March 29, 2020 - "The Coronavirus Outbreak"

I am writing this column as the Coronavirus outbreak is in our midst.  As a precaution the parish offices will be closed this week.  The office staff will work remotely.  I will be here to answer phone calls, but am trying to practice social distancing.  I need to be prudent about such things as I am in the at risk category.  I am now 70 (and as someone recently told me I am officially an old person) and have a somewhat compromised immune system owing to a necessary treatment of powerful chemotherapy for an aggressive cancer several years ago.
 
It is very difficult for many who are used to receiving Holy Communion on a regular basis to be deprived of the consolation of receiving the Eucharist.  It is likewise very difficult for me as your pastor not to be able to give you Communion!  One thing that we have been encouraged to do is to communicate to you, my beloved brothers and sisters, the value of making a spiritual Communion.  The graces of a sacramental Communion are present in a spiritual Communion”  “[through] their desire for the sacrament in union with the Church, no matter how distant they may be physically, they are intimately and really united to her and therefore receive the fruits of the sacrament” even absent the sacramental sign.”  This statement is from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Letter to Bishops of Certain Questions Concerning the Minister of the Eucharist.  I truly believe that embracing this cross of limited access to the Sacrament is our path to sanctity and an opportunity to die to ourselves and our desires—as faith-filled as they may be.
 
The Most Reverend Mark Brennan was, for many years, our neighbor as Pastor of St. Martin of Tours Parish, Gaithersburg.  Now Bishop of Wheeling-Charleston, he wrote a letter on March 13, 2020 to the faithful of his diocese on the occasion of his having to suspend public Masses there because of the Coronavirus outbreak.  The last three paragraphs of the letter contain some good advice for all of us.  I would like to share those paragraphs with you here:
 
Faithful Catholic people love the Mass, so it is a hardship not to be able to celebrate it.  I encourage you to remain steadfast in faith during this time by praying the Liturgy of the Hours in your homes, praying the Rosary, and by reflecting on the readings of the day.  All of these resources are available online.  We can look on this development as a penance we do together during this Lenten season and offer our disappointment and sorrow up to God.  May the Lord give us the joy of celebrating Easter together in good health!
 
Finally, I would urge everyone to pray for the sick and for those who care for them, in particular our doctors, nurses, and other medical support staff who must deal with up close with the sick every day.
 
Let us pray for a quick end to the Corona Virus outbreak in our country and around the world.  May Jesus, the Divine Physician, send his healing grace upon the people he has redeemed.  Let us hold one another close in prayer and Christian love.
 
God bless you and your loved ones!
Until next week,
Fr. John