It was more than a halfway of writing part one ( previous article), then an unexpected announcement we heard from our Pastor-Priest.
As usual, it is my routine every Sunday morning to prepare the laptop computer for the Sunday virtual Liturgy for the 9:00 am Mass. The other is the setting up of a small “altar” table, white linen cover, a candle, and a crucifix.
I was browsing the Facebook account of St Thomas Aquinas Parish Catholic Church (STACC) while I kept switching to the CatholicBreakfast YouTube channel to monitor which of them I would know has started the broadcast live. This YouTube channel publishes the STACC Holy Masses, lectures of Fr. John, and other parish activities.
Just in time, the YouTube channel opens, and our Pastor Fr. John Muir appears before the altar to give some introductory words and later announced that there would be a Communion after the Mass only for those who attended. My wife and I decided to take the Communion since we have not received it for almost six weeks when the Bishop has dispensed all of the faithful from the obligation to attend Sunday mass.
(READ: The desire for Eucharistic Communion over COVID-19 Risk – Part I)
Soon after the Final Blessing, before 10:00 am, we decided to pull out immediately. The church is almost 15 minutes drive from our place but has reached the church parking lot almost 10:12 am. We were following a car in a rush, which I believed is also one of us proceeding for Communion when I saw it driving through the church parking lot.
After parking, we immediately proceeded to the entrance yard of the church and saw a couple of guys already entering the right entrance door with a sign, “Entrance.” In the near distance, a lady is supervising the sequence of everyone coming in. The first door at the left bears the sign “Exit.”
I already sanitized my hands while walking towards the entrance door. At the doorway, we joined the line with a meter distance away from the person ahead of me. At that moment, I took pictures of the scene before Communion. My wife behind me more than a meter away waited for the cue from another guy standing right after the door in a range. There were two Communion stations provided with roughly five (5) to six (6) meters in between. Fr John and the Deacon were on post wearing their liturgical vestments and a face mask.
Our turn to proceed to Fr John’s station, where I noticed a kneeler, was used as a barrier to maintain a meter distance away just enough to reach the hand of the communicants.
As usual, the priest shows the Host to the person while saying, “The Body of Christ.” After my response, “Amen,” I saw his two fingers ( thumb and index finger of the right hand) clipping the edge side of the Host safely, then slowly put it on my left palm already facing upward over my right. As soon as the opposite edge of the Host touched my palm, he slowly released the Host without his two fingers touching my palm.
Immediately I took the Host and put it into my mouth and proceeded near to the exit. Again I took the chance to take a picture of another scene of the Communion.
The place where the Communion took place is at the narthex, a space before the nave. Others called it vestibule. I notice that the time to move out was not enough until the Host would disappear in my tongue. I have mentioned in Part I that if favorable, assign a specific area where people can take a short meditation after Communion for a reasonable time until the Sacred Host is fully dissolved.
The Host was still in my mouth, slowly softened while on my way to the parking lot until it dissolved just in time when we got into the car.
Maybe the post-communion scenario must also be addressed when parishes would provide Communion service like this. Many forms of risks are just around not until COVID19 virus is gone, but for us who believe in Jesus in the Eucharist could only hold on to the letter of St Paul to the Romans,
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:
“For Your sake, we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor principalities, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
(Romans 8: 35-39)
