The year 2020 brought hard times to our Parish and the world with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. Near the onset of the crisis, Lent, Holy Week, and Easter at St. Boniface were celebrated in innovative and moving ways in order to keep our parish and community safe.

Onset of Crisis

The parish’s annual St. Patrick’s Day Party was, by chance, celebrated rather early in 2020, on March 1, a few days after Ash Wednesday. Few, if any, present that day foresaw that it would be the last social occasion they would be able to celebrate in physical proximity to each other for a number of months.

Early in Lent the Diocese of Rockville Centre had announced that it was joining surrounding Dioceses in suspending the public celebration of the liturgy and all other public gatherings. Within a week, most religious entities in the United States had taken the same step.

Safe Together at Home for Lent and Easter

The balance of Lent and Easter was celebrated by the parish from the safety of home by parishioners lucky enough to be able to shelter there, praying for the safety of friends and relatives who were members of groups especially endangered by the virus and others around the world came to revere under the heroic title of “front-line” servants to their community.

These brave people included physicians, nurses, EMTs, and other medical personnel, first responders, sanitation and utility workers, restaurant and retail employees, and all manner of public servants. Like everyone else, parishioners were inspired to describe them as “essential” to society, or, as our church teaches: people using their God-gifted charisms to build up the Kingdom.

The Parish reminded the neighborhood about these special people by ringing the church bells every afternoon at 3 PM.

How St. Boniface Prayed and Stayed Together

St. Boniface had long had in place a “virtual” online infrastructure which parishioners, staff, and clergy now pushed into high gear in order to celebrate Lent and Easter while unable to congregate physically together.

The parish had established a website soon after the dawn of the internet and had embraced other elements of social media, particularly Facebook, as they developed. These tools were invaluable in allowing the parish to gather as well as it could under the unprecedented circumstances thrust upon it by the COVID-19 health crisis.

Meetings and Retreats were held via “Zoom” conferences, allowing participants to see and share directly with each other online. Zoom also allowed parishioners and friends to pray Lenten Stations of the Cross as if they were present in the church building.

Sunday Mass was live-streamed online. Parishioners who had not previously felt called to embrace social media, particularly senior citizens, now appreciated the semblance of community it provided, particularly for the observance of the Easter Triduum and related devotions.

The St. Boniface Youth Group also met via Zoom, young people being already familiar with it since all middle, high school and college classes were being held using such tools because of the crisis.

A multi-lingual interfaith service, hosted by St. Boniface and the other eight-member churches of the Committee for the Community Easter Dawn Service, was streamed online on Easter Sunday 2020.

Streamed Easter Vigil 2020