I am near you with all my heart!

I am near you with all my heart!

“I apologize for this,” he said at the start of the audience, “but it is for your safety. Instead of coming near you and shaking your hands and greeting you, we have to greet each other from a distance, but know that I am near you with my heart. I hope that you understand why I am doing this.” Pope Francis 21/10/2020 (Taken from his general audience address.)

The audiences are socially distanced at present, and Pope Francis was referring to the situation of pandemic that we are living with at present.

“I am near you with my heart” This in itself, is a prayer, one that is very much at the forefront of who we are as a pilgrim people at present. The communities in parishes are experiencing this distance as a new normal for the time being.

There is a longing for a return to gathering without restrictions, yet there is a positive side to the way things are done at present. When the liturgy has been stripped back to basics, there is a rediscovering of reverence, I find.

The restrictions have led to fewer people being present and this appears to allow for meaning to be rediscovered too. At a very recent baptism with six present, the father said that “the baptism of our daughter is the important thing, not the amount of people gathering.”

1^stHoly communion celebrations took place over two Masses with parents and siblings present and it was most reverent and meant so much, as this was about receiving Jesus as part of the journey of faith. This was not about the parties or the added extras, stripped back, the Mass revealed what it was truly about…Christ.

Funerals have had smaller gatherings too and at the heart of the grief process the funeral is reinforcing Christian hope, God is not absent, but is the very presence for all our liturgical celebrations.

Weekday Masses attract relatively small congregations at Holy Family, the slow pace and quiet dignity on display encourage faith in God. The celebration of the liturgy is not a case of saying “welcome to showtime!” Being a priest at prayer in the liturgy removes me from its centre and makes Christ central. I am not Fr Showman, entertaining with waving and whooping, rather Christ is the subject, the meaning, and reason for the celebration.

The pandemic has reintroduced a certain change of the way in which things are done. Within the context of liturgy, it has produced for me, the surprising re-emergence of meaning and reverence.

Like the Holy Father says today, “I am near you with all my heart” is the best prayer I can muster when celebrating Mass on the webcam or with a live congregation present in church with me.  

Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us in this time of pandemic. Amen