EPIPHANY OF OUR LORD CATHOLIC CHURCH
  • Home
  • About
    • History >
      • Altar Relics
    • Meet the Staff
    • Map: Find us!
    • Calendar
    • Bulletins >
      • Article Submission
      • Pastor's bulletin article
    • New Parishioners
  • Liturgy
    • Latin Mass Schedule
    • Sacrament Prep
    • Altar Boy page
    • Music
    • Vocations
    • Extra Stuff >
      • Divine Office
      • Fraternity of the Sorrowful Passion of Christ Prayer Book
      • Help! I cannot find the right Mass in my missal! I don't know when to sit, stand or kneel!
      • Understand the Bible!
      • Formed.Org
      • Old talks you missed!
  • Community
    • Photos >
      • First Communion 2025
      • Confirmation 2025
      • Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre Mass 2024
      • Confirmation 2024
      • First Communion 2024
      • Archbishop Cordileone - March 2024
      • Bishop Schneider's visit
      • Cardinal Burke visit
      • First Holy Communion 2023
      • Confirmation 2023
      • Sr. Winny's Projects
    • Adults >
      • Adult Catechism Class audio
      • Council of Catholic Women
      • Knights of Columbus
      • Holy Face of Jesus Prayer Group
      • Fraternity of St. John the Apostle >
        • FSSJA - Martinmas 2023
      • Men's Club (Holy League)
    • Youth >
      • Anima Christi High School Youth Group >
        • Anima Christi Prom 2023
      • Sancti Amici Middle School Youth Group
      • American Heritage Girls
      • Catechesis of the Good Shepherd
      • Catholic Enrichment Week (CEW)
      • DOVES
      • Troops of St. George
    • Spiritual Motherhood
    • Parish Business Directory
  • Give
    • Online Giving
    • Things that need doing

He only shuts up when he is writing!

The Safest Mass!

5/24/2020

 
From the Pastor:    The Safest Mass!

