ONGOING SAFETY GUIDELINES
Given the statewide mask mandate, everyone must wear a facial covering at all
times while in the Cathedral, regardless of vaccination status. Thank
you for your attention to this important safety measure. As Father Ryan
noted recently, wearing a mask is an act of love!
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SOCIALLY DISTANCED SEATING AVAILABLE
We are
still providing socially distanced seating at all weekend Masses.
Seating must be reserved in advance by contacting
Caroline Okello. Please note the Mass you are planning to attend and
the number of seats you will need.
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November 2021
Dear Friends,
You may be aware that
Archbishop Etienne is
lifting the dispensation from the obligation to attend Mass on
Sundays and Holy Days as of December 8, the feast of the Immaculate
Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The archbishop had granted a
general dispensation for obvious reasons back at the beginning of
the outbreak of the pandemic. Now, with the advent of the vaccines
and the assurance from public health officials that it is safe for
people to gather indoors as long as they wear masks and use common
sense, the archbishop’s lifting of the dispensation was both timely
and expected.
Having said that, I can’t help but wonder how
much obligation has to do with people attending Mass. Is it a prime
motivator? I am hoping not. My sense is that most of us look
upon Sunday Mass as something we want to do and wouldn’t consider
not doing except in extraordinary circumstances. And what has been
more extraordinary than the pandemic! During the early days of the
outbreak, many of you shared with me about the sense of loss you
experienced not being able to gather in the Cathedral for Mass - and
the genuine hunger and longing you felt for the Eucharist. I don’t
believe that obligation can prompt such feelings!
Of course, at this point, we have been able
to be in the Cathedral for Mass for about a year-and-a-half, and
many of you have availed yourselves of the opportunity. We began
with relatively small numbers outside in the Archbishop Murphy
Courtyard (often with wind or rain, and sometimes both!). Then,
before long, we were able to come into the Cathedral for Mass. Of
course, in order to maintain safe social distancing, there were
rather severe limitations on the number of people we could
accommodate, and this meant having to register ahead of time for
Mass. It was cumbersome, for sure – and off-putting for many - but a
necessary evil.
Eventually, the need for registration was
eliminated and people could simply show up – as long as they were
wearing a mask. And increasing numbers did show up. And those who
did loved being able to experience once again what it means to be a
community of faith gathered around the table of the Word and the
Eucharist. There were fits and starts, of course – as Covid cases
rose and fell in the county and the state. Sometimes we could do
congregational singing; other times we couldn’t. There was some
frustration and disappointment with all this, but at least we got to
celebrate the Eucharist together.
Looking over those many months, I can only be
grateful to God for keeping our community together, and I can only
be grateful to all of you for the different ways you participated:
some of you by being present in the Cathedral; others of you by
joining the community via livestream; and all of you, I’m sure,
praying for the day when things would return to normal.
Now, I’m
not so naïve as to think that we’ve arrived at normal. In fact, I’m
not so sure any longer what ‘normal’ is! And since the
pandemic is still with us, precautions still need to be taken,
protocols need to be followed. But, my friends, we are at a new
moment, and even if the Archbishop hadn’t decided to lift the
dispensation, I’m thinking – hoping! - that those of you who have
yet to return to the Cathedral are giving serious thought to doing
so.
I’m not speaking, of course, of those of you
who have health conditions that keep you from being in crowds, or
those of you who, for medical reasons, have not been able to get
vaccinated. You have every good reason to continue doing exactly
what you have been doing for the past twenty months; namely, joining
with the community each Sunday and Holy Day via the miracle of
livestream. As I mentioned in a letter I wrote well over a year ago,
those of you who remain at home for these reasons are fulfilling the
greatest obligation of all: the obligation to love your neighbor as
yourself!
But what about the rest of us who have been
vaccinated – some even with the booster shot – and who enjoy good
health? You are the ones I am eager to welcome back to the Cathedral
for Sunday Mass. Not because you are obliged to do so but because
you get to do so and, from the perspective of faith, you need to do
so. And, speaking for the community that gathers in the Cathedral
each weekend, I would add that we need you! Our worship is lacking
something essential when you are not there, and you are depriving
yourself of the nourishment that can only come from the sacramental
encounter with Christ in the Eucharist. As good as the
livestream experience has been for so many (and I can’t count the
number of people who have told me it has saved their sanity!); and
as comfortable as it has been to be able to participate in Sunday
Mass from the comfort of home; and as easy it is to hear, to
concentrate and perhaps even to feel quite involved in the Mass
without the usual distractions and occasional disturbances that are
part of life in the Cathedral (and, let’s be honest, as nice as it
has been not having to drive downtown for Mass!)—still, the
livestream Mass is no substitute for what I can only call the real
thing!
My friends, I hope you will see this as an
invitation, an invitation to rejoin the community in person, an
invitation to experience once again the joy that comes from being
together in our beautiful cathedral and celebrating and receiving
the Eucharist.
Let me return to where I started—to that
business of obligation. As you’ve probably picked up, I prefer not
to speak about that when it comes to something as important and
life-giving as Sunday Mass. I’d prefer we simply settle for wanting
to be here and I’m hoping you agree. So, for all of you who are
able, I look forward to seeing you soon; and for those who cannot
and should not, I continue to hold you in my heart and in my prayers
each day, looking forward, as I know you do, to the day when
Covid-19 is but a painful and distant memory. What a blessed and
happy day that will be!
Father Michael G. Ryan
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