"I probably started thinking 'this might not happen' very early," Price said. "I think I remember the first time I thought, 'oh, this probably isn't going to happen' was Ash Wednesday. And at that point, everyone said I was being ridiculous."
She said that she took the news of the likely cancelation of Easter Vigil very hard, particularly because she feared the possibility of dying without being confirmed, receiving the Eucharist, or going to confession.
"I was very upset," Price told CNA. "I mean, I didn't blame the Church or anything, but especially since I had a much longer period away from any church--like I spent 20 years probably not going to any church at all--so for me, I was like, 'Oh, I finally figured it out,' I finally said 'yes' to Christ, and now I'm not going to be able to even to join the Church."
She said because she had read news reports about healthy people her age that were dying of COVID-19, she was particularly concerned about getting her spiritual affairs in order in case she contracted the virus.
"All of a sudden, my mortality is right there," she said.
"Before, I was like, 'I'm fine waiting,'" she said. "Whatever God has in mind. But then I was like, if I die, and I haven't been confirmed, I haven't gotten to confess my sins, I just absolutely do not want that to happen."
Price quickly sprung into action, and arranged her first confession. Rogers soon followed suit.
When it became clear that New York was going to implement some sort of shelter-in-place directive, St. Vincent Ferrer moved quickly to accommodate as many people from their RCIA class as possible, but within the city's guidelines regarding social distancing and canon law. The parish has since discontinued confirmations, in accord with archdiocesan policy.
Price responded to the email first, and was confirmed in a private Mass.
The congregation was just six friends and a few other people.
Music, she explained, was one of the things that drew her to the Church, so the experience of getting a private choir at her confirmation Mass was "amazing."
(Story continues below)
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Fr. Hagan, who celebrated the Mass, preached a homily that was entirely about Price's journey to the faith. Price took Mary, the Mother of God, as her confirmation saint.
Rogers, who was confirmed at a separate Mass with several others, took St. Catherine of Bologna as her confirmation saint.
Rogers told CNA that her first time receiving the Eucharist was "amazing," even though it was extremely unusual.
Due to archdiocesan regulations aimed at preventing the spread of disease, the candidates had to receive the Eucharist by intinction, which means that the Host was dipped in the Precious Blood before it was given to the communicant.
"All of us were kneeling in the first pew, and Father just came to each of us and brought the sacrament to us," Rogers said.
"So we were still kneeling, and I will never forget the Precious Body being dunked in the Blood and then looking up and seeing it, and for the first time ever seeing the flesh and blood together and it had never been so real," she said. "That is the literal flesh and blood of my Savior, and He had just never been so personal, and so real."
As someone who was raised Anglican, and whose family is very involved in the Anglican communion-her brother is an Anglican seminarian--Rogers said coming to terms with the differences between the communion and rituals she participated in as a child and those in the Catholic Church was one of the hardest parts of her journey into the faith.