The world has stopped. Activities, economics, political life, travel, entertainment events and sports have stopped. Public religious life also has stopped.

Every Lenten season, the Church invites our sisters and brothers in Christ to redirect their lives to focus on prayer, fasting and works of charity. This period of quarantine during COVID-19 is like the Lenten season. It’s a universal abstinence.

May this episode be an auspicious time to live more intensely. The disease cannot stop us from worshipping God in our hearts and homes. We may not be able to gather for Mass in the House of God, but God instills these habits in us so that our actions may be oriented according to the will of the Father who wants only our good. According to Catholic theology, when we accept God’s will and habits they become manifest through faith, hope and charity.

How You Can Practice the Theological Virtues

Faith is the theological virtue by which we believe in God and in all that he has revealed to us, all that the Holy Church proposes to us, because he is the truth itself. We pray to God: “Lord, I believe, but increase my faith!” As believers we must strive to know and do God’s will. He speaks to us through the signs. And he asks us for an active, creative and supportive faith.

The virtue of hope corresponds to the yearning for happiness placed by God in the heart of every man. It protects us from discouragement. The impulse of hope preserves selflessness and leads to the bliss of charity. When Christians do not allow themselves to be invaded by discouragement, they cannot fail. God will not leave us without his help.

Charity is the theological virtue by which we love God above all things. This is a central commandment of our faith. We cannot say that we believe in God if we do not show our faith with works. This is a time to do good. As Pope Francis asks, “Let us ask the Lord, at this particularly difficult time for all of us, to rediscover within us his presence that loves and sustains us, and thus bearers of his tenderness to all who surround us with works of closeness and good.”

The Catechism of the Catholic Church has taught us to act and live out our faith. A traditional list of immediate “basic needs” is food (including water), shelter and clothing.

Paraguay's Response to COVID-19

In March when Paraguay’s President Mario Abdo Benitez ordered flight restrictions, border closures and strict quarantine, my heart sank. One week after the presidential order, many poor people began to knock on the rectory door, asking for food and cleaning supplies like bleach, dish soap and hand soap.

As a Divine Word Missionary, I cannot ignore the needs of our brothers and sisters. With the help of good-hearted people, we began our work of charity. We handed out bags of food and supplies and cooked “olla popular” (or “community pot,” a soup or stew prepared for many) in our various outstation chapel communities. The needs in our parish community grow each day. We will continue for as long as we can.

Let us increase our prayers for one another so as not to fall in the face of the ravages of this storm. Let us pray to overcome the fears that paralyze us. Let us open our hearts so that the Lord may calm them.

With God’s help, faith, hope and charity will be the antidotes for successfully overcoming this crisis. Let us ask for the intercession of St. Joseph, protector of the family, and of our mother Mary Most Holy. Let us pray the rosary and novenas as a family. We entrust ourselves to the Virgin of Miracles of Caacupé to be our defense and refuge against this epidemic.

Please help us bring hope to those suffering from COVID-19 in the farthest corners of the world—join in giving to the emergency relief fund!

Father Viet “Juan” Quoc Hoang SVD, who was born in Vietnam and moved to Wisconsin as a child, was ordained to the priesthood in 2018. He is serving his first assignment in Paraguay.