One Catholic priest wanted to pray over Tennesseans as they continue to grapple with the devastating March 3 tornadoes and the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak.

So the Rev. Gervan Menezes hopped in a small, Piper Archer airplane Thursday morning and did just that as he cruised past key landmarks and communities at 6,500 feet.

Menezes, a priest in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Nashville, believes in the power of prayer, especially when back-to-back crises make a person feel like there is little they can do to help.

"We want to do something," Menezes said. "Prayer is something that we all can do."

Menezes soared over the Middle Tennessee diocese with pilot and fellow Catholic, Daniel Schachle, and his son, Joseph Schachle. The priest also brought along sacred cargo — the Blessed Sacrament — for the roughly 400-mile flight. Catholics believe the Blessed Sacrament, the consecrated host, is the body of Jesus Christ.

He compared the more than two-hour flight to the Eucharistic processions priests and deacons do during holy week and on feast days. Menezes also noted that public Masses are currently suspended in the Nashville diocese in an effort to help slow the spread of the novel coronavirus.

"It was a way, in a concrete way, to take Jesus to the people of the diocese," Menezes said.

The pilot and the priest, who are connected through the fraternal Catholic organization, the Knights of Columbus, started making plans for the flight a couple days before. They had heard of other priests taking similar trips, but needed a clear day to make it happen. Thursday brought the blue skies they needed.

As they looped around Middle Tennessee, Menezes prayed and said blessings for those below while flying passed the cathedral in Nashville, Catholic parishes, hospitals and the swath of homes and businesses damaged by the tornadoes.

Before taking off from the Dickson County Municipal Airport, Menezes asked his social media followers to share their prayer intentions so he could fulfill them in the sky.

"As you know this time is a really hard time for everybody, so what we're going to do is take the Blessed Sacrament around the diocese and we're going to be praying for you guys, we're going to be blessing the diocese," said Menezes, in a video message he posted to Facebook.

"If you have any prayer requests or what not just comment on this video and we will be posting video and photos as we go through."

As they flew over Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Menezes prayed for the family member of one of his campus ministry students who was undergoing surgery as well as the doctors working there.

"It was a great experience for me," Menezes said. "I wasn’t there by myself, but I was there with everybody in the diocese and in Nashville praying together and hoping for this whole situation to get better soon."

Reach Holly Meyer at hmeyer@tennessean.com or 615-259-8241 and on Twitter @HollyAMeyer.