Click here to help build the Immaculate Heart of Mary chapel.
(LifeSiteNews) — When the lockdowns were imposed in March 2020, millions of Catholics in North America had no access to Mass at all. Front Royal, Virginia, was no different, as the diocese largely shut down.
For many, this was a time of spiritual trial and a test of faith, as Catholics are required — under normal circumstances — to attend Mass every Sunday, but could not. As fears about COVID began to fade after it was clear that a new plague had not emerged, many Catholics were frustrated that their bishops did not stand up for their right to receive Christ in the Eucharist.
Vanessa Lostracco — a Catholic mother — expressed her dismay that watching Mass on TV was not enough. One day when watching Mass her daughter said, “Mommy, wait, what are we doing, you said we have to go to Church every Sunday.”
Lostracco was not alone, as other families in the area pined for access to the Mass again for themselves and their children.
Erika Zepeda, a mother of 10 children, said she “prayed like crazy for a place” to find Mass. Due to her family size, the diocesan churches would not allow her family to go to Mass together because they would exceed the 10-person capacity limit. She said that “no-one would say Mass for us.”
The prayers of the families in need of Catholic priests who could offer Mass for them were answered when the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) stepped up and went above and beyond to deliver the sacraments to the faithful.
There was a large demand for the SSPX to set up missionary activity in areas starved for Mass, and parishioners in the area were delighted when the Society set up at a local fairground. As many as 500 families from all over the East Coast would come to hear Mass in the cars, and exit to receive Holy Communion.
Fr. Steven Reuter said he was very “edified” to see people making such a long drive in order to attend Mass, given the circumstances. He mentioned the “generosity of the people” and “their profound faith and their willingness to make sacrifices to receive the sacraments.”
For some, the strange circumstances led them to find the “ancient faith” in the Traditional Latin Mass, something that they had not seen in years.
Jim Lundt, who rediscovered traditional Catholicism when he attended the available SSPX Masses, expressed a rediscovered love with the faith and said: “I went to an ordination a couple of weeks ago down in Dillwyn [Virginia] and I saw how my three uncles were ordained, that’s the way priests have been ordained for centuries.”
Responding to the fervor of the Catholics in Front Royal, the SSPX sends priests from Saint Thomas Aquinas Seminary, which is two and half hours away, to serve the Immaculate Heart of Mary chapel.
Fr. John Carlisle, who teaches at the seminary, said that “there’s been so much grace, so much beauty that came through in these circumstances.”
“The sacrifice of Christ is the center of history, it is the center of existence, and that needs to be the center of every Catholic’s life, of every family’s life, every nation’s life,” he added.
Click here to help build the Immaculate Heart of Mary chapel.