Worshipping at home online presents challenges, both spiritual and practical.
It always takes some spiritual preparation to participate fully in the Eucharist but when we assemble together, the Church helps us by providing the physical environment, music to draw us into worship and gathering hymns and prayers to collect us to worship. When we are at home, it is up to us to consider the scriptures in advance, examine our conscience, think about what we are going to pray for and give thanks for in particular.
When we are at home it is even easier than usual to get distracted – to answer a text or phone call, to get up to do something else for “just a minute” or to multitask. It is worth some thoughtful effort to prepare ourselves. Perhaps to dress for church? Certainly to set other things aside and commit to being present in the moment in prayer and worship.
One parishioner wrote this to us:
We are grateful for the opportunity to attend “church” online and to experience spiritual communion. We set up our own little altar. We have a cross and we light candles. We pick up the bulletins ahead of time (these can also be downloaded on St. Mary’s website) and we take turns speaking the readings and saying the prayers. At communion we honor our Lord and share the spiritual communion knowing Christ is with us in spirit. We thank him for being with us.
It is intimate and yes fulfilling for us to share this with you and others of our church family online.
Practical details. We are constantly striving to improve the quality of what we stream but there are constraints here at the church, which we work on, constraints with the internet which are outside our control and constraints on your end. You may find that your sound quality is better on some devices than others. Computer, tablet and phone speakers are not always the best and you might hear better with headphones. If you are listening with others it might be worth getting speakers that you can plug in.
As you are able, prepare your space, prepare your mind and prepare your heart to go to the altar of God.
God bless you.
Our OSL class has been invited to create an altar and share it with others. I also sent a picture out to show them how to have the church bulletin on one side to scroll through during the service that is live-streamed on the other side. Side-by-side, while home-altar is in sight, we participate in every movement of the liturgy as if we were there. Thanks for your ideas.
We are a family in Christ
I am grateful to be with you on line for our worship services, but I miss my church family and am anxious for us all to be together again. God bless you all! Cherrill
Thank you. That is very helpful. I will use my very special sherry glass as a chalice for communion with you and mute my phone.
🙏 St. Mary’s has been a blessing throughout this virus. God Bless you all and may you see our faces and clasped hands in the pews where we dream to be.