Posted on 04/10/2020 6:44:29 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o
Staff photo by Wyatt Massey
The Very Reverend J. David Carter, far right, of the Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul holds a monstrance to bless a family on April 8 while Fr. Valentin Iurochkin shakes incense from a thurible. The priests made home visits the past week to bring encouragement to families who could not attend in-person worship services because of COVID-19 concerns.
In an effort to encourage Chattanooga's faithful through the ongoing global pandemic and its economic fallout, the Very Rev. J. David Carter of the Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul visited people at their homes on Wednesday.
Just as the priest did on Monday. And the week before. And just as he plans to do next week.
For nearly three hours on Wednesday morning, the priest traveled from house to house. At each stop, Carter, Sister Imelda Quechol, Fr. Colin Blatchford and Fr. Valentin Iurochkin set up a cross and monstrance, the elaborate sunburst-like vessel that holds the Holy Eucharist during Mass. The clergy, kneeling in the street or on sidewalks, prayed with each family and blessed them.
For many, this was their first in-person interaction with the church since the Basilica held its last service on March 19, when the church shut down over concerns about spreading the coronavirus.
"It sort of made sense to bring Jesus to people, since people can't come to Jesus now," Carter said.
Catholic priest blesses, encourages Chattanooga's faithful
Carter began visiting homes last week, starting with English-speaking congregants. He would call ahead, then sit outside with the people to hear confessions and pray. When the church decided to do the same among the Spanish-speaking members, Quechol quickly mobilized the community into the machine-like procession carried out on Wednesday, just days before the holiest moments in the Christian calendar.
Visión Católica TV Internacional live-streamed the procession on Facebook, letting hundreds of viewers know which street the clergy were visiting. People commented with their addresses or texted the clergy.
Some families who were driving through the neighborhood saw the priest, fully robed, and pulled over to join in the nearest prayer session. Carter, Quechol, Blatchford and Iurochkin knelt in prayer in driveways, front yards and on street corners, before again packing the car with the cross and thurible, which emanated incense.
Facebook has been a powerful tool to get word out about the visits, Carter said. Like many churches now closed because of COVID-19, the basilica is livestreaming its services. Churches throughout the Southeast have been closed for weeks as the coronavirus continues to spread. In Tennessee and Georgia this week, at least 400 people have died from the virus.
Going out into the community and working with families face-to-face brings encouragement, although the prayers and blessings from at least 6 feet away can seem odd at first, Carter said. The priest estimates he has visited at least 100 houses in the past week.
Street processions are common in the Catholic Church, especially on feast days. Each year, on the Feast of Corpus Christi, the Basilica holds a procession in the surrounding city. What the priests have been doing the past week with home visits is not dissimilar, Carter said.
"Instead of people coming to the church to process around, we are going out to the neighborhoods. In a way, it's what Jesus did."
Well stated, aMPU, well stated. That's why we offer incense to the One True God,the Trinity, Creator of Heaven and Earth and sovereign Lord of all the Universe. Because it is so repeatedly approved and recommended in Scripture, God's Word.
And you ignored the larger question: your assumption that anything that is not explicitly commanded in the NT, is forbidden. The OT foresees and foreshadows the NT, and both foreshadow the Church: which is to say, "us," the Body of Christ, which includes you and me.
You explained nothing from the OT--- except you proved yourself adept at explaining it away.
But never mind. I am going out to dig up a bed for my celery-herb and fava beans, and I'm going to put a statue of the Holy Family in it. It's good. It's true. It's beautiful. I dearly wish you could rejoice in it.
Χριστὸς ἀνέστη! Ἀληθῶς ἀνέστη! (Khristós anésti! Alithós anésti!)
Thanks for the new word (for me): bisabuelos!
God bless you!
“ Because it is so repeatedly approved and recommended in Scripture, God’s Word.
Yes, for Israel.
Yes, in heaven.
No, never for the church on earth.
Thou shalt not steal.
“ And you ignored the larger question: your assumption that anything that is not explicitly commanded in the NT, is forbidden.”
This was what I responded to as your list of category mistakes.
Ex. While Sunday School serves a Biblical purpose, it is not a Biblical church office.
Once you add to God’s Word, as Rome does, you are wrong.
Once you take away from God’s Word, which Rome does, you are wrong.
Once you change God’s Word, as Rome does, you are wrong.
“ You explained nothing from the OT”
The OT temple practices were commanded by God, to Israel - and not for His Church.
There is no explaining necessary beyond that. Thou shalt not steal.
Best.
So if it’s associated with Rome then it’s automatically banned and bad, huh?
Then put your Bible away. That’s ours. Our saints wrote that, not the sons of Luther.
Don’t celebrate Christmas, that’s our holiday too. It’s short for Christ’s Mass.
Can’t go to church on Sunday either. The Church through her authority to bind and loose, moved the Sabbath to Sunday.
See how that works?
Insence is indeed biblical. Read the church father’s and histories of the early Church. Go to the catacombs and see the icons and writting on the wall. You’ll see it all.
No, they got a few things correct.
Then put your Bible away. That’s ours. Our saints wrote that, not the sons of Luther.
Sorry, this was God's doing through the Holy Spirit. He says so in Scripture.
Don’t celebrate Christmas, that’s our holiday too. It’s short for Christ’s Mass.
We don't celebrate a mass. We celebrate the birth of Christ.
Can’t go to church on Sunday either. The Church through her authority to bind and loose, moved the Sabbath to Sunday.
Sorry, friend, but that was a celebration of Christ's rising on the first day of the week. It had nothing to do with binding and loosing.
See how that works?
No, it doesn't work that way.
Best to you on Easter.
Judas hanged himself. That is biblical too.
But not everything in the Bible is about us, not for us to do.
But Read the church father’s and histories of the early Church.
Yes, I've read thousands of pages of church history in seminary.
Go to the catacombs and see the icons and writting on the wall. You’ll see it all.
Yes, but these were not during the lives of the Apostles. That stuff came much later, as error came into the church - as the Apostles warned us, and as we see in Revelation 2.
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