This weekend is a confluence of notable dates. By the time I hit the Publish button to this post, it will be Memorial Day in the Eastern Time Zone. And on the church calendar here in the Central Time Zone, at least this part of it, the church has moved Ascension to today (it's still Sunday here for another hour).
Our household marches to its own calendar of holidays and other milestones. Two of my children had birthdays within the last couple of weeks. And within the last month or so, we moved two children out of college for the summer. These are annual events which mean nothing to our neighbors or virtually anyone else on the planet, but for members of the family, they are significant: we plan our time around them and spend money on them.
If birthdays and college move-ins and move-outs are family solemnities, the household has its feasts and moments of lesser rank, too.
I celebrated one of them yesterday: I took the storm window out of the front storm door and replaced it with a screen. It's a seasonal marker: it means that the temperature has warmed up sufficiently that we can keep the front door open and let the breeze blow in without freezing ourselves out of the house. Other lesser markers in our household include the days we decorate for Christmas and take down the decorations for Christmas; the day in late winter I remember to arrange for the lawn mower to be picked up for its yearly tune-up and blade sharpening; the fall day I pull up the previous summer's tomato plants and put the tomato cages back in the shed; the day in late fall I clean out the gutters (probably that should happen more than once/year, but it doesn't.) And sometime this week, I need to call the guy to come in to tune up the air conditioner for the season.
COVID-19 is causing the civic and even church holidays to recede somewhat in importance. Our suburb does a Memorial Day parade and memorial ceremony to honor those who gave their lives for our country; the parade is canceled this year (whether the ceremony is canceled completely or they will try to do something virtual, I am not sure). And with all of us locked out of our churches in the Chicago archdiocese, my only partaking of mass this year was watching it on television.
Likewise, because we're all relegated to our homes, the household holidays are taking on a sharper, more prominent role this year, if for no other reason than that they interrupt the seemingly endless and monotonous flow of days.
What are your household's markers of the passage of time? Have you also experienced the waning of the civic and church time markers, and the waxing of the household days?
In our family we joke about the June 25th club. It's my dad's birthday, my oldest son's birthday, and my sister's daughter's birthday. As well as the wedding anniversary of my brother's son and daughter-in-law. My son said it's a good thing he loves his cousin, otherwise it would be hard to forgive him for ruining his birthday by making him go to a wedding.
ReplyDeleteA couple of milestones we likely won't get to observe in person this year are our oldest granddaughter's 12th birthday on June 5, and the middle granddaughter's First Communion on June 14. That was originally supposed to take place on March 14, but of course COVID intervened. Their parish is one of the larger ones in Omaha, and there are no restrictions on who can attend this event. Just doesn't seem prudent for us to go, I hope it won't cause hurt feelings.
The Catholic parishes in our town normally collaborate on a Memorial Day Mass at the cemetery, where there is a permanent altar. But the archbishop is asking them not to do that this year, instead to watch the live-streamed Mass at the cathedral. Just as well, it rained all night and is still raining.
Katherine I think you're being prudent about the First Communion. Here in Chicago, the early indications are that we may not be open at all for public masses during the month of June, not even for <=10 persons at a time. Our parish's first communions are still in limbo. My personal suggestion is: have the families come in, one at a time, for a mass with <=10 people.
DeleteFWIW, my parents, who live in the next diocese over, will attend mass this morning (may be there at the moment). Today, Memorial Day, is that diocese's day of resumption of public masses, again with <=10 people. My mother told me that she made a reservation for it - called the parish office and they had the slots available, so she took them for her and my dad. She said that they won't be eligible to attend another mass until all other parishioners have had a chance to attend one. It's a large parish, especially for that rural-ish diocese - probably something like 2,500 families. So at this rate, it seems like it will take a long time to cycle through everyone.
Wow, it's going to take a long time for your parents' parish to cycle through 2500 families at 10 people at a time, even if you sign them up for daily Masses. Hopefully maybe we'll get some kind of a breakthrough before that much time has passed.
DeleteWhat I'm worried about is that some people who weren't so firmly attached in the first place are just going to give up and go away. We have to do what we have to do, but it's the very opposite of evangelization.
"it's going to take a long time for your parents' parish to cycle through 2500 families at 10 people at a time"
DeleteYep. Although I think everyone expects that the ceiling will be lifted from 10 to 50 within a month or so; that is a realistic-to-optimistic reading of the governor's phased reopening plan.
That area is ahead of Chicago. As I mentioned: no announced schedule yet for masses at all in our archdiocese. And Mayor Lightfoot of Chicago is keeping that city locked down as the remainder of the state opens up.
Be careful when you go back to church. Just saw a story about a church that reopened in Germany and did all the right things but so far 100+ cases tied to the service a couple of weeks ago.
Deletehttps://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/499398-more-than-100-covid-19-cases-in-germany-traced-back-to-frankfurt-church
Learned today that the local parish is opening up next Sunday at 25% capacity. The doors will open 20 minutes before Mass and locked when capacity is reached (or when Mass starts).
