“Patient endurance is what you need now” the author of the Letter to the Hebrews tells us (Heb 10:36). Last Sunday, St. Peter also told us “If you are patient when you suffer for doing what is good, this is a grace before God” (1 Pet 2:20).
Social distancing and our state’s Stay
Home/Stay Safe directive is requiring a lot of patience and some suffering, but it is for a good and holy purpose. It is keeping our health care facilities and medical personnel from being overwhelmed, flattening the infection curve and protecting our vulnerable population as well as the health of our society.
Our state is looking at reopening the economy, but it is guided by science and the wisdom of our health professionals. It will require us to go in stages, attentive to the capacity of our health care systems, the availability of testing, our ability to track infections and the risk posed to our vulnerable population.
The four phases of easing the
Stay Home/Stay Safe directive would allow gatherings of under 50 individual in stage 3. The earliest that would possibly be is mid-June. Gatherings of over 50 individuals would not be until stage 4. The earliest that could be is in July. Of course, those benchmarks could be much later.
Other states and areas across the country may be trying to move more quickly, but remember, our state was the first to experience the coronavirus. Our state has a strong scientific and medical community that can guide our elected officials in making safe and prudent decisions. In addition, our citizens may have a greater sense of the Common Good that sometimes supersedes individual wants or desires.
“Patient endurance is what you need now.” Ask God for that gift.
The parish is exploring what we can do in each of the governor’s four phases to help meet the spiritual needs of our parishioners and continue our outreach throughout the parish. You may know that in the current phase one, the governor is allowing “drive in spiritual services.” Both the archdiocese and the parish are examining what this might mean in our own Eucharistic tradition (not to mention our rainy northwest climate). No decisions or plans have yet been made.
Please continue to join together in our live stream Mass on Sundays at 10:30 am. You can also participate in the Mass at a later time on our web page. Continue your prayer. Be good and kind to yourself, a lot is being asked of you. And do not hesitate to reach out to family, friends and the parish staff and myself through a phone call or social media.
-Fr. Bill