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MH England
As of today, March 1st, I have been in this house in North Yorkshire for 4 ½ months. During this time, we’ve had only five days (in early November) free from most lockdown restrictions. Thankfully, our parish has largely remained open: we have regular Mass on Wednesdays and Sundays.
The pandemic has not slowed down our apostolic life. Certainly the telephone and even the radio and Facebook continue to be vehicles for our apostolic life, but what has taken center stage is Zoom conferencing.
Through Zoom, we chitchat weekly with other parishioners, we help to lead an ongoing parish-based retreat, and we meet with our local ecumenical Churches Together group.
Through Zoom, our local director, Cheryl Ann Smith and I both accompany a number of individuals spiritually. Through Zoom, we have also given a number of talks to groups that would have normally required considerable travelling (Cheryl Ann is taking on most of these engagements.)
Through Zoom, we’ve met with other Madonna House field houses (even twice with MH Belgium for Mass together), and we received an excellent presentation by Fr. Wild in Combermere.
On the personal level, Zoom has allowed each of us to keep up family relationships, and it has even made it possible for Cheryl Ann to meet weekly with her fellow choir members to sing together, even if each singer can only hear the director.
Before coming here, I had only used Zoom on a few occasions.
Within the house, our life remains full. We’ve just finished painting our kitchen, we’re attempting to save a hedge that has nearly been destroyed by ivy, and more projects are forthcoming.
I thought that life in this field house might afford me more quiet time in the evening, but even that time remains surprisingly full.
For we have all decided to take advantage of freer evenings during this time of lockdown to foster our family life. We regularly have a weekly music night (learning new songs and practicing old ones), a joy night when one of us gives a presentation on something that brings them joy (this is often quite educational as well), and a Saturday evening fun night, usually with a game or a film.
None of us is surprised that our relationships within the house take on particular intensity as we spend so much time together without the physical presence of friends or guests. Through all this, God is leading, Our Lady and St. Joseph (to whom we consecrated ourselves on March 19th) are interceding, and we keep pleading.