DeleteThe elderly and immune compromised have permission to stay away until further notice.
Not sure what Raber will do. If he goes, he will take off church clothes in the garage and head for the shower when he comes home, as he does on work days.
Are they requiring masks? Ours is. They are also set up to live-stream in the social hall (with taped-off distancing) if there is overflow, and will send over a masked EMHC with Communion.
Delete"The elderly and immune compromised have permission to stay away until further notice."
DeletePardon me while I voice an opinion about that policy. It strikes me as grossly irresponsible not to set aside the obligation for everyone. Bishops, don't put the burden on the people to have to choose between their bodily and spiritual health.
About the "obligation", I wish we could shift our thinking about Mass as something we get to do, rather than something we have to do.
DeleteFor now, it looks like you can legally stay home until July 31. After that, I guess anybody not in a high-risk group needs to show up on time to get points for trying. Maybe you get an indulgence if you give up your seat at Mass to some poor suffering soul who needs it more than you do. (And we ALL know who those poor slobs are.)
DeleteI'm sure that the Recording Angel is keeping track of all this in our Permanent Records, and we will be routed to the appropriate Afterlife accordingly.
Here's from the bulletin:
• Public Masses will resume on Sunday, May 31. One private Saturday Vigil Mass will be celebrated on May 30 for
those in the RCIA process and their families. Both weekday and weekend Masses will then proceed as regular.
• The obligation upon all Catholics to attend Sunday Mass remains suspended across the Diocese of Lansing
until, at least, July 31. Those who are ill or are in a higher risk population should refrain from attending
Mass.
• Social distancing will be practiced for each household. Procedures will be in place to facilitate social distant
seating, reception of communion, and dismissal.
• Participation will be limited to 25% church seating capacity.
• Doors will open 20 minutes prior to each Mass. If capacity is reached, a notice will be posted on the Church
entrance. Please use the south main door at both locations.
• Masks or face coverings will be expected for all in the congregation. Each household is asked to bring their
own hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes.
• The church will be cleaned after each Mass. (VOLUNTEERS NEEDED)
• The reopening of these public Masses will require specifically trained ushers to help with seating, communion, and dismissal. These ushers should not fall into any increased risk population, even if they are
otherwise healthy. This requires a new generation of men and women to step forward and volunteer at
both church locations. (VOLUNTEERS NEEDED)
I don't make these rules, people. I do comment on them. Mostly without much caritas or generosity. Mea culpa.
DeleteWe are a far-flung family, but we always phone and sing Happy Birthday to our kids, their spouses and our grandkids. The singing never improves, but it has been compared charitably to Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald and accurately to a snowmobile with a rusty motor. As the grandkids got older, they got their parent to retaliate, I mean reciprocate on our birthdays.
ReplyDeleteWe still keep a recorded message of the now almost 12 year old singing happy birthday to grandpa when she was three. Too cute to delete.
DeleteI liked having those household holidays and observances. In the last two years since I retired, The Boy moved away, and the last of the old folks died, these got erased and replaced with an endless cycle of lab and doctor visits.
ReplyDeleteJim's post inspires me to try to find some new observances.
Jim mentioned screen doors. It made me think of when we used to visit my mother in law's house. She had those old style wooden screen doors. In the summer she would leave the back door open, with the screen door "locked" with a hook and eye at the top. In the early morning it was nice to hear the birds chirp, and smell the dew on the grass. She and I were both early risers, and we would sit in the kitchen and drink coffee (her) and tea (me) and visit. She has been gone many years now. My sister sent me a picture on her phone that she had put a wreath on my in-laws' grave for us, since we wouldn't be there. And of course she put flowers out for our mom too.
ReplyDeleteKatherine - yes. My great-grandmother had a cottage on a lake in Michigan, and it had wooden screen doors with those hooks and eyes.
DeleteUntil we replaced our front door a decade or so ago, our storm door also was wooden, and I put in a wooden-framed screen every spring and replaced it with a window every fall. At some point, the latch on that door broke, and it was a real problem because one of our cats figured out how to use his front paws to pop it open, after which he would exit, roam the neighborhood and wreak havoc upon the furry and feathery denizens of outdoors. Around here, neighbors who let their cats wander around unattended are deemed Bad Neighbors, so, to tide us over until we could arrange for more permanent repairs, I went to the local hardware store and discovered that those hook and eye assemblies are still sold, I think in sets of two or three, which means I have at least one more set in my toolbox. We ran with that "temporary" fix for at least a couple of years. The cat couldn't pop open the door anymore, and the hook was too high for our kids to be able to open the door on their own (which, when they were at that young age, was a feature, not a bug), so it worked out pretty well. The only downside was that you can't open it from the outside with a key, so someone had to be inside the house to let you in.
I confess to a secret love for low-tech solutions like that which can't be hacked, can't get viruses, etc.
And those wooden screen doors usually had a spring to close them, with the bang, unless you caught the door and closed it more gently.
DeleteWe still have that door with the hook and eye on our screen porch.
Delete