2020 was a year unlike anything any of us have experienced. A global pandemic of the COVID-19 virus impacted millions and has killed hundreds of thousands of people in America alone. Every one of us knows someone who has caught this illness, and we all have opinions about maybe what we did as a country that was good, what could have been done better, and what we should be doing today, in order to get through this.

Lost in the shuffle for the secular media, but not for you and I, is the impact the government-imposed lockdowns have had on our faith communities. Our churches have been largely closed for 9 months, now. The sacraments have been largely unavailable to all of us. We’ve seen livestreamed masses become prominent, the nearest replacement we have for our Sunday attendance. Many of us have taken to “Mass tourism” where we attend a Mass in another state or even country since we cannot go in person to our local parish. Many of us and our families and friends may have gone “on vacation” from Mass attendance, “taking advantage” of the dispensation to attend Sunday Mass while the pandemic rages.

We’re all at different places in our Mass attendance and our spiritual walks. Where are we with God today? Have we drifted away from Him these past 9 months? Have we made efforts to stay close to Him even though we can’t get into the church? Have we leaned on our friends, our brothers in Christ, to help us stay close when it’s been so easy to be lazy and let our prayer lives lapse? Have we perhaps sought out and found some podcasts, books, newsletters, etc., that have helped us to stay on the path? Have we shared those findings with others who are suffering, too?

As Christian men we are not only called to walk with Christ, we are called to lead our families and friends to Him, as well. It is doubly important that we stay on-track and in-gear for Him. We’ve managed to survive 9 months of this insanity. Don’t stop now.