Items

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  2020

  Daily Entries

  The three index card entries represent our emotions and actions at the start of the pandemic. I came back home from school to live with my mom so we relied on one another for emotional support. The shared journal helped us record our daily activities, take note of our current state of minds, and allowed us to 'take it one day at a time.' The act of writing down our movements (or lack thereof) and accomplishments (ranging from submitting my thesis to making sweet potato fries) helped us recognize that time was passing and that good days were approaching. We continued to write in our shared spiral journal for about 6 months. The entries are important to me because they reflect how my mom and I were feeling at a very uncertain and unique time in history. While I don't feel comfortable reading through them all just yet, I'm excited for the day when enough time has passed and I can reflect on the months in isolation in an objective manner.
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  2022-04-29

  Religion and COVID-19: Effects on Public Life

  At the start of the pandemic, I became hyper-aware of the changes happening around me, specifically regarding religion. Unfortunately, many of the changes I witnessed were regarding death. Death is a concept most often associated religiously, for example, someone's soul or spirit going to some otherworldy peaceful place, or reincarnation. On a personal level, there is a catholic church across the street from my house. I had a front-row seat to the trauma and sadness the pandemic brought forth. In recent years, the church was fairly lonely, with only large crowds during big holidays or religious events. During the pandemic, not once did I see the church unoccupied. Whether for a funeral service, blessed sacrament adoration, prayer, liturgy, or confession. The image of the coffin and funeral service serves the purpose of relating to this specific effect on a personal level. When my family lost a child during the pandemic, I experienced how even my non-religious family members or friends offered to join in prayer with my family. Not only the catholic community, as well as other religious communities sought to spread the importance of prayer to the public during the difficult times. With services becoming more widely accessible such as live-streamed on TV for the public. Overall I realized how the pandemic may have affected the public sphere by connecting more identities together, no matter race, religion, or gender.
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  2020-07-12

  ‘God Pod’ helps churchgoers to connect despite dangers of COVID-19

  "She met her pastor for a grief counselling session at St. John’s Lutheran Church that afternoon, but the meeting was unlike any she’d had in the era of physical distancing. They sat less than two metres apart from each other, and weren’t wearing any masks. They were sitting inside the “God Pod:” a 4-foot by 6-foot enclosed meeting space that looks like an altered and pandemic-proofed confessional booth."
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  04/20/2020

  Reverend John Restrepo Outdoor Ministry, New Orleans, LA

  A photo of Rev. John Restrepo, pastor of St. Dominic Catholic Church in Lakeview, who, when the quarantine started and the church had to close, moved his ministry outdoors. He has come outside most days and continues hearing confessions, talking to parishioners, and offering advice and counsel. Last Monday when I drove by the church, there were four people (at appropriate distances) waiting to speak to Restrepo. In March, the New Orleans Advocate did a piece on him: https://www.nola.com/multimedia/photos/collection_86663b02-6ac5-11ea-84a7-0fae923e109c.html#1
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  2020-04-02

  Column: COVID-19 inspires a Catholic church to offer drive-thru confessions

  The article talks about how due to the effects of COVID-19 churches have had to close their doors to the public. With doing so it added a lot of limitations on what people can do as part of their faith. Thearticle follows a church in San Diego, California where confessions were made available in a "alternative" form. The Church was having confessions in the form of a drive-through, this would allow people to be cleansed from their sins, and still be considered "holy" by the time easter came around.
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  2020-03-14

  For millions of Americans, no church on Sunday is coronavirus’s cruelest closure so far

  The article talks about how Christians in America are devastated that churches had to close due to the pandemis that is going on, especially during this holy time (Lent and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ). In the article, they expressed how deep of a loss this is for them because no church means no Communion or confession, two of the most important practices of Christianity. They also claim that live streaming Masses is not the same as feeling Jesus in an actual Sunday service.