…will be very much like the old one. From Amy Welborn:

There is wisdom in tradition.
Traditional practices grew out of human experience — human experiences of joy, sorrow, difficulty and challenge. Human experiences of trying to obey Christ, bring his presence into the world as it is — in peace, war, plenty, famine, health and disease. I wrote a bit about this earlier here. Yes, tradition and traditional practices are always subject to reform and development. But it helps if, as we reform, we keep the wisdom of the tradition in mind and are realistic about life in this world as well.
Short version: Maybe they knew what they were doing, after all.

SOURCE: Church life in the post-pandemic world

“Guidelines for the Reception of Communion” (Published May 11, 2020)

See also:

Bishop’s Letter

Guidelines for the Resumption of Public Mass

Guidelines for the Celebration of Mass Outdooors

By Father Richard Cipolla

It just snowed this evening.   Not the heaviest snow I have ever seen, but still snow, with wind that bent the trees.  A sort of snow squall.  And here in a suburb of New York City on the ninth of May, May, the “pretty little month”, when the dogwoods bloom with their blood- stained white flowers.  May, the month of Mary.  And watching this theater of nature unfold, I went out into it and smiled a smile of happiness, for amidst the weeks, nay rather months, of shutdown and of social distancing that is necessary and yet against every Catholic instinct that delights in embracing and kissing and holding and clasping and eating and drinking, that instinct that takes ultimately seriously the fact that God became flesh and dwelt among us:  that in this singular and yet natural event that is called a pandemic,  a sign is given, that the reality of what we are going through is indeed cold and “out of season” and that we are asked to do things we would not choose to do that are against our Catholic—not early twenty-first century social instincts—but Catholic instincts that are grounded in the remarkable and totally not expected event of God becoming flesh, our flesh and dying on a Cross to redeem us so that we might not die forever but have everlasting life.

Reveling in a snow squall is hardly what was in the mind of Gerard Manly Hopkins, poet and priest, when he wrote his poem: “May is Mary’s month”. His poem links Mary’s motherhood with the burgeoning flowering of Spring. And rightly so.  And then Hopkins says this:

Dr. Jennifer Donelson-Nowicka will be teaching sacred music course this summer on-line.   Full informatio can be found at the St. Joseph Seminary website:

• Summer Sacred Music Courses

  • June 1-July 28 – Principles of Sacred Music ( 3 credits or audit, taught by Dr. Jennifer Donelson-Nowicka, 8 weeks asynchronous online + 2 days online-live [synchronous] via Zoom, July 27 and 28)

  • July 13-17 – Principles of Chant (3 credits or audit, taught by Dr. Jennifer Donelson-Nowicka, synchronous via Zoom)

  • July 20-24 – Teaching Gregorian Chant to Children (3 credits or audit, taught by Dr. Jennifer Donelson-Nowicka, synchronous via Zoom)

  • July 29-31 – 3-day – Conducting and Group Vocal Pedagogy for the Parish Music Director (2 credits or audit, taught by Dr. Timothy McDonnell, synchronous via Zoom)

  • August 3-7 – Introduction to the Organ for Pianists (2 credits or audit, taught by Dr. Crista Miller, synchronous via Zoom)

…about how the democracies are dealing with the Coronavirus. “A country, even a culture is imploding right now and nobody seems to care.  What’s taking place right now in the countries which claimed to be civilized?”

……

Since I have recalled the responsibility of all of us, I cannot avoid mentioning the even more serious responsibility of those who are supposed to have the mission of watching over the dignity of man. Especially the Church, which radically denies her essential principles by making herself the handmaid of science, which by now has become the new religion of our time.

The Church, under a pope who calls himself Francis, has forgotten that Francis embraced the lepers. She has forgotten that one of the corporal works of mercy is to visit the sick. She has forgotten that the stories of the martyrs teach the willingness to sacrifice one’s life rather than renounce the Faith, and that to abandon one’s own neighbor means renouncing the Faith.

Excerpt from: Giorgio Agamben, “The Approach of the Liberal Democracies to the Coronavirus: I have a Question,” Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 15 April, 2020. (Giorgio Agamben is a major European philosopher; the Neue Zürcher Zeitung is one of the main German-language newspapers.)

We wish you and your families a blessed Easter.

Medieval stained glass windows are in the Strasbourg Cathedral in France.

(Above) The “communion package”

This time at the Catholic Chaplaincy of the University of Munich. To enable Students ( in the original German a politically correct, nongrammatical, androgynous form of the word is used) to receive communion at home. The idea is that in this time of pestilence everyone can be  an “extrordinary minister” of communion  – to himself.  Accordingly, “divine service sets”  have beeen prepared and distributed. Each contains a palm,  holy water, a consecrated host and prayers. Everything is packed following the highest hygenic standards. Recipients are admonished to  “treat the Host respectfully.” No need to worry – the chaplain claims he knows everyone who is receiving the set….

SOURCE

SOURCE

There are a few priests who have risen to the occasion. One of them is Father Joseph Scolaro, who has planned an extensive Eucharistic procession tomorrow covering a big expanse of his neighborhood.

Here’s what his notice says:

“You may not be able to come to the church to see the Blessed Sacrament… but he can come to you!

“Father Scolaro will be going around town with the Blessed Sacrament this Thursday beginning at 4 pm. Visit https://tinyurl.com/sbvlqkl to see a detailed route.
Please meet us anywhere along the route. We will be posting updates as we hit every mile marker on the map. Out of reverence for the Blessed Sacrament we’re invited to genuflect as Our Lord passes and we receive His blessing

“We ask that you do not follow us in procession, but rather greet the Blessed Sacrament from a distance outside your home.”

A screen shot of this morning’s 7 am Low Mass at St. Patrick’s Church, live-streamed.

Father Michael Novajosky will celebrate a Missa Cantata at 6 pm this evening at St. Patrick’s Church in Bridgeport, CT.  It will be a Votive Mass in Time of Pestilence.   The Mass will be live-streamed from the Cathedral Parish website.

Father Novajosky has been posting a daily schedule of live-streamed Masses on this website, including a daily Low Mass at 7 am.  He is planning add more to the schedule.