We asked Catholic Herald friends and contributors what’s getting them through the lockdown
Fr Christopher Colven
Ministering in central London, I have been used to saying Mass several times a day and always with a fairly large congregation. It is a very strange experience to celebrate in an empty church. On Sundays, in common with many other parishes, we stream a Mass and the number of YouTube “hits” on Easter Day was around 3,000! Given that many of these hits involved families, it means that a result of the present lockdown, more people are “attending” Mass at Spanish Place than before. Although there are many phone calls and emails, no one now comes to the presbytery door. This part of London is like a ghost town. I suppose what I am experiencing – along with all my brother priests – is the old slogan “it’s the Mass that matters”, which rings absolutely true. The Mass is the centre of each day, around which everything else revolves. May the church doors soon be open again so that the People of God can take their rightful place around the altar.
