26th June

Permission has arrived at last for public Mass to begin again on 4th July. It is a great feeling to be going round the church with a little team getting everything ready. Of course all the necessary socially-distancing and cleaning requirements have to be put in place, pews cordoned off to meet the measurement rules, signs up, directions for the one way system and so one. But it is like getting a new breath of air into the church (almost like you see them lifting dust-sheets off furniture in closed houses in the old films, or Downton Abbey for that matter.) Saying Mass on my own has been a particular experience and it is true that certain things suddenly occur to you when you do. But looking down an empty church is never the same. Christ is present in the priest and the people, and it is very odd when one isn’t immediately present (though the live streaming has been fun and we will keep that going as many people will not be ready to return yet and that is fine.)