LAWRENCE -- In the afternoon of April 8, the Wednesday of Holy Week, over 150 people -- some indoors looking through windows, some outdoors standing six feet apart from each other -- watched as local clergy blessed Lawrence General Hospital and its patients and staff members.

Craig Gibson, the Catholic chaplain at Lawrence General Hospital, said the event was "the fruit of conversation about how we might reach out to the Catholic community and to the patients and family members and staffers at the hospital."

Father Chris Casey, the pastor of Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish and local vicar forane, was involved with organizing the ceremony and was originally intended to provide the blessing. When he learned from the Methuen Board of Health that he may have been exposed to the COVID-19 virus, Deacon Steven Murphy from Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish in Methuen stepped in to give the blessing.

Father Casey had arranged for a truck from the Lawrence Fire Department to come so they could use their public address system during the ceremony. Father Israel Rodriguez, pastor at St. Mary of the Assumption Parish in Lawrence, brought the Eucharist in a monstrance.

When they were about to start, members of the hospital staff, including the chief executive officer and head of human resources, came "pouring" outside to watch.

Gibson said that when he looked up at the windows, he could see patients and nurses waving, giving the thumbs-up and making the sign of the cross.

"It was very emotional," he said in an April 13 interview.

The blessing mentioned patients and staff members by department and position "to be as inclusive as possible," Gibson said in an email to The Pilot.

At the end of the ceremony, Father Rodriguez held the monstrance up for patients and staff on the upper floors to see. He then carried it around the perimeter of the hospital.

"It provided a sacred presence when there had been so many busy activities and worries and concerns and frustrations," Gibson said.

He noted the hospital staff members' "willingness and openness to come and be a part of something special that for many was in the middle of an incredibly hectic workday."