Dear Brothers and Sisters,
 
I want to write to you, our families, who are living through this Pandemic to assure you that I am very close to you in my heart and prayers.
 
In the world you will have your troubles.To our Families living through the Covid-19 Pandemic
Fifth Sunday of Easter
 
 
 
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
 
I want to write to you, our families, who are living through this Pandemic to assure you that I am very close to you in my heart and prayers.
 
In the world you will have your troubles.
 
You are living with a kind of uncertainty never experienced before. Each day you wake to the burden of new daily struggles amid the loss of precious freedoms that we all took for granted.  As you look to the future you are anxious about your jobs, and cuts to public services upon which you have come to depend.  All the while you bear the fear of disease among family members. 
 
Some families, sadly, have lost loved ones to Covid-19 and have had the added sorrow of burying them without the consolation of Requiem Mass and the full Rites of the Church.  Others are worried about family members living with health conditions and without the routine access to treatment they have come to expect.  Still others worry about whether their elderly loved ones will get the life-sustaining treatment they might need.  Most concerning of all is the thought of loved ones in care homes where the virus has taken a heavy toll. 
 
Be of good cheer, I have conquered the world.
 
In today’s Gospel Jesus encourages us not to be troubled in heart or afraid because His Heavenly Father has many rooms in His mansion, just as on earth His Providence has lots of resources to deliver us and keep us safe.
 
The Church is best when it is a family.
 
Today’s Reading from the Acts of the Apostles gives an insight into the lives of ordinary families in the early Church.   There too we find them struggling with worries like the death of a bread-winner, or unemployment or the lack of life’s basic necessities.  Faced with these problems, Peter and the Apostles found a way to feed their hungry families with daily bread through the ordination of Deacons. 
 
They got through because the whole Church pulled together and cared for its families in need above all else.  It was not defeated by the circumstances in which it found itself, but overcame them with faith and prayer, with solidarity and charity and with the help of the Holy Spirit.
 
You could also say the young Church got through because it acted like a family.  Families know how to notice and respond to the needs of each member, better than anyone else. 
 
Families are a precious gift from God; both families in their homes and the big Family of the Church.  They are like leaven in the dough of the Church, the hidden ingredient that raises up to perfection God’s great spiritual work on earth. 
 
In the loving concern parents show their young ones as their original and best teachers in the ways of faith, our youth catch their first glimpse of their Heavenly Father's love and Mother Church’s care for them.  Yes, indeed, families carry out the Lord’s own work in a unique way, as precious instruments of His loving mercy that has no end.
 
See I am making all things new.
 
These times have seen a marvellous revival of family prayer in your homes, some of you attending online Mass together others praying the Rosary together or alone in your rooms.  It is not easy for families to pray together in our busy modern world but these days of lockdown have given us hope that it is possible when our whole Church puts all of its resources into this work.
 
All the while that the Church was living through its troubles, Peter and the Apostles were dedicating themselves to the Service of the Word, that is to celebrating the Eucharist and preaching the Gospel.   They had been present at the Last Supper where they saw the Lord Jesus say of the Bread: This is My Body and of the Chalice: This is My Blood, and to them: Do this in Memory of Me.  It was on them He breathed His Holy Spirt and gave them the power to forgive the sins of their people.  They knew Christ had provided for the life, health and growth of the His Church by means of His Sacraments. 
 
Just as Peter and the Apostles found a way to feed hungry families, so your Bishops and priests are working hard to find ways of nourishing your families with the Word and Sacraments of the Church.
 
Our priests have already revived the venerable practice of Spiritual Communion through the modern means of online Masses. By this special gift of Our Father’s Providence, in Spiritual Communion we receive the same sacramental graces as when we physically communicate in church.  At the same time, our priests are attending your loved ones who are sick and dying in hospitals to confer on them the Sacrament of the Sick and Last Rites. 
 
Above all, we also look forward to the day when we can welcome our families back to Public Masses in a safe and phased way and, to that end, our Bishops are working hard with civic representatives to allow us back to church when it is safe for your families come.  This may first include opportunities for ​​Adoration and Benediction, as well as for small family Funerals, Baptisms and Confessions.  Nor do we forget our young couples who are hoping to marry in small weddings that they can livestream, and we want to make that possible as soon as we can in concert with civil registrars. 
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There are many rooms in My Father’s House
 
In the end Jesus was able to encourage His disciples not to be too worried or afraid on the basis that there were many rooms in His Father’s House.  In these times of trouble for our Church what has been my abiding source of consolation and peace is how our families have made ample room for our pilgrim Church in your homes.
 
So, Be not afraid.  Just as you have welcomed the Lord so warmly and generously under your roof in these days when He has found Himself somewhat homeless, so He will surely welcome you back soon to His Eucharist and His Easter Sacraments and to the fulness of life and joy in Him.
God bless and keep you always safe full of hope.
 
 
Bishop John
 
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