Pastor’s Letter & March 21 Bulletin

Pastor’s Letter & March 21 Bulletin

19 Mar 2021 | Posted by: chadmin

The March 21 bulletin is available online.

Dear friend,

If you were at 7:30pm Mass last Sunday, you heard me announce that we will no longer take reservations for the 7:30pm Mass attendance. This Mass typically doesn’t fill up and only a few families actually schedule attendance prior to the Mass. It will be easier on Parish staff and you to simply find an open pew when you arrive for the 7:30pm Sunday Mass. This will also allow us to keep processing the next steps toward opening. It is hard to believe it has been a year since the coronavirus struck our country and we were forced to close many of our institutions. While I don’t know that our country handled this pandemic perfectly, I think we can celebrate the many ways that we came together to keep each other safe, put others before ourselves, and now have the opportunity to receive a vaccine. On St. Patrick Day, I was two weeks from my second vaccination dose. I am now considered fully vaccinated. I am grateful for this more for the public presence I need to hold for others than necessarily for my own personal self-concern. I am hopeful that my vaccination will ease concerns of parishioners attending Mass and receiving Communion. The CDC is currently dialoging about reducing the safe social distancing from 6 feet to 3 feet for school and some indoor events. This, along with the vaccines, shows a continual movement forward to opening the church for more seating.

On Tuesday, March 23, we will open the seating for Easter Masses. As with Christmas, Rhonda will do her best to get as many in the church as we can. The sooner everyone registers the quicker we can look at overflow seating and possibly booking seats in our banquet room, as we did at Christmas. Since Christmas, we have noticed an increase of attendance at Mass. My hope is more and more will feel the desire to return to church as the threat of the coronavirus decreases.

This Wednesday our 2^nd grade students will receive First Reconciliation. Please pray for the kids as they celebrate this sacrament for the first time. Confession is one of those great gifts in the Catholic Christian tradition. The forgiveness God offers all of us through the sacrament helps us to be healed of the past and live more freely and confidently as Christians into the future. The Sacrament of Reconciliation is not only a time of peace and blessing for the kids, but also helps them learn how loving and forgiving God is to all of us. I hope you are able to celebrate the sacrament this Lent as well.

God bless,

Father David