So I’ve recently gone back to Church, they are just opening up. And I have to sit through the whole service which usually consists of the mass proper plus some sort of devotional/prayer service before or after the mass, I have to sit thru this all with a MASK and I’m discovering I’m CLAUSTROPHOBIC! there’s no great point to this post, it’s just horrible to spend an hour and fifteen or an hour and thirty feeling like your being suffocated because you’re CLAUSTROPHOBIC. If it wasn’t for the Eucharist.....
You're not alone. the mask can make one feel like one is not getting enough air, which exacerbates those feelings. Can you stand around outside until just before communion, then walk back out afterward? I mean, who's going to hassle you if you do that? If anyone asks, you just plead, "Medical condition, it's necessary." Of course, if you were in my ACNA parish, you wouldn't have to wear a mask. Half the attendees do, half don't, and nobody's upset or anything (that I can tell). I don't wear a mask and nobody's brought the issue up.
Today I sat in a chair by an open door, open to the outside!!!! I’m going to snag that seat for Sunday Mass tomorrow. And yes, the tradcaths don’t wear masks and only receive communion on the tongue. Thursday was the first day in my life I took communion in the hand. InTEC I allow the priest to place the wafer in my palm, pick it up and intinct it, and place it on my tongue. Now I feel like I’m helping myself to an hors d’oevre.