{"id":717,"date":"2009-10-28T12:39:29","date_gmt":"2009-10-28T12:39:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/freshliving\/2009\/10\/has-swine-flu-changed-your-habits.html"},"modified":"2009-10-28T12:39:29","modified_gmt":"2009-10-28T12:39:29","slug":"has-swine-flu-changed-your-habits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/10\/has-swine-flu-changed-your-habits.html","title":{"rendered":"Has Swine Flu Changed Your Habits?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Boston Globe reported this week that the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston is suggesting some significant changes to the Mass service to try to stem the spread of swine flu.&nbsp; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.boston.com\/news\/health\/articles\/2009\/10\/28\/swine_flu_has_boston_archdiocese_rethinking_rituals\/\" target=\"_blank\">Click here for the whole article<\/a>, but here are the basic facts:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Communion wine, usually offered from a chalice that is sipped by every parishioner, will be suspended from the service so that flu germs can&#8217;t be passed by sharing the cup.<\/li>\n<li>The ritual of &#8220;passing the peace,&#8221; which typically involves a handshake or even embrace, will be replaced with a nod or bow at that moment in the service, preventing contact that might spread the flu.<\/li>\n<li>Holy water cisterns will be disinfected and changed more often, lowering the chances that someone&#8217;s fingers dipped into the water might leave behind flu germs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The Globe&#8217;s religion reporter, Michael Paulson, pointed out that the changes are partially about preventing the spread of swine flu, but partially about easing the fears of some of the 300,000 Catholics in Boston who attend weekly Mass services but might be nervous to come because of the flu risk.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s a fascinating manifestation of life with swine flu, and I wanted to put the question out there&#8211;has the swine flu changed your habits?&nbsp; Are you bringing your own mat to yoga class?&nbsp; Not offering your friends sips of a great new drink you&#8217;re trying at dinner?&nbsp; Staying home from work because your cubicle neighbor was coughing yesterday?&nbsp; Staying home from church or synagogue?&nbsp; Please share!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Like what you see? <\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/feedburner.google.com\/fb\/a\/mailverify?uri=FreshLiving&amp;amp;loc=en_US\"><font color=\"#023d89\"><strong>Click here to subscribe<\/strong><\/font><\/a><strong> and get Fresh Living in your in-box every day!<\/strong>&nbsp; <br \/>&nbsp; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Boston Globe reported this week that the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston is suggesting some significant changes to the Mass service to try to stem the spread of swine flu.&nbsp; Click here for the whole article, but here are the basic facts: Communion wine, usually offered from a chalice that is sipped by every&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,28],"tags":[765,766,768,375,767,150],"class_list":["post-717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-holly-lebowitz-rossi","category-current-events","category-health","tag-archdiocese-of-boston","tag-boston-globe","tag-catholic-church-swine-flu","tag-cold-and-flu","tag-michael-paulson","tag-swine-flu"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Has Swine Flu Changed Your Habits? - Fresh Living<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/10\/has-swine-flu-changed-your-habits.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Has Swine Flu Changed Your Habits? - Fresh Living\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Boston Globe reported this week that the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston is suggesting some significant changes to the Mass service to try to stem the spread of swine flu.&nbsp; Click here for the whole article, but here are the basic facts: Communion wine, usually offered from a chalice that is sipped by every&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/10\/has-swine-flu-changed-your-habits.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Fresh Living\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-10-28T12:39:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"hrossi\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Has Swine Flu Changed Your Habits? - Fresh Living","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/10\/has-swine-flu-changed-your-habits.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Has Swine Flu Changed Your Habits? - Fresh Living","og_description":"The Boston Globe reported this week that the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston is suggesting some significant changes to the Mass service to try to stem the spread of swine flu.&nbsp; Click here for the whole article, but here are the basic facts: Communion wine, usually offered from a chalice that is sipped by every&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/10\/has-swine-flu-changed-your-habits.html","og_site_name":"Fresh Living","article_published_time":"2009-10-28T12:39:29+00:00","author":"hrossi","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/10\/has-swine-flu-changed-your-habits.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/10\/has-swine-flu-changed-your-habits.html","name":"Has Swine Flu Changed Your Habits? - Fresh Living","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-10-28T12:39:29+00:00","dateModified":"2009-10-28T12:39:29+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/#\/schema\/person\/168fb6fdfd4f4d1a2e41e628b308b687"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/10\/has-swine-flu-changed-your-habits.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/10\/has-swine-flu-changed-your-habits.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/10\/has-swine-flu-changed-your-habits.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Has Swine Flu Changed Your Habits?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/","name":"Fresh Living","description":"Holistic, Health and Wellness","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/#\/schema\/person\/168fb6fdfd4f4d1a2e41e628b308b687","name":"hrossi","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/b92\/b928efbbb02076837659d614a160f471x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/b92\/b928efbbb02076837659d614a160f471x96.jpg","caption":"hrossi"},"description":"Holly Lebowitz Rossi is Beliefnet's Health and Relationships Editor. A graduate of Cornell University and Harvard Divinity School, she has more than a decade of experience writing about religion and spirituality for Newsweek, The Washington Post, Spa Finder, Sojourners, Search, and many other publications. Her commentaries have also been heard on NPR\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153All Things Considered.\" When not at her desk, you can find her baking, in her garden, or rockin' out in water aerobics class. She lives in Arlington, Mass. Visit http:\/\/www.hollyrossi.com for more.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/author\/hrossi"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}