For Catholics, every Mass should be an extraordinary encounter with the Lord. However, Mass on Sunday, Feb. 16, at Our Lady of Lourdes, Richmond, was even more memorable after a tornado warning sounded during the liturgy.
Because the pastor, Father Jonathan Goertz, was away, the Mass was already atypical, being offered by retired Father Peter Creed and concelebrated by Father Daniel Cogut. After the entrance hymn, Father Creed opened with a short reflection on how parishioners might have logistics in mind during Mass: Where should I be? What happens next? Am I kneeling or standing?
He counseled, however, that “what is going through God’s mind when we come to Mass is that he loves us.” He urged the congregation to keep God’s love in mind before proceeding with the rest of the opening rites.
As it turned out, the commentary on logistics was prophetic. Twenty minutes later, during the Gospel proclamation of the Beatitudes, alarm bells filled the sanctuary as dozens of cellphone emergency alerts went off. The local weather service had issued a tornado warning. The priests and deacon quickly directed everyone downstairs to the social hall in the basement for the remainder of Mass.
One catch: half the social hall was taken up by a Red Cross blood drive.
As several hundred parishioners made their way downstairs, with looks of concern and apprehension on their faces, wind and rain lashed against the church windows. The antiseptic smell of the blood drive welcomed them to the social hall, and they had to navigate past donor chairs and volunteers to the back of the basement, which quickly filled to capacity, with many people standing in the back.
For the Liturgy of the Eucharist, there was a makeshift altar on a folding table surrounded by close-packed parishioners. On one side of the basement, donors offered their blood to medical professionals, while on the other side, bread and wine were transubstantiated into the sacrificial body and blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
If there was a tornado in Henrico County that day, it missed Our Lady of Lourdes. Yet the day was another remarkable moment in the life of the parish.