“For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” (Matthew 18:20)
I’ve heard this verse repeated many times in Catholic communities that I have been a part of. It reminds us that God is with us every time we gather in His name. Recently, I’ve been thinking a lot about what community looks like in the time of COVID and how it has influenced the start of my time with House of Brigid.
For me, the uncertainty of the last few months has been extremely difficult to deal with. Many things that I had been looking forward to were cancelled, most notably my college graduation and other related events. But they weren’t cancelled outright. At first it was “we’re trying to see if we can safely celebrate senior week and graduation in May.” Then the events were pushed back to August, before finally being postponed until next year. While I do not envy the people who had to make those decisions, all of the back and forth did nothing to quell my anxiety.
With the unceremonious end to my senior year, I began looking ahead to my upcoming adventure as a member of Teach Bhríde XII. There were lots of anxieties there too, namely whether or not we would actually be able to go to Ireland in the middle of the pandemic. Yet we carried on, preparing however we could for what lay ahead. That included meetings, status updates on our preclearance paperwork, orientation, and more.
One of the best parts of all of this preparation was the community bonding that came along with it. During our orientation week, the eight of us got together before our events for Zoom coffee hours. There have also been plenty of group chat messages that never fail to lift my spirits. Some days it’s been discussions like “how many sweaters is everyone packing because I think I have too many/not enough.” Others, it’s messages like “how can I pray for you today?”
For the Wexford group, it’s been weekly or biweekly community check-ins. Once, it was an afternoon of online games. Last week, there was a virtual tour of the Wexford house that was sabotaged by an uncooperative WiFi signal. Most of the time we simply end up sharing stories about our weeks, or talking about our favorite movies and TV shows. Of course, there’s plenty of conversation about how we hope that we’ll be together in Ireland soon. No matter what, my face hurts from smiling by the time we say goodbye.
An oft-repeated sentiment in nearly every Zoom call since March has been along the lines of “when we have these meetings, I feel better.” It’s certainly true for me. All of our meetings and community check-ins are a balm for the sometimes overwhelming anxiety that I have dealt with in the last few months. These moments bring me so much hope, and the knowledge that we are together through all of this uncertainty. And it reminds me that God is with us through every single moment of it, even if the two or three (or four, or eight) of us are gathered via Zoom.
