From Our Pastors
During the long weeks of the Pandemic lockdown we could only say private masses. And despite finding ways to share that with you virtually, it is unsettling to celebrate mass without you. There has been a sense of relief to be able to resume masses in our churches with the few who can venture out.
Despite the obvious apprehension, there is a quiet joy in being together again. We are picking up parts of the mass we had perhaps become too familiar with. We are noticing elements of the churches that had receded into the background in more normal times. At St Boniface the two front large stained glass windows portray the life and martyrdom of St Boniface. The juxtaposition of the beauty of the art with the cruel reality of his death reminds us of the days we are living through. The struggle to stay faithful, loving and hopeful in the face of considerable obstacles is a perennial reminder of the need for grace and community.
At Assumption that juxtaposition is even more starkly drawn. The windows at ABVM depict the life and death of Mary. Here we see the love of a mother from conception to the excruciating witness of the unjust and tortured death of her only child, her son.
The long days of the pandemic and the endless procession of the deaths of children of African American mothers reminds us that St Boniface and Mary the Mother of God are not quaint tales of history, removed from our own lives, but realities painfully relived in every corner of our world every day.
Almost sixty years ago the Church met in Rome over several years to reimagine how we might engage the timeless treasures of faith with a rapidly changing world. One of the central decisions of Vatican Council II was to reimagine the way we celebrate mass. The Church asked the priest to turn around and engage his people, speak in their language and the Church asked us all to become more active participants in the celebrating and living out of our faith.
The experience of being absent from our churches, and the immersion back into their story, can highlight the enduring relevance of coming together to hear the word of God, to receive Communion, to be bathed in the liturgy of sound, sight, smell and touch as a community. But as Vatican II enjoined us, we celebrate mass to be engaged and transformed so that in turn we can help create a more just and equitable world for all. We are grateful for all of this: the time of lockdown and private masses; this transition time of masses celebrated succinctly and with a scattered congregation; and we look forward to a time when we can all come together again bringing our lives and the life of our world to the altar to be engaged, transformed and renewed, and send out to make a difference in a world that surely needs grace and community more than ever.
Please pray for Jacob Blake and his mother.
Fr. Mark Lane, C.O. and Fr. Michael Callaghan, C.O.
