Hey YAM-Nation (pretty sure you can guess who writes most of the emails), it's Bryan, your friendly neighborhood YAM-NW Co-Chair. And that's the role most everyone would associate me with. However, I do have a full-time job; I work as an administrator in a hospital. Based upon the title, yes, you've guessed it, I have been informed that I am considered "essential" and must go to work. Kind of ironic, isn't it, starting off a series of how to practice one's faith when in isolation and staying at home with someone who has to go to work? Just go with me on this one...

I suppose I'll start at the beginning. Working at a hospital, I can definitely appreciate how serious COVID is and can be. I knew that hospitals would have their work cut out for them once COVID really became a threat. However, I wasn't expecting March 13th to ever happen. I call it "The Day Church was Cancelled". Up until that point, I figured it was going to be just like how it is every year during flu season; with all of us being told to avoid coming to Church or other events if sick, washing hands to avoid spreading germs, not shakiing hands, etc. We would cancel a few of our events out of prudence, but nothing huge. I was completely unprepared for the Chicago Archdiocese to close all the churches.

At first, I was stunned. The Church had withstood the Black Death, Spanish Flu, Measles, SARS, Ebola, World Wars I & II, revolutions of all kinds, and even attempts to outlaw religion (the list goes on and on), and this, COVID, was what caused the Church to close its doors? I entertained a dark thought, that the Church was closing its doors when it was needed the most. That when the world needed God and the Eucharist more than ever, now was the time the Church decided to shelter down? What the *explicative* was going on? How could we be abandoned to this cruel fate? How could the Church just close?

Almost instantaneously, I found myself abashed, humbled by the Holy Spirit. I was worrying about ME being able to go to mass. About ME being able to receive Eucharist. About ME being able to go to YAM events. Sure, I tried to tell myself that I was worried about the Church, but I was really worried about myself and what I wanted for my spiritual growth.

When I got past myself, I had a realization; the faithful in countries like China or Iran or Morocco have to go long stretches without going to mass or receiving Eucharist or openly expressing their faith. Would we consider their piety or faith to be somehow less than ours? Would we consider them lesser Catholics? No, absolutely not. And in COVID, we join with them spiritually in having to practice our faith away from the walls of a church and away from the community setting we are used to. We join them in hopeful, prayerful anticipation of when we can come together as the Body of Christ in our various parishes and celebrate the Eucharist.

Then I got hit by a double-whammy. When everyone else is being told to shelter-in-place and stay at home, I was being told that I am "essential" and have to come to work. So now I get to make the nerve-wracking drive every day to my hospital, worried I may be going home as a carrier and putting my family at risk. Trust me, it's not fun. I would much rather be at home, safe with my family, but it's not meant to be.

This is where I "Catholic During COVID". Normally during Lent, I resolve to spend more time in prayer, typically praying the Rosary on my way to work. Usually, I speed my way through it (my personal record is eight minutes). Ever since March 13th, I have found myself slowing down more, not looking at the Rosary as a chore or obligation, but instead as a blessing and somewhere I can receive the grace I need to make it through the day, the grace that helps me to understand that being "essential" isn't a curse, but a calling. A call to help heal others, to care for others. Sometimes, I even do a recharge during my lunch on especially trying days.

Overall, prayer has become much more important to my life. At night, when my wife and I pray with our little one, we don't rush as much as we did in order to get her to sleep. I've even started looking forward to the COVID Novena we do in YAM-NW (see the calendar) - something that I never would've thought would happen.

We are all essential to answering the call to be the Church in our everyday lives now more than ever. As a friend of mine said, "grace through the Eucharist isn't working in us if we don't find ourselves called to charity (love)". In this time of COVID, we are being called to love even more. Just because we can't physically be together doesn't mean that we stop caring or loving others. We all have family and friends who are alone right now, bored or scared or unsure. Fortunately, we have technology that allows us to connect. I'm pretty sure I've video-called my parents more in the last nineteen days than I have in the last nineteen years. I try to call friends who are alone. For YAM-NW we still continue on virtually in our Bible Study and Stations. Just because we are told to shelter-in-place and self-isolate doesn't mean we can't still be a community.

Eventually, we will overcome COVID; and I cannot wait for that day when I can see my family, hug my parents, and go to mass. Until then, though, we have to continue to "Catholic During COVID" and find ways to allow the grace of God to work through us to love others.