Edmond Life & Leisure • March 26 2020 • Page 5
St. Monica’s ‘drive-in’ Mass draws big crowd By Carla Hinton Oklahoman.com Never one to be late to church, Darrel Waggoner arrived more than an hour early Sunday so he could get a good seat. Instead of sitting in the pews at St. Monica Catholic Church, he sat in his truck, which he strategically parked close to the house of worship's front doors. Thus, Waggoner had one of the best views of St. Monica's first "driveup Mass." "I thought it was real nice," he said afterward. "It brought a feeling of comfort in this time of the unknown." The Rev. Stephen Hamilton celebrated the unique outdoor Mass on Sunday on the expansive paved area in front of the church, 2001 N Western. His parishioners and some members of other Catholic parishes sat in their cars in the church parking lot, where they watched and listened to the sacred Catholic liturgy. The priest said he estimated about 700 people — including many young families with children — participated in the "drive-up" event. Hamilton, 46, came up with the special Mass as a way to bring his parish together while still complying with Archbishop Paul S. Coakley's directive to suspend public Mass throughout the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City. The archbishop suspended in-person Mass to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Knowing that his parishioners would be disheartened by this chain of events, Hamilton became creative. He said the Catholic faith community's "highest form of our worship is the Mass, especially on the Lord's day." "We really need some normalcy. I thought we could do Mass and make it as normal as we can," the priest said Sunday. "My hope is that they found some comfort in it, in seeing the things they would normally see." An altar was created specifically for the outdoor Mass, which included six altar servers, an associate priest and a deacon. Parishioners listened as Hamilton celebrated the liturgy of the Eucharist by tuning into their car radios. The priest said the church set up the audio with the help of a parishioner who is savvy about radio frequency technology. The Mass in English was held at 10:30 a.m. and lasted about an hour and, for St. Monica's Hispanic parishioners, Hamilton planned to celebrate Mass in Spanish at 1 p.m. The church livestreamed the English Mass on its YouTube channel. Some people, a few
among all the wearing proteckids was basitive masks over cally that they their mouths, never apprecigot out of their ated the comcars, but most munal aspect of remained in worship quite so their vehicles as much as today. they listened to There was someHamilton share Hamilton thing tangible in his homily closeness, not which included only to the Lord but to a timely analogy about each other as well," the coronavirus that Samwell said. prompted Sunday's "Out of the mouths Mass. of babes." Several times, parishioners could be heard Sprinkling of grace throughout the parking Hamilton sprinkled lot as they voiced their holy water on parishcollective responses to ioners' cars and said a the liturgy. blessing of protection The familiar sound touched the heart of St. over his flock and visitors as they drove out Monica parishioner of the parking lot. Cheryl Gumerson. One of the last to "I was helping my son with the livestream and leave was Marian Jeter, a member of Edmond's I heard the people in St. John the Baptist their cars responding. Catholic Church. They were chanting "Well, aren't you a their response and it brought me to tears — it blessing!" she told was beautiful," she said. Hamilton as he sprinkled her SUV with the 'It's still Jesus' water. Brett Farley and his "This uplifted our family were dressed in souls. We don't always their Sunday best alhave to touch and see though they didn't expect to get of their cars each other to know the love of God and the to be seen by other churchgoers. Farley said love of each other in the community." he and his wife Jessica explained to their four daughters that they were dressing up for Jesus, not other Christians. "Mass is Mass, whether we celebrate it inside or outside, it's still Jesus," Farley said Sunday. "Unfortunately we can't take Communion but we can still celebrate. We're going to participate in Mass whatever way we can." Jo Ann Patterson, a St. Monica parishioner, sat in a car with her mother Madalene Smith. The older woman said she regularly attends St. Paul Catholic Church in Del City but she knew she wanted to attend the drive-up Mass in Edmond as soon as she learned about it. "I'd been grieving all week because I couldn't come to daily Mass," Smith said."I think it's beautiful, absolutely wonderful that the father has made an effort to get us all together." Like Smith, Waggoner attends another church, St. Andrew Catholic Church in Moore, his home church while he was growing up. He said he came to the drive-up Mass because he thought it was a good idea. "I heard about this and I thought it was fantastic," he said. "You couldn't have done it any better than the way they did it. It was very true to Catholic doctrine." Peter Samwel, his wife Aron and their children were another St. Monica family who attended the Mass in their finest clothing. He said the different setting for the Mass provided a unique lesson for his five children. "The consensus