• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Corpus Christi Watershed

“What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too…” Pope Benedict XVI (7 July 2007)

  • Our Team
  • Pew Resources
    • Brébeuf Catholic Hymnal
    • Jogues Illuminated Missal
    • Campion Missal, 3rd Edition
  • MUSICAL WEBSITES
    • René Goupil Gregorian Chant
    • Noël Chabanel Psalms
    • Nova Organi Harmonia (2,279 pages)
    • Lalemant Polyphonic
    • Saint Antoine Daniel KYRIALE
    • Roman Missal, 3rd Edition
    • Emporium Kevin Allen
  • Miscellaneous
    • Site Map
    • Saint Jean de Lalande Library
    • Sacred Music Symposium 2023
  • Donate
Views from the Choir Loft

A Word of Encouragement

Fr. David Friel · March 18, 2020

S MORE and more dioceses are suspending the public celebration of Mass during the present pandemic, I would like to offer a word of encouragement to all the faithful for whom this is a true suffering.

While still a seminarian, I had the wonderful opportunity to undergo training for Navy chaplaincy. This training was some of the best formation I have ever received. There was a portion of this training, however, when it was not possible for me to participate in the liturgical life of the Church. I could not attend daily or even weekly Mass during this time, nor did I have the freedom to pray the Divine Office as I was accustomed to doing at various times throughout the day. It was a real suffering.

Several very good things came to pass through this objectively not-good situation. I would like to highlight just three of my takeaways:

1. God was immensely good to me during this time, showering me with unexpected and unprecedented graces. I have never forgotten His goodness to me during those days, and I try to remind myself of this whenever I am feeling ungrateful.

2. The separation I experienced actually deepened my hunger for the Eucharist, my thirst for the Word of God, and my love for the Lord.

3. The experience confirmed for me that my regular commitments to Mass and the Divine Office were not merely matters of routine. Being unable to fulfill these regular commitments would not have been a source of suffering, were they not first a source of genuine spiritual nourishment. This confirmation was a great source of consolation to me.

The situation in which we find ourselves today and in the coming weeks is, likewise, less than ideal. There are a few things we might do, however, to ensure that this objectively not-good experience is at least spiritually profitable.

Here are a few suggestions:

1. Unite yourselves with so many other Catholics who are regularly separated from the liturgical life of the Church (e.g., the homebound, members of the military, Catholics in places like China and Syria, etc.).

2. Pray the Liturgy of the Hours with your families on Sundays, especially Lauds and Vespers. These prayers (which are part of the official, public prayer of the Church) can be accessed with free apps like Laudate and iBreviary.

3. Do something concrete to serve your neighbor. “Worship that is pure and undefiled before our God and Father consists in this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world” (James 1:27).

4. Let’s pray for one another. Oremus pro invicem.

The Lord was immensely good to me throughout my period of separation from the Church’s liturgical life during Navy training. He will be just as good to each of you during this time of coronavirus-prompted lockdown.

“For the LORD is good! His steadfast love endures forever, and His faithfulness to all generations” (Ps 100:5).


COVID-19 Pandemic Reflections

On Separation from the Sacraments:

• A Word of Encouragement
• Stories from Walter Ciszek, SJ
• Insights from Joseph of Arimathea

On Returning to the Sacraments:

• Insights from Gerard Manley Hopkins, SJ
• Stories from Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Follow the Discussion on Facebook

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Coronavirus Pandemic Last Updated: May 28, 2020

Subscribe

It greatly helps us if you subscribe to our mailing list!

* indicates required

About Fr. David Friel

Ordained in 2011, Father Friel served as Parochial Vicar at Saint Anselm Church in Northeast Philly before earning a doctorate in liturgical theology at The Catholic University of America. He presently serves as Vocation Director for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and teaches liturgy at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary.—(Read full biography).

Primary Sidebar

Corpus Christi Watershed

Quick Thoughts

    Vespers Booklet (4th Sunday of Lent)
    The organ accompaniment booklet (24 pages) which I created for the 4th Sunday of Lent (“Lætare Sunday”) may now be downloaded, for those who desire such a thing.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Vespers Booklet, 3rd Sunday of Lent
    The organ accompaniment I created for the 3rd Sunday of Lent (“Extraordinary Form”) may now be downloaded, if anyone is interested in this.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Weeping For Joy! (We Hope!)
    Listening to this Easter Alleluia—an SATB arrangement I made twenty years ago based on the work of Monsignor Jules Van Nuffel—one of our readers left this comment: “I get tears in my eyes each time I sing to this hymn.” I hope this person is weeping for joy!
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

“Every experienced choirmaster’s work is founded on the following three axioms: (1) Few boys have a really good natural voice; (2) No boy is able to control his voice and produce good tone without training; (3) Most boys have a good ear, and considerable imitative capacity. It is on the last of these axioms that the choirmaster must begin his work.”

— Sir Richard Runciman Terry (1912)

Recent Posts

  • Three (3) Cheerful Items • “Sacred Music Revolution”
  • Who Should Sing the Passion? What about Tracts?
  • “Seventy-Three (73) Changes” • Which Pope Pius XII Made to Holy Week
  • Three (3) Tricks Every Choir Director Should Learn
  • Question: “How Do You Read The Official Edition?”

Subscribe

Subscribe

* indicates required

Copyright © 2023 Corpus Christi Watershed · Isaac Jogues on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

Corpus Christi Watershed is a 501(c)3 public charity dedicated to exploring and embodying as our calling the relationship of religion, culture, and the arts. This non-profit organization employs the creative media in service of theology, the Church, and Christian culture for the enrichment and enjoyment of the public.