LIMA, Peru — With their country under a nationwide stay-at-home order, parishioners at Saint Anthony of Padua parish in Lima, Peru, approached their pastor, Fr. Enrique Díaz, with the idea of exposition of the Blessed Sacrament from the church’s roof.
The pastor agreed, and preparations were made for rooftop Holy Hours on March 21 and 22. They’d begin after dusk, with Peruvian music, and they’d aim to bring hope to the people confined in the surrounding buildings.
In a statement to ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish language news partner, Fr. Díaz said that “it was beautiful, and it was very well received by all the people in the neighboring buildings.”
Fr. Díaz said a nearby restaurant joined the effort by providing lighting and the necessary equipment so all the neighbors in the high rises could experience an hour of adoration.
A monstrance was brought to the rooftop, and with music and reflections people prayed for the health of those stricken with coronavirus and for all citizens of the country.
Fr. Díaz said the neighbors, not all of them Catholic, came to their windows and balconies and many knelt before the Blessed Sacrament.
“You see the need for God in the world, you see the need for all the neighbors who are here to be able to have the presence of Jesus," he said.
The priest noted that amid the pandemic, perseverance in the life of faith “is essential, and it is also a great consolation and a time of hope in order to face everything that comes.”
“For those who have faith, however difficult it may be, you always have the consolation and hope that the world doesn’t slip out of God’s hands, that he is always in control of everything,” he added.