It was Day 44 during the Covid-19 Lockdown that I reached out to the Church Decorating Team by phone and by email. Not knowing when the Lockdown would end, my goal was to gain a consensus on what pair of Ordinary Time banners by Slabbinck the Parish should purchase for the Sanctuary. The banners were to decorate the Sanctuary on Sunday, June 21, 2020, the Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time. Bobbi at the www.catholicshop.ca told me that she would try her hardest to ensure that we would have the banners we picked in time for that weekend. On Day 44, Robyn and I had no idea if that Mass would be live streamed via YouTube or not. Whether or not our faith community would see the new banners through the eye of a camera lenses or in person through their own eyes.
Usually when you have a group of six people choose between four choices, it takes a bit of time to narrow down the field before settling on the final one. Much to my surprise, the Ordinary Time banner pair choice was unanimous. The Church Decorating Team picked the matched Slabbinck pair “Eucharist Chalice & Host” and “Eucharist Loaves & Fishes.”
The Feast of Corpus Christi fell this year on Sunday, June 14, 2020, the 90th Day of the Covid-19 Lockdown. Monday, June 15, 2020, marked the first day of the “New Normal” for me at This Old Church. I hung the new Ordinary Time on the oak panelled walls of the Sanctuary for that Monday. By then, the pew book boxes were empty of all of the Catholic Book of Worships, the Celebrate in Song and Bibles. The pews were marked with physical distancing markers. Every other pew was taped off with flagging tape. The “New Normal” in “Ordinary Time.”
Stay safe. Stay well. Stay connected. And, until next time, this is Michael Pollard for This old Church of Ours.