Hey, everybody. This is Father John Ricardo with Acts 29. And in the middle of all the craziness

and the uncertainty that's going on right now, it seems from our perspective as a team that it's

worth using these days to reflect in a more deliberate way on the scriptures every day, which

for many of us now is the only spiritual food that we're receiving. And so we're going to do a special podcast series simply entitled,

Be Not Afraid, God's Word in Uncertain Times.

And we'll try to post something every day, usually reflecting on the scriptures,

so that we can listen in on what God is trying to say to us in these days.

Yesterday was a tremendous day of grace for the Archdiocese of Detroit as we ordained at our

cathedral, blessed sacrament, a great friend, a brother, a tremendous disciple of our Lord

Jesus to the transitional diaconate.

He'll be ordained a priest,

good Lord willing, roughly about this time next year. And as great a day as it was, it was also

kind of an eerie preview, perhaps, of what is to come. So here was this grand event, which up until just a few days ago was only

going to be held with about five people simply because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Archbishop

graciously has allowed churches to open back up. We can put them at about 25% capacity, keeping all

the social distancing in place and masks and whatnot.

So there were about 200 people there for this brother Ryan's ordination.

And as I looked out from the sanctuary into the congregation, it was just odd. Almost a foreshadowing. Maybe not. Who knows? Only God knows.

But it was a mostly empty church. And it was that more than the fact that people were sitting

that were wearing masks, which really struck me.

I don't know what's going to happen when states open back up and people are allowed to come back to mass and somewhat returned to normal.

Here in the Archdiocese of Detroit, the obligation to attend Sunday Mass has been dispensed from until Labor Day.

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