From Global Sisters Report: The COVID-19 pandemic
upended sisters' ministries, requiring strict policies to protect the most
vulnerable, forcing cancellations of congregational and regional gatherings,
and changing prayer practices, fellowship, dining and funeral services. Weeks
into the crisis, the coronavirus poses another challenge: How do sisters keep a
sense of community in a time of social distancing, stay-at-home orders and
quarantines?
Religious of the Good Shepherd,
Province of Philippines-Japan
The Religious of the Good Shepherd in Quezon
City was holding its first chapter meeting March 16-22 (originally scheduled March
18-27) for the newly merged province of Philippines-Japan as COVID-19
restrictions were imposed globally. Provincial chapter meetings, held once
every six years, provide time for prayer and planning for the next six years,
including election of new leadership. With travel restrictions already imposed
on Italy, congregational leadership from Italy could not attend, and sisters
from other regions in the Philippines and Japan also couldn't come. The delegates
who could attend elected new leaders.
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"All throughout our gathering
from the chapel, to the session halls, we observed social and physical
distancing," Sr. Regina Kuizon, the outgoing province leader whose term
ends in June, told GSR in an email. "Our Eucharistic celebrations were
limited and the singing of Mass service songs were avoided."
Communion service and common prayers
are now in small groups, she wrote. The sisters gather for holy hour or
adoration in small groups or alternate in the bigger chapel for Adoration of
the Blessed Sacrament.
"Our prayers go for the
frontliners and those who perished, those who are grieving the loss of their
loved ones," she wrote. "And we continue to pray that women and
children wherever they are, even in their own homes, are safe and have not
experienced any form of abuse during this time of COVID-19 and lockdown."
(by Ms. Ceres Doyo for Global Sisters Report)
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