Here are a few reflections on current life (during this time of confinement) in a small country parish in France. You will have gathered that I have continued my ministry here as parish priest way beyond the original one year proposed by the local Bishop. A lot has happened – perhaps I ought to have found time to write about it on the blog. Mother Theresa SSM once remarked that the problem for her was finding time to write about the work of the community and do it. I find the same.

This is not a large parish – 9 communes, 11 churches, 2  chapels. If that sounds a lot, one of my neighbours has 58 churches in his parish!) Nor are the congregations large; a Saturday night Mass, Sunday morning Mass, daily Mass established for the past three years, home groups (Fraternités) in response to the initiative of the Bishop … some wonderful and remarkable things, disappointments, yes … for me a tremendous sense of being appreciated and cared for by the congregation – and by parishioners who don’t come to Mass.

The announcement of the suspension of public Masses arrived on the eve of  Lent 3. The churches were to remain open where this was possible. The clergy were asked by the Bishop to continue celebrating the Mass each day with intention for the parishioners. From this point we started opening the church at Pont Rémy between 9am and 10am every day.  The Blessed Sacrament is exposed and Benediction given. I celebrate Mass each day at 6pm at home except on Sunday when I say Mass in church but without a congregation – as I did with the liturgies of the Easter Triduum.

I have an altar set up in the conservatory and I celebrate as I would in church -again on my own.  I had from time to time in the past said Mass alone, a found it a somewhat troubling experience: the Mass is after all the worship of the People of God, not a private possession of the priest – dialogue, not monologue.  (This is the Anglican in me with the Prayer Book  rubric in mind).  With these celebrations during the period of confinement has come a deep sense of spiritual union, “en union de prière”, of people, many people present though not physically: “therefore with angels and archangels and all the whole company of earth and heaven … “.

I have been used over the past years to producing a Mass sheet with the texts of the Mass, the scripture readings and the hymns. In addition there is a notice sheet with the times of Mass and the Intentions and any future events in the parish and diocese. During the period of confinement, the chair (coordinatrice) of the Church Council (Equipe de Conduite Pastorale) sends out a Sunday Bulletin with the Gospel Reading and my homily, prayers and intentions, and anything from the diocese.

Financially there are going to be tough times in the future. Ever Sunday of the confinement there are no collections, and the clergy are not able to receive their Mass stipends. I have asked members of the congregation to set aside (using an envelope) a regular amount for each Sunday.  This may even be the start of Stewardship envelopes – a system of regular giving developed among Anglicans, but which appears to be unknown here in France.

I have been touched by the care shown by parishioners ringing up to make sure that I am alright. You may know that we have to fill in each day a form, and carry it with us. I must admit that I have taken to wearing the cassock all the time, as it would surely make explaining who I was and what I was doing to a gendarme. I even wear it now in the supermarket with gloves – though not yet with the mask), and am still surprised by the number a people who say hello.

The Cathedral and some churches in the diocese have taken to streaming Masses to enable people to watch on Youtube. We do not have the facilities to do this, but there is a popular TV channel which broadcasts a Mass every Sunday.  I just hope when this time of isolation is over that people do not stay content with this form of  ‘Sunday worship’!  I think not, for what we miss most is the coming together for Sunday Mass, as well as the opportunity to meet and talk and laugh together after Mass – and that practice has been growing among us during the last couple of years. Yes, the dreaded coffee drinking – well, more likely a glass of wine: this is France after all.