People sometimes say that absence makes the heart grow fonder. Since our very beginnings in the first century, in the days following the Ascension of our Lord into heaven, the Church has had an intimate relationship with the most Blessed Sacrament, our 'food for the journey' and the enduring presence of the Lord in the midst of His people. Even in times when people did not receive Holy Communion as regularly as many of us do today, there was that physical nearness to the Lord that we achieved with our visits to church.
And that's what's missing from most of our lives today, as the churches are closed to the public, and people stay at home. I'm hoping that, once this is over, there'll be an almighty rush for the churches on the first suitable day. In the meantime, here's an old medieval hymn that I sing in the church after Mass every morning. Some of us will recognise it as Gerard Manley Hopkins' translation of the Adoro Te devote of Saint Thomas Aquinas. Find the words here.
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