These pictures were taken hours before Christmas Night Mass of the Lord’s Birth was to be celebrated. But instead, when I should otherwise have been up at church turning up the heat and getting the altar ready it started snowing a dripping wet, heavy blanket freezing more than it was with precipitously precipitating temps rushing down from near 50ﾟabove zero to a predicted 10ﾟabove zero Fahrenheit. So, lots of danger, lots of black ice, crusty ice, crystalline ice, slippery ice… I’m thinking of the elderly of the parish…
I’m from Minnesota, and this bit of snow and freezing rain and ice wouldn’t have stopped me one bit, but the driveway to the church is as steep as a staircase and there’s zero chance anyone could drive or walk up, even on the actual staircase next to the driveway without crashes and broken legs. The “blizzard” of inches!
Even worse, WNC is suffering an “outbreak” of “cases” of China Virus among some super-service oriented people, also among my parishioners, who are everywhere with everyone in WNC all the time, and they are down with Covid. To give an example of what I mean by super-service oriented: one is a FedEx driver. And there are way too many all at once, also amongst parishioners coming here also from surrounding counties and surrounding states. So, to be prudent – for once – we’re locked down. This could drag on into the new year as people go through their imposed or self-imposed quarantines.
I myself was tested way back, also with our Police Force (I went down with the Chief of the Day®). All told, if I remember correctly, three brain-swab tests over time, all negative. No brains I guess. Anyway, the head of the county health invited me to come back the next day to get the antibody test which was being delivered. But then she said she changed her mind and wasn’t going to do it. Her decision was based, she said, on the fact, she said, that the antibody test is not at all accurate. I tried to get tested the other day, but was turned away again, this time in another county. They did the test for others ahead in the line but when it came to me, they said no, as I described what services I was providing up at the jail and getting groceries for the elderly-co-morbidities people, saying I just wanted to be prudent. No. Rejected for testing. That kinda makes me wonder what it’s all about… as it seems they don’t want to take service oriented people out of the community. I tried, right?
But then the storm. The great fear expressed by many. That caught me unexpectedly. So, no Mass as no one, I was told, were going to come. Sigh. Anyway, absolutely Confessions, Last Rites, etc., will go on. No fear with yours truly. But the numbers of cases are a bit freaky round about the town and the local counties. We do our best. Hopefully things will be back to completely normal in a week or two.
ARISE! LET US BE GOING! 
Father George, thank goodness for another Christmas Season!
Praying for your good health and safety and for all the people in need of our prayers. I read your writing above and a thought came to my mind. Its almost as if the Gates of Hell have further opened up and trying to put a stop to Christmas and the adoration and celebration of our Lord’s Birth. I live in eastern Canada and I just got a weather warning on my phone this morning…what is coming? “They” didn’t tell us. I guess we’ll be surprised.
Keep safe where you are. It seems that God has given us this precious time for prayer, adoration and reflection if we can’t get out.
As for this virus thing, we should always be in constant prayer against it because it is vicious for some people.
I wish to share a wonderful thing that happened a couple of weeks ago. My feisty 12 year old cat, Max, came down with a fever, runny nose, vomiting,, etc. He was really unwell and it lasted for about a week. With shut downs, it is so hard to get any help these days. So I made him comfortable, babied him and monitored him.
But Interesting thing happened. I put Frankinsense oil in my defuser and when I came into the room later, I caught Max licking the top of the defuser where the steam had deposited some of the incense and I saw Max stick his nose right into the steam as well. I was alarmed because some of the incences are deadly for animals so I researched on-line and found that this incence isn’t harmful to animals. The great thing is that after Max had exposed himself to the Frankinsence, within hours he was completely cured of his cold. Thanks be to God! The Three Wisemen brought gifts to the child Jesus and of course one was Frankinsense. I reflect on God’s goodness and gifts in the things of nature that He has given us to use. Yet alarmingly, we are creating “vacines” to cure ourselves from aborted baby cells. Wow, we have strayed badly from the ways of God. Very sickening and sad. I’m not an antivacer like people would label me with but the truth of the things of God are oft times attacked these days.
Anyway, on a note of thanksgiving and good will, I wish you, Father George and all those who visit your writings and all God’s children, a Blessed, Healthy and Safe Christmas! May the face of the new born child Jesus shine His blessings on us all! Jesus, Mary and Joseph, save us. The Holy Famy bless us! Keep safe!
Sincerely,
catherine
Thank you for that poignant story, Catherine. It reminds me of a missionary from the Philippines who was spreading devotion to the Divine Mercy chaplet (the first I had heard of it). He finally related an anecdote about a family whose survival depended on the survival of cow that was mortally ill. The family, he reported, prayed the chaplet, and the cow rallied and recovered. Kind of like the little drummer boy’s lamb.
To Father:
“All told, if I remember correctly, three brain-swab tests over time, all negative. No brains I guess. ”
HA! You beat me to it!
No Brains brings back memories…Back before digital X-Rays I had to have some for a head injury. Film got loaded wrong (newbie tech…), so the readings were odd, to ay the least. Tech comes screaming down the hall, scares the heck out of my mom – my head is either solid or empty! Doctor shows up and resolves the issue, when he was able to stop laughing….
Got wonky sinuses, so don’t know what they’re expecting to find (Jimmy Hoffa, maybe?) but all 4 nasal swab tests found no Wuhan Flu.
Warm weather project- design and construct alternate path to church- switchbacks with handrails? We got flooded out around here(Raritan River basin)
Merry Blessed Christmas. Jesus is with us, no matter where we are…