Pastor’s Letter & March 7 Bulletin

Pastor’s Letter & March 7 Bulletin

5 Mar 2021 | Posted by: chadmin

The March 7 bulletin is available online.

Dear friend,

Last week at Mass, I mentioned a possible change to our use of Eventbrite to schedule Mass attendance at the weekend Masses. Like many of us, it’s been on my heart to think about a return to normal. The pandemic has affected us in so many ways. Any possible return to normalcy seems attractive right now. I have received lots of great feedback about our use of Eventbrite and the process of scheduling a pew for Mass attendance. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you want to share your experience. Most of the comments expressed a desire to return to an open church without advanced scheduling of pews. I did, however, hear from parishioners who like the predictability of scheduling a pew and knowing where one would be sitting when arriving at church. The process of online scheduling or calling the office to reserve a pew for weekend Mass attendance has worked well and something I’d like to continue for a while. My thought was to start the conversation and plan any changes for after Easter. Any change to scheduling Masses online will still require some assistance with ushering in church. As we think through the best way to assist our parishioners, we will continue to communicate. For now, we will continue to use Eventbrite scheduling through the Easter celebration. If you have not been to church in a while, please know that the daily 5:30pm Mass has lots of open pews and room to spread out. My hope with the extra Lenten Mass is to reach as many parishioners as possible and help us to pray publicly together at Mass.

With the vaccine more accessible and the warmer months coming, hopefully we are starting to see beyond the many, many effects of the coronavirus to our society. I personally received the second vaccine dose this week. To be honest, the main reason I sought the vaccine when it was offered to me was because I don’t want to infect someone else. I feel much more relaxed in public now knowing that my chances of contracting the virus or spreading it to others are greatly reduced. One of the things we’ve all learned is that the scientific communication about this disease has not been exact. For me, probably the most personally frustrating aspect of the virus has been the lack of consistent communication and the variety of the scientific voices. Hopefully the more common sense voices will prevail; where we can be careful and logical, concerned about the welfare of each other, and continue to live the gift of our lives. With the vaccine spreading in our community, I am hopeful that things will continue to open up. As we see restrictions change, the church will try to keep the common good and safety of all in decision making. Even with the vaccine, I think we can all foresee wearing facemasks at Mass and in public, for the time being.

Thank you to all who helped organize, run, and participated in our St. Philomena Fish Fry last week. It was quite an undertaking to not only establish a safe way to offer a fish fry, but to also ensure through the ordering process that we’d have the right amount of food to meet the need. The night went off very well and we, as a community, are thankful for the effort and support.  We’ve been asked about an additional Fish Fry, but we will not be hosting another event this Lent. We will continue to advertise for the other parishes and organizations in the area that will offer a Friday Fish Fry. Hopefully we will be back to a more normal fish fry schedule next year.

God bless,

Father David