As rituals change to avoid the spread of coronavirus, it’s time to look into people’s souls instead

On Sunday, at St Mary’s church in Harbourne, Birmingham, Father John told us there would be a few changes during mass. Mindful of coronavirus – no respecter of nations or faiths – there would be no blessed chalice and the communion wafers would be placed only in our hands, not on our tongues. There had been no holy water to bless ourselves with on the way in. And Fr John assured us it should not be taken as rudeness when he didn’t shake hands with each of us on the way out.

I have never been one for the taking of the wafer directly on to the tongue; a bit old-school for me. But the ritual of the holy water – the four faint, soon-fading, watery marks on our foreheads and chests – have always kind of ached with meaning for me. But what really unsettled me was the plea not to shake hands during the sign of peace. Just in case you have never had the pleasure, the sign of peace, in a Catholic mass, comes between the Lord’s Prayer and the breaking of the bread. The priest invites us to “Offer each other the sign of peace”. We then shake hands with those around us and say: “Peace be with you”. Before I was a Catholic, this bit astounded me. I would go along to mass with one or more of my beery, footbally college mates, and then suddenly we would be wishing each other peace, which wasn’t the kind of thing we ever wished each other in the general run of things. Nice. It has always been a highlight of mass for me, and not only because it is a sign that you are, er, nearer to the end of mass than the beginning. I love it for its simplicity. Who, of whatever faith or none, could possibly object to having peace wished upon them?