Pastor’s Letter & April 18 Bulletin

Pastor’s Letter & April 18 Bulletin

16 Apr 2021 | Posted by: chadmin

The April 18 bulletin is available online.

Dear friend,

Happy Easter! As we continue to celebrate the Easter Season, the Church invites us to reflect on the power of the Resurrection for forgiveness and eternal life. The Gospel reading this weekend comes after the Road to Emmaus story where Jesus revealed to two disciples all the Old Testament scriptural references to Him as Messiah. These two disciples reported to the Apostles that their hearts were burning within them as Jesus spoke to them and they recognized who He was when He broke the bread. Jesus then appeared to the Apostles in the Upper Room and allowed them to touch Him and see Him eat with them. These physical engagements helped provide substantial proof to them about His Resurrection. This provided encouragement to their spiritual lives and future ministry. In 2000 years of Christianity, I think we see countless ways Jesus makes Himself known to the Church and to individual Christians. The Easter Season is an invitation for us to grow our personal relationship with Him so that He can reveal more of His plan for each of our lives and our path to heaven.

We are continuing to process possible adjustments to Covid-19 protocols. There are certain advantages and challenges to the Mass scheduling procedure. On the administrative level it’s a bit time consuming, but does allow us to ensure that good separation exists between families. I do know the bishops of Illinois stay in communication with each other about current best practices. There are certain protocols on social distancing that all churches maintain, but there are other protocols that vary between churches. These differences have a lot to do with the number of parishioners and the number of people attending Mass. I look forward to the day we can take down all the pew signage in church. The church simply looks a lot better without it! Now that the CDC has said that there is a 1 in 10,000 chance of acquiring Covid-19 through surface transmission, we may soon stop spraying the pews after every Mass.

You have probably noticed the pews are showing some wear and tear from the Covid cleaning. Not only are the wood pews in need of refinishing, the carpet is in poor shape, especially at the high traffic areas up front. The last larger scale renovations inside our church was in 2005. Because of these needs, I began talking to some organizations about possible renewal to the wood pews, new carpet, new flooring in the sanctuary and possibly a new Altar and Ambo that better fit the structure of the church. The pews and the carpet are the two main areas that will need to be addressed. Because these will need to eventually be addressed, I asked a church design group to give some suggestions about possible renovations. Eventually these possibilities will be discussed with a smaller design group, our parish finance council and the parish. We are blessed with some monies in savings from our previous campaign, but we may need to raise some funds if we refinish all the pews and do other renovations. Stay tuned for updates and thanks for all the support throughout the year.

God bless,

Father David