       As the Covid-19 scare continues everyone is trying to figure out which “system” works best for opening up closed businesses. The Church is no different than businesses in this regard. How can we celebrate Mass with the least possibility of spreading around a very virulent virus? I have been trying to piece together what would be the ideal form of Mass for battling this virus. Any bishops who wish to use my findings are most welcome to do so.
       First of all, some people worry that the virus can be aerosolized, or sprayed through breath, so the obvious solution is a Mass without a choir. That is not ideal for big celebrations, solemnities, and other great festivals, but it is not unworkable. The virus in its airborne form travels fewer than 6 feet unless the person infected sings, shouts, talks loudly, or otherwise projects his voice in a lung-emptying manner. There should be no singing (nor any verbal responses) from the pews, either, since if a choir can infect others, so much more can several hundred “active participants” spread the virus. With singing and speaking being eliminated the virus will not travel anywhere near six feet from the infected breather. Bishops are suggesting using only every other pew, to give the virus time to fall before hitting a person. But it will not travel 6 feet if it encounters a “roadblock”, such as the crook of your arm, or another solid obstacle. The virus will seemingly stop at the barrier and stick to it. Barriers are good but we don’t need plexiglass in the pews. We can simply use every pew, not every other one, so that the clothing on the backside of the people in front of others becomes barriers! The person behind you will, if infected, cover your back with the breathed-out virus, keeping it from going any further. You don’t touch your back so you won’t infect yourself and you become a virus filter for everyone else. Friction, which you will have every time you sit or adjust yourself in your pew, car, or Lazyboy, evidently kills the coronavirus, as does laundering clothing, so the filter is self-cleaning! Also, unless the infected person breathes through his ears, he will not infect the people on either side of him, so there is no reason to sit six feet apart from him. In fact, the closer we pack the people in, the better the chance that the human filter in front will do all the dirty work, as fidgeting, moving around, and turning every which way would be eliminated in a tightly packed congregation.
       The priest should face away from the people so that he can neither give nor receive the virus. The altar boy should also not hold the missal for the priest, as each would then be breathing directly into the face of the other. Rather, the missal should remain always on the altar and the priest should say the prayers and read the readings facing away from everybody. The few times the priest should turn to address the people, he should be far from them, perhaps with the sanctuary marked off with a barrier of some sort, like an altar rail, and should keep his head humbly facing slightly down in order to force the virus particles to the floor more quickly. A homily could easily be dispensed with under such circumstances, like the Tridentine (but not Novus Ordo) liturgical rules allow, eliminating the only major time an infected priest would spew his viruses toward the people or vice versa. Obviously, a safe Mass would also have no sign of peace (even turning to wave makes people breathe towards each other) and no hand-holding at -- or even congregational recitation of -- the Our Father. At Communion time the people could approach the barrier (altar rail) and, since they don’t breath sideways, kneel (so that they are not standing face to face with the priest) side by side to receive Holy Communion on the tongue without saying a word, not even “amen.” The priest could give the Benediction to each person using a whispered prayer, virtually eliminating any chance of viruses escaping his mouth. It is much better that only one person, the priest, distribute Holy Communion rather than increase the odds of having an infected distributor by employing extraordinary ministers. Also, since the hands are the main carriers of the virus to the eyes, nose, and mouth of the uninfected person, distributing Holy Communion on the tongue eliminates all possibility of the priest touching a virus-laden hand and passing it on to every other person from that point forward. It goes without saying that the priest should be the only one consuming the Precious Blood and should purify the sacred vessels himself. Formal prayers after Mass, which break the utter silence of the congregation up until then, would be recited by the people on their knees with bowed heads and in subdued voices. Time spent afterward in silent thanksgiving not only would spread no virus but would give people the chance to depart whenever they finish rather than uniformly in an unsafe group jostling each other, fighting for the exits as the Mass ends.
       It should be clear by now that the safest form of Mass is a crowded Traditional Latin Low Mass. Worldwide, only it should be celebrated until such time as we can, perhaps in stage 2, transition into an occasional High Mass or, in stage three, Solemn High Mass. By then, we should all be inoculated against all other unsafe forms of Mass and liturgical abuses will depart with the coronavirus!

With prayers for your holiness,
Rev. Fr. Edwin Palka


Comments are closed.

    Author:
    ​Fr. Palka

    Archives

    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus
  • Home
  • About
    • History >
      • Altar Relics
    • Meet the Staff
    • Map: Find us!
    • Calendar
    • Bulletins >
      • Article Submission
      • Pastor's bulletin article
    • New Parishioners
  • Liturgy
    • Latin Mass Schedule
    • Sacrament Prep
    • Altar Boy page
    • Music
    • Vocations
    • Extra Stuff >
      • Divine Office
      • Fraternity of the Sorrowful Passion of Christ Prayer Book
      • Help! I cannot find the right Mass in my missal! I don't know when to sit, stand or kneel!
      • Understand the Bible!
      • Formed.Org
      • Old talks you missed!
  • Community
    • Photos >
      • First Communion 2025
      • Confirmation 2025
      • Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre Mass 2024
      • Confirmation 2024
      • First Communion 2024
      • Archbishop Cordileone - March 2024
      • Bishop Schneider's visit
      • Cardinal Burke visit
      • First Holy Communion 2023
      • Confirmation 2023
      • Sr. Winny's Projects
    • Adults >
      • Adult Catechism Class audio
      • Council of Catholic Women
      • Knights of Columbus
      • Holy Face of Jesus Prayer Group
      • Fraternity of St. John the Apostle >
        • FSSJA - Martinmas 2023
      • Men's Club (Holy League)
    • Youth >
      • Anima Christi High School Youth Group >
        • Anima Christi Prom 2023
      • Sancti Amici Middle School Youth Group
      • American Heritage Girls
      • Catechesis of the Good Shepherd
      • Catholic Enrichment Week (CEW)
      • DOVES
      • Troops of St. George
    • Spiritual Motherhood
    • Parish Business Directory
  • Give
    • Online Giving
    • Things that need doing