Celebrating the Eucharist

[ontheway1]

. . . .

Jesuit priest Walter Ciszek once described his years as a prisoner in a Soviet gulag. Risking great punishment, Ciszek said Mass in secret every day for his fellow prisoners, whether in drafty storage sites or muddy building foundations. Sometimes the ever-hungry prisoners would forgo their meager rations for 24 hours in order to keep the fast. In short, both priest and believer did whatever was necessary to celebrate the Eucharist.

John Safranek MD writes from his emergency room experience during the coronavirus panic.
“I understand the dangers of the coronavirus, for I face this threat every time I step into the hospital. And I understand the bishops’ sense of responsibility to the common good. But I also know that infectious diseases are a danger every winter. Influenza kills 30,000–50,000 people every year and infects 10,000 people a day in winter. Yet we still exchange handshakes and receive under both species at many Masses.”

His reflections on the Mass during the virus can be found here - We Cannot Live Without the Lord's Day | John Safranek, M.D. | First Things

 

[dscath]

The bishops have decided that the Eucharist will not be celebrated until it is safe to do so. Human life is more important than participation in the sacrifice of the mass.

This is false. The bishops have NOT decided the Eucharist will not be celebrated.

The Mass and the Sacrifice are celebrated daily. The only difference is the sharing of the body and blood of our Lord with the congregation.

Spiritual Communion is, given the circumstances, a celebration of the Eucharist, not a prohibition of such celebration.

Comparing our inconveniences with the trials of Fr. Ciszek, is a little dramatic. The two circumstances hardly compare.

St. Paul tells us, in his letter to the Philippians to “Rejoice in the Lord”, and not to lament our circumstances.

I will say it again Rejoice!

 

[Tis_Bearself]

The bishops have decided that the Eucharist will not be celebrated until it is safe to do so.

On the contrary, there are multiple celebrations of the Eucharist going on every day in almost every church in the USA. The exclusion of the public from the celebration does not take away from the spiritual value of the celebration of the Eucharist by the clergy. We’re simply back to the situation of the pre-Reformation where in many places the priests said Mass behind a screen or even inside a small church, with the public on the outside of the screen or totally outside the church, and almost never receiving Holy Communion.

Can’t really comment further on your thread when the initial premise is completely incorrect.

 

[ontheway1]

Thank you for your reaction to my opening comment. Have you read the article I quote from?

 

[dscath]

Have you read the article I quote from?

I have.

But,

John Safranek MD writes from his emergency room experience during the coronavirus panic.
“I understand the dangers of the coronavirus, for I face this threat every time I step into the hospital. And I understand the bishops’ sense of responsibility to the common good. But I also know that infectious diseases are a danger every winter. Influenza kills 30,000–50,000 people every year and infects 10,000 people a day in winter. Yet we still exchange handshakes and receive under both species at many Masses.”

I’m not sure I want to take medical advice from this doctor. COVID-19 is NOT the flu. Not following the CDC guidelines is flirting with suicide or murder.

Six people sitting around a table with a loaded revolver, spinning the chamber and then pulling the trigger will only result in one death. That doesn’t make Russian Roulette a good idea, merely because you have only a 1 in 6 chance of dying!

 

[ontheway1]

“Yet the world thirsts after the Church’s true Eucharist. For the past few weeks, we have wavered and wondered at what is possible, hesitated at epidemiological obstacles, shuddered before economic threat, and variously decried diverse responses to restricted worship. It’s time to move on, and our governments and people long to find a way to do this. Let Christians now figure out how we might celebrate the Eucharist again, and quickly, and let us commend our purposes. Let us take the arguments of the past weeks and, like the wise scribes of the Kingdom we are—scientists of divine prudence, of purpose and meaning, of human destiny—let us outline how we shall “come together” responsibly.”

A Waiting Eucharistic World | Ephraim Radner | First Things

 

[Tis_Bearself]

I did, and I noticed several things:

1. The doctor is a doctor, not any sort of clergy person or priest. Do bishops tell Doctor how to do his job? No? Then Doctor needs to have the same respect for bishops.
2. The article is entitled “We Cannot Live Without the Lord’s Day”. First of all, most of us who care have developed our own ways of keeping the Lord’s day holy, which includes watching and participating in livestream Mass, so no one is “living without the Lord’s day” or living without Mass. Second, our lack of public Mass is a temporary deprivation; in my area they’re already talking about restarting Mass again. I’m perfectly capable of offering up a temporary deprivation to the Lord, to save sinners and help souls or whatever purpose God wants to use my sacrifice for.
3. Doctor has also written some book called “The Myth of LIberalism” which makes me roll my eyes as it suggests agendas right and left.
4. I agree with the comments made by dscath on how our situation is hardly comparable to Servant of God Walter Ciszek’s and how I would not want to take medical advice from this doctor.
   I do not want any of my parish churches to be getting in the news for spreading COVID to 200 parishioners like the Episcopal church down in DC did.

Muting now, I have pretty much had it with the criticism of the suspension of Masses. It does nothing to help, foments further division, and is like a broken record that’s been playing for 2 months while the rest of us are actually using this time to try to help the situation forward and improve our spiritual lives in the face of constant complaining.

 

[ontheway1]

Doctor has also written some book called “The Myth of LIberalism”

This would certainly disqualify him as a medical doctor.