How do you feel when you are locked out of your church, the place where you worship God – day in and day out – its like your second home! It was heartbreaking being in a strict lockdown for months, not able to have visitors at your home, not able to walk out of your home unless you follow strict protocol, of being 1.5 metres from another person on the street, wearing a face mask and not touching anything unless you hand sanitise! All very tough things to adapt to. More tough to not see your family for weeks! Then adapting to that empty feeling of not visiting your church during your usual times of the week. Going to Holy Mass for our daily spiritual food, the Word of God to strengthen our souls. We cannot do without daily contact with family and church and both were missing – for a long period of time!
How were we going to cope with an uncertain future of not knowing when our life would be normal again! What do human beings do when faced with desolate situations? God has given each one of us discernment, survival instincts! Either you just collapse in a heap or you think of innovate and creative ways to fill in the time and be creative.
We decided to make our homes like church, set up a special Altar, decorated it with flowers and candles and said daily prayers and took part in online Mass. It changed our families at home and filled up that void in our hearts. God was with us in a special way during the pandemic lockdowns.
So when the chance came to visit our church once again, I wondered how I would feel. Do you know the feeling when you leave your home to go on a long or short holiday and walk back into your home again, it feels strange, it feels like it hasnt been lived in. But when I walked into our church after the lockdown I felt like the old feeling of being home, a warm and welcome atmosphere, I felt the presence of God and Love and you are welcome and loved feeling. I just knelt quietly in the presence of our God, that was enough for me! Can you imagine Heaven like this – lying in the warmth and presence of God for eternity!
I thank God for our catholic faith, for Jesus came down to earth to be with us and to show us His Way and to be present among us today in the Blessed Sacrament. We are so blessed to receive this greatest gift to us here present in our Tabernacles.
Let us pray that our churches will always be open to receive weary pilgrims on their way to search for and find rest for their souls!
Thank you Jesus!
I was driving yesterday and tuned in the radio. There was a lot of discussions on state of the nation issues, welfare, pensions, unemployment, which was enough to send me into a spirit of desolation! We daily hear news of the state of the world, the violence erupting at any place, at any time, the economy, governments, marriage, identity, religious freedom, etc. People are angry, they have worked hard all their lives and to be deprived of their rewards at retirement is unfair; our local farmers are unhappy that their family business is affected; parents of schoolchildren are unhappy with the system; people out of work at middle age because employers are not employing them. The pension is not guaranteed anymore. Its overwhelming the complexity of these issues and we feel totally powerless. Jesus said ‘Trust in Me’ when times get difficult.
A Journey of Faith 
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