Dear Parishioners:
The life of our parish has changed as have our own lives. The state of emergency we are now living in as result of the Covaid 19 Pandemic has changed our daily lives and the life of our Church.
Bishop Tobin has mandated that the public celebration of Holy Mass be suspended until further notice. It is a difficult time and as Bishop Tobin acknowledged it was one of the most painful decisions he has ever made as a bishop. I ask you to please pray for our Bishop as I know he is praying for you and all the Catholics of our Diocese. Fr. Barrow and I continue to privately celebrate Mass daily for you and your intentions. You continue to be in our prayers and was ask for your prayers for us.
With such an unprecedented situation of the suspension of all Public Masses, the Church recommends to us an ancient practice of “spiritual communion.” It essentially consists of relating to God your desire to receive him in Holy Communion, spiritually uniting yourself to him in an intimate and personal way. Those who make a spiritual communion can receive many spiritual graces from God, strengthening them in their time of trial.
St. John Paul II praised such a practice in his encyclical, Ecclesia de Eucharistia. He writes: “It is good to cultivate in our hearts a constant desire for the sacrament of the Eucharist. This was the origin of the practice of ‘spiritual communion,’ which has happily been established in the Church for centuries and recommended by saints who were masters of the spiritual life. Saint Teresa of Jesus wrote: ‘When you do not receive communion and you do not attend Mass, you can make a spiritual communion, which is a most beneficial practice; by it the love of God will be greatly impressed on you.’ ”
During these unprecedented times in our world. Many think it is all hype and hysteria, but I urge you to pray and to please prepare for the worst and hope for the best. No country in the world can sustain the burden of a large outbreak of this disease, so please continue to pray.
Across the globe many face possible illness and pain, possible suffering and death and loss and grief. We face restriction on our freedoms, economic hardship and probable loss of access to the sacraments for some period of time. We all watched the sufferings of China, and Wuhan in particular. Now we see what has happened to Europe, and in particular to our brothers and sisters in Italy. The Pandemic continues to move elsewhere including here in RI.
On St. Patrick’s Day morning, I was praying and reading the reflections and prayers of Father Willie Doyle, SJ. He was an Irish Jesuit Priest who was a famous preacher, confessor and spiritual director in the early part of the 20th Century. He was known to have a special gift to hunt out the most hardened and neglected sinners and to bring them back with him to the church for confession. He would serve as a Military Chaplain in World War I until he was killed in the Battle of Ypres in 1917. It was reported that he was killed after having run “all day hither and thither over the battlefield like an angel of mercy.” This good shepherd truly gave his life for his sheep.
What would Fr Doyle say to us if he were to speak to us today? I think he would base his advice to us on this prayer he wrote during the war: “God sometimes seems to ask the impossible, a sorrow, a cross. Oh! it would crush me! How can this be! How? Lord, I do not know, but You do. I will trust you always,”
Fr Doyle lived through the terror and tragedy of the First World War. He lived with death day after day. He too had to be without the sacraments. Through it all he remained strong and faithful, serene and peaceful. Soldiers flocked to him, as he was a source of reassurance. Whenever he wrote about troubles he always wrote about trusting in God, and abandoning ourselves into His loving arms. God is our loving Father, and we can trust in Him.
To trust in God we must get to know God, and to do this we must pray. If we have spent more time preparing physically, by gathering food and supplies, than we have by preparing spiritually through prayer and “stockpiling” grace, we may need to reorient ourselves a little.
Prepare with prayer! Keep the faith! Trust in God!! Be well. Do Good! God Bless.