By Emily Drooby
It’s not every day you would hear the sound of a Catholic Latin Mass being celebrated in a Methodist church.
But that was the case on Sunday, March 8, as the congregation of the Church of the Assumption used the church across the street as an alternative place to pray.
Their parish was hit hard by Nashville’s tornadoes.
The church’s pastor, Father Bede Price, explained, “We’re trying to keep the schedule as consistent as possible and not omit anything, we even had Stations of the Cross without the Stations of the Cross.”
Parishioner Layla Krog and her family are grateful for the tenacity shown by the clergy.
“I feel very blessed that we’re still able to come together in our community. We were still in our parish, even though we weren’t in our building” Krog said.
Two other local Catholic Churches were also damaged by the tornadoes: St. Vincent de Paul and the Church of the Most Holy Name of Jesus.
Mass could not be celebrated at St. Vincent de Paul on Sunday because all of the roads leading to the church were blocked off as crews picked up debris and fixed power lines.
The tornadoes ripped through Middle Tennessee early Tuesday morning. At least 24 people were killed, over 500 homes and businesses were destroyed and over 100,000 were left without power.
The Church of the Most Holy Name of Jesus lost power, but refused to let it stop them from celebrating Mass.Instead they relied on candles.
“We come together as a community to celebrate and to thank God and to ask him to continue to grant us the healing to recover from this,” explained Father Theo Ebulueme, the church’s pastor.
Father Ebulueme said, fortunately, his church was mostly spared from severe damage.
The celebration of Mass in the midst of so much wreckage was a beautiful display of resilience and of faith.
Church of the Assumption parishioner, Mary Langdon, was thankful for the moment.
“Amen, thank you God, thank you Lord, thank you Blessed Mother and all of the saints and angels,” Langdon said.