Catholics have been reminded not to be too comfortable with the present online liturgical celebrations as a result of the advent of COVID-19 as they are aberrations. This was the submission of the Archbishop of Lagos, Most Rev. Alfred Adewale Martins in his July circular recently made available in the Archdiocese. In his very words, “the new normal concerning liturgical celebrations in the last three months or so is in fact an aberration brought about by what could be described as a war situation. Mass on television and Spiritual Communion can never and will never replace Mass as a gathering of God’s People to offer the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross in a bloodless manner. “
According to him, what the Church has been doing is merely an effort to worship as best as possible, and at the same time stay alive and healthy in anticipation of when things would return to normal. “While we participate at Mass on TV the best way we can, we must know that this does not and CANNOT replace in any conceivable way, the gathering as a community of people to worship.” He reminded the people of God not to relax their vigilance especially with regards to taking the required precautions: washing of hands regularly, keeping a physical distance of two meters from one another, wearing of face masks in public, etc. “We eagerly look forward to when we can sing and pray under the same roof, go to confession and receive Holy Communion on our tongues again and carry out our acts of worship, meeting in societies and continuing our different societal programmes of the year. May the Lord see us through to the end of these difficult times,” he concluded
