The pandemic has forced governments to implement strict travel restrictions and encourage social distancing and self-isolation.
Catholic Bishops in various parts of the world have suspended the celebration of daily and Sunday Masses in their dioceses. Catholics around the world has turned to social media, particularly Facebook, to seek out priests who celebrate online Mass, on FB Live or Mass on Demand. Others search out priests and bishops who are conducting online Lenten Retreats.
The pandemic has brought believers to pray together online. A few days ago, Pope Francis encouraged all Catholic Christians to pray the rosary. In our family room in Sydney, I joined more than 54,000 people around the world praying the Rosary Live on Facebook with two priests at the Manila Cathedral in the Philippines.
Anytime, I can go on Facebook or YouTube and choose which Mass I want to attend and which Homily I want to listen to. A few hundred priests and Bishops around the world are celebrating Holy Mass on Facebook Live. Pope Francis also celebrates Mass live on Facebook and Twitter.
This weekend, our parish simply recorded the Mass celebrated by our Cathedral Dean, uploaded on YouTube and posted on our Facebook page. It then becomes Mass on Demand. On a usual Sunday, we have less than a thousand people attending our liturgies. On Facebook, we are able to reach over 2,000 people on the first day we uploaded the Mass video on YouTube and Facebook.
People are listening to the US Bishops’ daily readings and watching videos of the daily reflections on YouTube. This week, the brothers of the ecumenical Community of Taizé in France have been streaming online their daily Evening Prayers on Facebook live.
Bishops in Australia are also using Facebook to deliver important messages to their flocks. They also share on Twitter and Instagram their evangelisation activities. Many of those who work in many ministries of the church can be seen and heard on Facebook. People who didn’t care to go to Mass in their parishes are now watching and attending Mass on Facebook.
My 80-year old mother prays her Novenas following a group prayer on YouTube. She also joins and attends live Mass, located overseas, on Facebook and listens to homilies and retreats on YouTube.
So, amidst all the negative news on television about the Corona virus, people can self-isolate yet move online on social media with a click of a button and be enriched and become courageous.
This is such a new and uplifting experience for millions of people around the world who thirst so much for God and for an enriched spiritual life in times of suffering and confusion. By sharing good news and relevant messages of spirituality and love, people can trust and be hopeful of what the future may bring.
We hope and trust that this pandemic will pass. But for now, we need a tool to help us in our spiritual life; especially when there is a virus whereby people can seem to act opposed to their normally generous and kind hearts.
We need not fear. We need to trust. This is our opportunity to be digital disciples or cyber missionary disciples. With social media, people can be strengthened in their faith in God and can find true hope in this currently stressful, challenging and scary world.