Refrain from holding hands during ‘Our Father,’ CBCP urges faithful amid nCoV scare

It's customary among the churchgoers to hold hands in singing or praying the Our Father, but not this time.

The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines has discouraged the public from holding hands during the reciting of the prayer to help prevent the spread of the deadly novel coronavirus.

There are no confirmed cases yet in the Philippines, but the virus has killed over a hundred people in China and infected thousands others.

"[We] discourage our faithful from holding hands during the singing/praying of the 'Our Father' and from shaking of hands during the Sign of Peace," CBCP said in a statement.

CBCP also recommended the practice of communion in the hand to prevent further fear, to regularly check and change the Holy Water from Holy Water Fonts, and to provide protective cloth on the grills of confessionals.

 

LOOK: CBCP issues "Oratio Imperata" against the spread of coronavirus pic.twitter.com/al9LVrD4Og

— CBCPNews (@cbcpnews) January 29, 2020

 

Archbishop Romulo Valles, the CBCP president, issued a special prayer against the spread of the 2019-nCoV.

"In praying we invite ourselves with all our brothers and sisters suffering from the disease brought by this virus, bring up to God our longing for them to be restored to full health and humbly pray that we may be spared from infection of this virus," CBCP said in a statement.

The Oratio Imperata, or an "ordered prayer" for a special intention, is set on start on February 2.

"We exhort all our parishes to pray this Oratio in all of our weekdays and Sunday Masses, after Holy Communion, kneeling down, starting on February 2 (Sunday), Feast of the Presentation of the Lord," the statement said.

The oratio imperata reads as:

God our Father,
We come to you in our need
To ask your protection against the 2019 N-Corona Virus,
That has claimed lives
And has affected many.

We pray for your grace
For the people tasked with studying the nature and cause
Of this virus and its disease
And of stemming the tide of its transmission.
Guide the hands and minds of medical experts
That they may minister to the sick
With competence and compassion,
And of those governments and private agencies
That must find cure and solution to this epidemic.

We pray for those afflicted
May they be restored to health soon.

Grant us the grace
To work for the good of all
And to help those in need.

Grant this through our Lord, Jesus Christ, your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You, in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, forever and ever. Amen.

Mary Help of al Christians, pray for us.
St. Raphael the Archangel, pray for us.
St. Rock, pray for us.
St. Lorenzo Ruiz, pray for us.
St. Pedro Calungsod, pray for us.

—Joahna Lei Casilao/LDF, GMA News