Adding Memorial Day to the long list of observances that would need some reinvention since New Jersey went on corona
Co-Cathedral of St. Robert Bellarmine parishioner, Peggy Klotz, brings donations to a distribution table
lock down March 21 is a given.
Cemeteries will be open so that families and friends can pay homage to their beloved dead for their legacy of sacrifice and devotion. So will parks and most beaches and boardwalks. But public celebrations – parades, block parties and big backyard barbecues – are off the table for everyone following the rules.
Such Memorial Day observances have always been a big deal in my family. As a child, I played a pretty bad glockenspiel in several parades with a VFW at the Bayshore and always enjoyed a really good wreath drop over the waters of Ocean County, a parade and a family barbecue.
So as the days of May dwindled to a precious few, I was feeling down and out. Not as seriously down and out as I was before realizing that live stream liturgies would lend a salvific glow to my home office/makeshift chapel during Holy Week and Easter. But pretty down.
Then suddenly, there it was, an announcement on the Facebook page of my parish – St. Robert Bellarmine Co-Cathedral in Freehold Township – that public participation was requested on this special day in the church parking lot.
“We ARE collecting on Memorial Day so come by!”
So read the notification that the Monday food collection for the Open Door food pantry would be running as usual from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the church parking lot. The Open Door is the independent food pantry started by the Freehold Clergy Association years ago.
The post was accompanied by photos showing volunteers on May 18, “working hard” as they took possession of “the continuous, generous donations” from the SRB community. “Our volunteers were able to pack 161 emergency food bags for Open Door. We also received a generous donation of diapers, detergent, toiletries and paper products that were desperately needed.”
Knowing the collection was on lifted my Memorial Day gloom immediately. On this day of remembrance, there would be a stream of masked people to share a socially distanced good work with.
Co-Cathedral of St. Robert Bellarmine, Freehold.
I should have known the Memorial Day invitation to the parking lot would come. It reflects the declaration of the rector, Msgr. Sam A. Sirianni, a few weeks back that “the parking lot is always open.”
The primary emphasis, of course, was to be on prayer.
That announcement came by way of a Facebook message that a light had been installed to illuminate the tabernacle. All were invited to come in and park in front of the church, which like all houses of worship in New Jersey had been closed and locked for weeks due to the shut down
All were welcome to pray in their cars, come as close to the church as they could and pray before the tabernacle. “The thing we are very much aware of,” Msgr. Sirianni said at the time, “is that fasting from the Eucharist has been hard.”
“We know people come to pray in front of the church. In those moments when you don’t know what to do, you know that the parking lot is open. If you want to draw closer to Our Lord in the tabernacle, our parking lot is peaceful.”
“It’s a place where you can gather your thoughts and pray,” he said. “I remember early on in this (corona shut down), a car rolled into the parking lot driven by a nurse. She said, ‘Father I just wanted to pray before I go to work.’ Ever since I came to St. Robert Bellarmine, I would find people in the parking lot being quiet, at prayer.
“… I would say bring your favorite prayer book or the Bible and enjoy the quiet. The thing is that we are being bombarded with uncertainty and we need the quiet to realize God is with us.”
From keen observation on several visits, people also seem to thrive in the parking lot as they grab a slice of what used to be just regular life: teaching their toddlers how to ride bikes and their teens how to drive cars, for instance, or resting awhile in the prayer garden, as they savor the peace that pervades that green space between the church and Dentici Hall.
I have found it's also a place to find solace while meeting with an old friend to mourn the death of one of our classmates whose memorial Mass is yet to be held.
Msgr. Sam A. Sirianni, Co-Cathedral rector, and parish volunteer, Linda Altini.
It's a great destination on some weekdays when you get to break the self-isolation with prayer and then tune into the
activity that hums during the Monday food collection and a food related fund raiser with the Cousins of Maine Lobster truck every Thursday from 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.
On a recent Thursday, many folks from the neighborhood strolled in, joining motorists from around the area for that event which earmarks funds for the Freehold food relief program.
“The Freehold Clergy Association is involved as a resource to support this effort and the donation is made to the association,” said Msgr. Sirianni. This fund, he said, involves cooperation between agencies that take care of people in the borough, township and surrounding area, and area restaurants which prepare healthy meals for $7.00.
Deacon Michael Lee Foster, St. Thomas Moore Parish, Manalapan, helps out at Monday food drive.
“So far, they have shipped out over 300 plus meals to people who are sick and can’t leave their homes. People who are really in desperate need and can’t prepare a meal. We are joyful about how well it is going,” he said.
~Lois Rogers photos
