, 22
Here in the State of Maine, it has been five weeks since public Masses were suspended. It has been three weeks since Governor Mills issued a stay-at-home order for the residents of Maine. Some people are working at home. Others who have “essential” jobs continue to go in to work. Still others have lost their jobs, at least for the time being. For Catholics, we find that our weekly routines have changed. Going to Mass on Sundays is no longer on the schedule. Masses are live-streamed from many parishes, and efforts are being made to reach out to people in various ways.
Early on, when all this was new, some people (at least) may have felt some excitement about it. There may have been the novelty of seeing our parish church and our pastor celebrating Mass on TV or on one of our digital devices. But the novelty has worn off, at least for some. I hear of a growing hunger for the Eucharist itself, a feeling that “this can’t go on indefinitely”, a desire to go to Mass and celebrate the sacraments. Some people now find the live-streamed Masses insufficient. A few even say that they prefer the emptiness of not watching Mass than the sense that watching Mass may give them that “everything is okay”. Continue reading “Quarantine and Acedia”