A game-changing virus has me yearning for Sunday Mass

It was 1962.
    

In the evenings, my mother and I would wait outside in the driveway for my father to come home from work. It is one of my earliest memories as a child.
    

As my dad, a huge sports fan, stepped out of the car, he looked at me and said the following: “Son, they may not play the LSU-Ole Miss game on Saturday.”
    

The Cuban missile crisis, and the blockade of the island ordered by President John F. Kennedy, had the United States and the Soviet Union on the brink of World War III.
    

As a young child, I learned for the first time what it was like when the world truly stopped.
    

Which brings us to now. Since the outbreak of the coronavirus, I have had that same empty feeling. I worry about our neighbors, our friends. I worry about everyone.
    

I love all of you. And, I love March.
    

The weather turns warmer, college basketball crowns its champion, and baseball is right around the corner.
    

Spring time was the best time to study. I would have my lamp on in my room, reading my book and listening to the St. Louis Cardinals on KMOX 1120-AM in St. Louis.
    

My mom didn’t have to tell me to go to bed. She left that up to the voice of the Cardinals’ Jack Buck.
    

As high school sports shut down in the last two weeks, I drove to Holy Cross School on that final Saturday of high school play in Louisiana. The Tigers and John Curtis played in the afternoon before a big crowd.
    

It was a great game. I wanted to see the game, period. But, I also didn’t know when I would see it again. As the final innings were played, I was already missing it.
    

As much as I miss that, I miss seeing America as a thriving place, where people were working hard and chasing their dream.
    

We are told that the virus will be defeated and that we, as a nation, will make a quick recovery.
    

That is the prayer of everyone.
    

This Sunday, I will miss going to Mass and picking up my printed copy of the Clarion Herald. It’s great to know that the paper is still being delivered to churches that are open during the week for people who want to stop in and pray, and it’s great to know that every page is available online. But my Sundays, like yours, will be very different.
    

Most of the time, my Clarion work is done late on a Sunday night for the next Saturday’s issue. But, I don’t really know if what I’ve written truly is any good or not until I read it in print, on Sunday, at church.
    

If a week later, it still passes the smell test, then I can be satisfied that what I have written was good enough to take a few minutes of your valuable time.
    

I can’t wait to read that printed copy, again – on Sunday, at Mass, in my pew. 
    

Ed Daniels is sports director of ABC26 WGNO. He can be reached at [email protected].