Looking back at the weekly messages of Father Paul Counce, first published in The Carpenter, our weekly Parish Bulletin
Published: April 05, 2020
As our unusual “Stay At Home” Lent continues, I hope you’ve been able to maintain a bit of serenity through it all. My heart goes out to so many, and of course most especially to the sick and the heroic health care professionals who are caring for them with inadequate resources.
I also think and pray a lot for those whose jobs and businesses are precarious right now. The pandemic is going to be an economic disaster for many who never got sick, especially among the poor and blue collar workers. And “upheaval” is a good way to describe many people’s lives right now. Parents and children who are learning to live with each other in new ways also get quite a bit of my prayerful attention. Many young people in high school and college have seen quite a few expectations for their futures already turned upside-down. And even those who can “work from home” know it’s not easy because it means doing two jobs at once: simply “being home” is also work for the homemakers!
Fortunately, a few smiles sometimes can accompany the new challenges. I ran into one mom at Calandro’s the other day – at a safe social distance! – who says that finally she’s learning how to do second grade math! Another parishioner who always avoided cooking venison discovered a deer roast in the bottom of her freezer and a good recipe for it: having time on her hands gave her a new feeling of culinary success. I have even heard of a few cases of children being more helpful in taking care of chores, even though nobody seems to be able to fold clothes like mama!
Bishop Duca and I definitely want you to know that every one of you are in our prayers. Without public Masses and other services – and without other people in our homes! – we have had more time to pray. I guess that’s been the biggest blessing for priests. But in the middle of that prayer is usually a good bit of heartache, for we miss seeing you at worship, and we’re concerned about you and your family’s welfare. Like you, we’re wondering where all of this is going, and what the future for our country and Church will be, at least in the next few years of virus relapse and economic recession. If I can go out on a limb and guess, I’ll bet also that in the present moment most priests are feeling a bit guilty, wondering if we are being helpful at all and if we could do more. So please keep us in your prayers too.
Many have asked why I haven’t been able to “stream” my daily Mass from the Cathedral. On Facebook for instance? Well, there are a few reasons for that. First, until Masses were suspended I never thought I might need to be able to do it, so it took a week for me to get a tripod from Amazon for my iPhone. Second, Bishop Duca wanted to say his private Mass from the Cathedral at 10:30 am on Sunday morning over CatholicLife Television – let’s face it, it would have been awkward telling him no! And third, the erection of all of the scaffolding in the Cathedral’s interior means we can’t use the main altar at all for a few weeks, and can only use the smaller altar in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel when the workers aren’t clanging around high above (and they’ve been working 7 am to 4 pm most days). So it’s been a confluence of reasons. But I hope to be able to do it soon, maybe a few days a week and earlier on Sunday morning.
(Some of you have asked if there is a chapel in the rectory. No. Honestly, with a Cathedral about 30 feet away I and my predecessors never thought that there was a need for one. I love sitting in the quiet Cathedral in the evening, listening to God and saying my prayers. And while the church is dusty and unairconditioned, it’s perfectly possible for me to celebrate a private Mass on a table in the rectory, office or sacristy. While I find even those worship moments very prayerful, personally, I have to admit that such settings would be difficult to broadcast from.)
So beyond tending to prayer I’ve been keeping busy mostly with daily chores and desk work. Since the Parish Office is now closed to the public for the duration of the coronavirus crisis, the other four Parish employees are staggering their schedules to maintain “social distance,” each only coming for a few hours once a week. Guess who’s been doing the daily mail run? Guess who’s pushing the dumpster and recycle bin out to the curb? Guess who has to do the daily chores of lockup and cleanup? Guess who's even loaded the dishwasher and done laundry a few times? None of these chores are really hard to do, and they do give me a nice break from desk work.
And speaking of desk work, remember that in addition to Parish paperwork as Judicial Vicar I also have 300-400 annulment cases a year in the Diocesan Tribunal that I’m responsible for. I’ve been staying in touch with that office too, even though the Catholic Life Center on South Acadian Thruway is also now “shut down” too, as its employees “stay at home.” Fortunately, most Tribunal work lends itself to solitary work: after making “serene and objective decisions” these have to be composed and finalized in writing. All of it “sit down work,” fortunately! And, sadly, there’ll never be an end to it.
So I’m keeping busy, and I certainly hope you are too. My biggest regrets are that for me it’s so solitary: I’m a little jealous of households that can take walks and do jigsaw puzzles together, learn and play the “Settlers of Catan” board game that I’ve heard is so good, collaborate in the kitchen and around the backyard grill, etc. – those kinds of safe, social things. That’s why I’ve doubled down on the prayer-time for you all and for our troubled world’s needs. Remember, you can contact me even though the Parish Office is closed: telephone 225-387-5928 and follow the voicemail instructions, or, better, use email. The general address for the Parish is office@cathedralbr.org and mine is pastor@cathedralbr.org.
Take care of yourselves!
Fr. Paul Counce
