This Palm Sunday, with only a handful of people in a church ready for eight hundred or more, there were some upsides. The parking lot was not the usual roller derby. We sent up clouds of incense without triggering asthma attacks. We had big savings on the bill for communion wine. We printed only ten worship aids and saved a lot of trees.

All fun aside, it was not the same. I missed seeing you and celebrating Mass with you. I know that many watched the Palm Sunday Mass—over three thousand views through the parish website nativity.org, and another thousand views through Facebook. As you know too well, it was not the same. More than a few of you have told me, “I miss the Mass!” Would we rather see Easter dinner on our phones or be at the table with our families ready for Easter ham? Seeing the Mass is not the same as being at Mass. 

Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles and president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops had this to say. “My brother bishops and I are painfully aware that many of our Catholic people are troubled and hurt by the loss of the Eucharist and the consolation of the sacraments. This is a bitter affliction that we all feel deeply. We ache with our people and we long for the day when we can be reunited around the altar of the Lord to celebrate the sacred mysteries.” 

We ask God for the grace to bear this burden together with patience and charity, united as one family of God in his universal Church.

On behalf of the bishops in the United States, Archbishop Gomez will pray the Litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus for an end to the coronavirus pandemic. He asks us to join him via live stream in this prayer on Good Friday at 12 noon on the East Coast. Let us join as one family of God here in the United States in asking our Lord for his mercy.

What’s more, Pope Francis has granted a special plenary indulgence to those who pray for an end to this pandemic. To receive this indulgence, you need to pray the Litany of the Sacred Heart on Good Friday, be truly sorry for your sins and desire to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation as soon as it is possible, and you need to pray for the intentions of the Pope. The intention of the Pope for April is that “those suffering from addiction may be properly helped and accompanied." View the video https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2020-04/pope-francis-prayer-intention-april-2020-addictions.html 

Our parish website nativity.org/livestream connects you to the Holy Week liturgies and special prayers such as the Litany and the Stations of the Cross and the Liturgy of the Hours. Bishop Noonan will preside from St. James Cathedral for Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Easter Vigil. In these ways, we can be spiritually united in the mystical body of Christ.

This Holy Week will be different. Our churches may be closed, but Christ is not quarantined and his Gospel is not in chains. One church sign read, “The church is not empty. It’s been deployed.” 

Blessed Holy Week,

Father David