Good News Received After Posting This: St. Michael’s hopes to begin livestreaming a daily Noon Mass beginning Monday, April 20.

I hope that I am speaking for more than myself as I write these words about this strange land of watching Mass on TV or the internet rather than being in celebrating it in St. Michael Church with my companions at our daily Noon Mass. For all of us, our daily routine has changed, not unlike that of you who are now at home rather than in your work places. But while you are still connected with those in your workplace via phone, email and internet, we have no contact information for many our Noon Mass companions.  I miss seeing them, hearing their voices and greeting them as I or they arrive for Mass. Even if one of us becomes ill or dies, there is no way to let us know about it. Many attendees are from surrounding parishes.

I am sure that, like myself, the others have been “tuning in” to Mass on the internet or TV.  I’ve been participating in the Masses provided by the Word On Fire Ministries, Catholic Faith Network, St. Patrick’s Cathedral and, recently, St. Helen’s in Westfield, but having participated in St. Michael’s internet Easter Triduum Masses has made me feel like a person trapped in the foreign land of Masses celebrated by priests I do not know personally, in churches and chapels that are not my own.  I find myself longing for the time when we can go back to our home church and our home congregation. This is especially true during these Octave of Easter Masses and their Post-Resurrection Readings.

In today’s Gospel, when I heard the words of Mary Magdalene, “They have taken my Lord, and I don’t know where to find Him.” I thought:  how real those words are for me and my daily St. Michael Mass Companions!  And when I heard Fr. Mike, Pastor of St. Helen’s, say in today’s homily, “God saves and redeems in the reality of a body.” I thought again of Mary Magdalene’s, “They have taken my Lord. . . .” and how we daily communicants are missing the precious Body and Blood of Christ, given for so many reasons, one of which is that we, very much dependent on our senses for our “take” on reality, need the Eucharist to remind us that God is here – now. Like the disciples after the Resurrection, we need to see things and people that remind us of the more important non-physical presence of God’s Spirit ever here with us.

I will continue to participate in and be grateful for the TV or livestreamed Masses for as long as the social distancing mandate is in effect.  They fill the void only partially. They do not seem to “save and redeem” as much as those Masses we experience in St. Michael’s, our spiritual home, with our flesh and blood priests and companions.  We are grateful for our St. Michael internet Weekend Masses where we can see the church, are more closely connected and hear some familiar voices.  We need that to remember that we and they still are praying together, even though we are physically apart.

Sister Loretta

PS. Good News: St. Michael’s hopes to begin livestreaming a daily noon Mass beginning Monday