{"id":462,"date":"2020-03-20T17:03:28","date_gmt":"2020-03-20T21:03:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/corporalworks.com\/wp\/?p=462"},"modified":"2020-03-22T19:01:44","modified_gmt":"2020-03-22T23:01:44","slug":"spiritual-communion-from-my-side-of-the-altar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/corporalworks.com\/wp\/?p=462","title":{"rendered":"Spiritual Communion From My Side of the Altar"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Before this week, I can remember only one time I presided at a Mass with no congregation. I was on retreat at a very nice resort in California (long story), and there were Mass intentions assigned for the days I was there. On day one, no one else showed up. What to do? They were clearly expecting a Mass for the people listed in the book, and had asked me to do it. So I did it. It felt awfully strange and isolated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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St. Austin’s Main Altar<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Today I helped out at St. Austin\u2019s Church, and presided at their morning live-streamed Mass<\/a>. I wasn\u2019t totally alone. We had a terrific lector, a camera operator (thanks, Rich!) and one of our Paulists in residence came over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But I was also acutely aware that there were plenty of people watching on Facebook live. FB says there were 815 views, but that includes anyone who watched for as little as a few seconds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although I wasn\u2019t aware of how many people might be watching, and most of them weren\u2019t \u201cmy\u201d parishioners, I had a definite sense of connection. And in this time of isolation, that\u2019s important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be sure, these live-streamed Masses fall something short of the full glory of the Church\u2019s liturgy. The church seems empty and dark, and the sound echoes in a way that seems to emphasize the emptiness. The Church\u2019s official documents on the liturgy<\/a> speak eloquently of the full and active participation of the faithful in our worship. While it\u2019s not possible to fully participate (I.e. receive) in the Eucharist at a distance, for now this is what we can do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For anyone who\u2019s watching these many live-streamed Masses, I want you to know that we know you\u2019re there, praying with and for us\u2014 with and for the Church and the whole world. We can\u2019t see you, but we are in spiritual communion with you. Thank you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If your parish isn\u2019t able to provide you with a live-streamed Mass, The Paulist Fathers have lots of good options for you: www.paulist.org\/watchmass<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Before this week, I can remember only one time I presided at a Mass with no congregation. I was on retreat at a very nice resort in California (long story), and there were Mass intentions assigned for the days I was there. On day one, no one else showed up. What to do? They were clearly expecting a Mass for the people listed in the … Continue reading Spiritual Communion From My Side of the Altar<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[31,37],"tags":[35,32,36],"class_list":["post-462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-catholicism","tag-mass","tag-ministry","tag-pandemic"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5FUlW-7s","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/corporalworks.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/corporalworks.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/corporalworks.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corporalworks.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corporalworks.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=462"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/corporalworks.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":465,"href":"https:\/\/corporalworks.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462\/revisions\/465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/corporalworks.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corporalworks.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corporalworks.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}