Confirmed in love:

Difficult times remind us of the need to care for one another

Bishop John Stowe, OFM Conv.

Having celebrated the biggest liturgies of the year in Holy Week and Easter without a physical congregation present in church, I was really looking forward to the re-opening of our churches for Masses with a congregation.

Nonetheless, the continued presence of the coronavirus in these last few months, and the vulnerability of so much of our population, meant that the livestreamed liturgies remained the best opportunity for participation in the Mass for many of our people. It is good that many parishes continue to offer them.

I really have to commend the carefulness and thoughtfulness of so many of our parishes that created very safety-conscious plans for the resumption of Masses with a congregation. These plans involve a lot of volunteer roles and people have generally come forward to help. I am also grateful to the people who understand the need to set aside their own preferences about seating in church, about wearing the required mask, about keeping six feet of distance when we really want to get close and about our procedures for the reception of Communion. Deeply appreciated also are the sacrifices of those who really want to be present, but know that they are better off not attending in person at this time.

As I have ventured out to the parishes, it has been primarily to celebrate the Sacrament of Confirmation. It is one of the great joys of a bishop to confer the seal of the Holy Spirit on these young people who are striving to be true disciples of Jesus in very challenging times. Even our Confirmation celebrations are different: I ask the young people to smile with their eyes since I cannot see their whole faces. I do not meet with them ahead of time and get to know them a little better. There have been no receptions, and our picture-taking has been done with social distancing.

It is actually pretty inspiring that they have continued to engage in the preparation for this sacrament and wished to celebrate it in the midst of this pandemic. In the larger parishes, they have not even been able to do so with their entire class; we have had multiple celebrations in places where the number of confirmandi is too large for one celebration with an assembly present.

It has been good not to have to travel beyond the boundaries of the diocese and good to discover how much can be accomplished by virtual meetings. But there is no question that I have missed the beautiful drives through the mountains and the wonderfully warm celebrations in our eastern Kentucky parishes, where celebrations are truly an event for the whole parish family. Each time I do have the opportunity to visit one of these parishes, I realize how blessed we are to have these small communities of people who treasure their Catholic faith and value the occasions when they come together in celebration. The prayers, the singing, the in celebration. The prayers, the singing, the greetings are so alive and engaging — and what a sacrifice when it comes to the Sign of Peace, to not be able to shake hands and hug for the time being.

Recently, I did have the opportunity to visit the Father Beiting Appalachian Mission Center in Louisa. The center had to undergo a significant “down- sizing” because neither it nor the diocese was able to continue to operate it in a deficit. After selling the large warehouse and reducing the staff of the center, the mission of the place and the memory of Father Beiting are still intact and still teaching the values of service and encounter in the Appalachian culture.

Even though the pandemic resulted in all of the service groups cancelling their trips for this summer, the three seminarian interns went out and worked on home repair projects, engaged with the local people and experienced different aspects of Appalachian culture. Eddie Michael, the interim director, and his wife Sue, the long- time administrative coordinator, and all of the staff are working hard to fill the schedule for next year and to provide the services that the center is known for throughout the area. Father Marc Bentley, now assigned as parochial vicar at Holy Family in Ashland, comes on Fridays to provide spiritual direction and reflection for the interns and shares his deep knowledge and love for Appalachian culture with staff and volunteers alike. The entire staff is working hard to serve this population with a true sense of mission.

It would be wonderful for more people in the Bluegrass area of the diocese to get to know the Catholic presence in Appalachia and the wonderful people and programs at our parishes and missions. Hopefully when it is safer to travel, others will come to know the riches of this beautiful region. People from far beyond our own diocese have discovered this.

Each of us has been challenged about how to live our faith not only in this time of pandemic, but in the time of such polarization and division. We gather around the table of unity — physically or virtually — and share the one bread and one cup that unite us in Christ. May we truly learn from the selfless love of Jesus celebrated in each Eucharist how to love each other more — those near and those far, those similar and those who are different. From the very origins of the Church, we have been diverse yet striving to be one. May the Spirit help us be a force for unity, especially now as it is needed so much.

BISHOP JOHN STOWE, OFM CONV. is the third bishop of the Diocese of Lexington, Ky @BpStowe