Peace Out
Posted by Rachel Balducci in Family on Monday, November 09, 2009 9:00 AM
Yesterday at the end of Mass, our pastor said he had an important announcement from our Bishop. As part of the need to be wise in the face of rampant germ spread, the Bishop has (strongly) urged that all diocesan parishes refrain from shaking hands during the kiss of peace and also from administering the precious blood.
This was not a shocking announcement to me, in that I’ve heard of other parishes doing this—not in our area, but it’s definitely something out there going on. However, a friend of mine was totally caught off guard by the announcement because she’d never heard of any parishes going to such lengths.
I’ve been thinking a lot about this decision by our Bishop and while the bottom line is that this is what we’re doing (end of discussion) it is a curious thing. There had been a few weeks, in the midst of all the early H1N1 talk, when I considered bypassing the cup, just to be safe. And then I thought I had two-fold protection against germs in that a) there is alcohol in there and b) it’s the Blood of Jesus!
When it comes to giving peace, I’ll admit I feel a little relieved about the mandate to avoid shaking hands. While I think about all the other times throughout the day I’ll no doubt be coming in contact with at least as many germs (think: door handles, shared pens to sign my credit card slip, etc), I mostly have been feeling bad about possibly spreading any of my own cooties to the elderly people who sit near us at early Mass. I try to cough into my arm (instead of my hands), but I’m always hyper-aware of even touching in the near vicinity of my face during Mass and what germs I might be about to spread.
Has your parish implemented anything like this? What do you think about it?
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