Are you bored yet?

Are you bored yet? It has been a constant question from friends, family, and other people… and my answer is, not yet… I have found many things to do, and even if I don’t look for them, they come, so there is no time to get bored. Many are surprised with my answer, I always tell them, “It is simple. You must find something which will help you to create and re-create yourself.”

This need for us to silence all the “noise” round us, the visual noise, as well as the auditory noise, and the sensory noise. We need to begin to train our senses to be still in order to allow God to be heard. For many who know me, you know that it is really preferable for me to go out and socialize. Considering the situation, however, I understand that spending more time with the priests with whom I live, talking with them, and praying with them, helps me and helps us to be more centered in the hope that comes from becoming a community, a family. Just consider that the absence of the Holy Mass is helping us to realize that the Eucharist is meant to be shared. It must be celebrated in community. It builds the community.

I celebrate the Holy Eucharist every day. It tears my heart out to think that I have the opportunity to receive every day the greatest gift for all Catholics, the Body and Blood of Christ, and how many of my fellow brothers and sisters can not do it. This reality calls me each day to try to be more centered during the celebration of the Eucharist. It calls me to spend more time in prayer and silence… all of it for so many of my brothers and sisters, who would love to receive Jesus, but are unable to because of the situation.

Nevertheless, this is an invitation for me, and you all, to connect with each other through prayer. A prayer that allows us to feel united even when we are distant, a prayer that brings our hope to the foreground. In this time, we may feel like the disciples on the way to Emmaus: “We were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel; and besides all this, it is now the third day since this took place.” It has been a couple of weeks since we have had a public celebration of the Eucharist, but we have no time to waste in recognizing the presence of Jesus who walks with us.

My challenge and invitation are: what can you do to let Jesus walk with you during this time? Are you actively praying and spending time with God? I assure you all, I pray for all of you whom I know, and those I do not know. I guess we have to be united by our prayer and our desire to see the risen Christ guide us through these difficult times. Consider that the generation of our parents and grandparents is the most affected by this situation. They are the last generation to be constant participants in the life of the Church. What will happen after they are gone? Is the Holy Eucharist going to become a “live streaming” option as many other services? A Christian community must be more than a virtual reality. Many will argue that Social Media is the way to go in giving the opportunity to people to access the Holy Sacrament of the Mass. That got me thinking: what is the difference between the live-streamed Mass and any other show on Netflix? You may call me closed minded and archaic, but I am of the belief that we have to dedicate time to personal encounters; personal encounters with God, with our brothers and sisters, and with ourselves. Therefore, I guess that we need to start practicing now in our families how to build community and create encounters in order to be ready to do so when we are able to come together as a Christian family.