Hi EmeraldOak,
What a great and thoughtful post, paperwight.
To which I would add, if you are a healthy parent who has a child with a cold, please stay home with the kid and take care of the child. Bringing a child with a cold to church is serious. Childhood colds can be much more severe if given to an adult, especially an older adult or someone healthy but with a compromised immune system.
Using the comparison of “if you are going to your job, you can go to Mass” doesn’t really work for a gauge of whether you are ill enough to stay home from Mass.
I’d agree, except some people are too sick or at least contagious and SHOULDN’T go to work but their bosses make them go, or else.
Our Pastor has a cold and said Mass yesterday. He was coughing a lot during his homily and during the Consecration. He was coughing into his sleeve but finally used a cloth (don’t know what it’s called) that is on the altar, to cover his mouth.
Don’t leave the house. There are more sick peole at the store than at Mass. sneezing all over whatever Can of peaches you just picked up. Touching that awesome p(name removed by moderator)ad at checkout after using the restroom? Ever used a public restroom. With men, we wear shoes, walk on urine wetted floors leave the restroom, put those shoes on our car mats, walk in carpet with them and store them in a closet. Not to mention in a room with hundreds of people touching the same cup with thier lips, holding hands and such that you will come into contact with someone carrying a virus or germs not yet active.
I hope you are not being sacrastic, because that is the proper procedure. either that or wear a mask (Like in Asia)
I think that perhaps it’s possible that some people really don’t understand how colds and other viruses/illnesses are transmitted.
Amen to that. And thank you to all who have the compassion and sense to stay home when sick.
Would you even think of taking that risk with the needs of others? THAT is why I agreed happily to stop attending.
Tawny, I’m afraid you just don’t get it. What’s “just a cold” and “no big deal” to you could end up killing someone else.
((((HUGS)))) It will get easier, be assured and Jesus will feed you in other ways. I tried all ways, eg standing outside until time for communion, but realised that I was letting my condition rule my life, Now I am at peace about it. It was all such a fuss and a distraction.Tawny, I’m afraid you just don’t get it. What’s “just a cold” and “no big deal” to you could end up killing someone else.
Before I got sick, I attended Mass daily. I was not looking for excuses not to go to Mass. It was at a packed Christmas vigil Mass that my husband picked up the germ that has made me so sick for so long. I too thought that catching his cold would be no big deal, but now I’ve been sick 8 months and have been told by my pulmonologist that I will likely be sick the rest of the year. In addition, my lungs are permanently scarred from the pnuemonia.
If, at this point, I catch another cold, the illness could be catastrophic for me. My priest has told me it is okay for me to stay home if the Mass is likely to be crowded. I will probably miss Christmas Mass this year because of that. I ache from just the thought that I will not get to go, especially because it means I will not receive Jesus in the Eucharist that day.
Depending on the job as well…I’ve been at a job where an employee had excused herself to go throw up while at work. She was still told it would be written up as an unpermitted absence if she left work. The U.S. considers sick leave a privilege that isn’t extended to all workers. I’ve definitely gone to work on days where I was useless, probably infectious, and sometimes even ended up throwing up at work, because it was that or get a black mark on my file.
