January 9, 2022

My Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

We celebrate the Baptism of the Lord this weekend.  The Feast of the Baptism of the Lord also concludes our Christmas Season.  Monday we will take down our Christmas decorations for our Church.  I would like to take this opportunity to thank all who helped making our Church and surrounding areas beautiful for the Christmas Season – Ginny McGargill, Mike Conley, Dick Liebentritt, Steve Fredrick, Don Halsey, Diane Knust, Lucy & Sam Marasco, Mary & Mike Leighton, Kathy Fullenkamp, Marilyn & Gene Spence, Tom Gregor and anyone else who helped.  We also like to thank Rose McCormick from Beyond the Vine for all she has done in making our Church beautiful throughout the year.

We have begun the remodel of our Blessed Sacrament Chapel.  We received the insert for the Tabernacle that will allow us to have the Blessed Sacrament exposed in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel from the opposite side of the Tabernacle and access and see the Tabernacle from the Church.  We removed the Tabernacle from our Church so that we can have the insert installed.  A temporary Tabernacle is currently in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel.  Once that is done, we will replace the carpeting in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel as well as have new lighting and furniture installed.  We will also have a new Statue of Mary that has been donated placed in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel.

We are soon approaching our annual fundraiser the MARQUEE on February 26.  We are hop- ing that the proceeds for our upcoming MARQUEE Raise the Paddle will help us upgrade the lower-level west wing hot water piping.   We started to address the heating of our school given that all the steam pipes are over 50 years old last year.  The current estimate to upgrade the system is about $300,000 ($75,000 per wing of each floor).  Thanks to last year’s MARQUEE Raise the Paddle, we replaced the hot water piping of the lower-level east wing of the school last summer with a variable volume terminal unit with a heating water coil in each classroom which connects to the existing ductwork. This included new temperature controls for the rooms and extension of the heating water piping from the lower-level mechanical room to each coil.  We are grateful for your generosity that helps continue building up our Parish Community.

Fr Mario is currently making a home visit to India to see his family. It has been over two  years that since he last made a visit.  He left the Monday after Christmas.  We pray that he continues to have a wonderful time with his family and return to us safely.

We continue to pray for all those affected by COVID-19.  I know that this has not been easy for everyone.  We also continue to do our best to keep everyone safe.  Our Parish continues to remain open for meetings and for groups to gather.  While the mask mandate of our city has been lifted, we have made available the left side of our Church for those still wanting to social distance.  We continue to request that mask be used when coming forward to receive Communion.  Thank you for kindly working with us.  We will reevaluate these protocols on a week to week basis.  As a reminder, please monitor COVID-19 symptoms. As always, if you or a family member has a fever, chills, body aches, headache, sore throat, cough, and loss of taste and smell, they should stay home from school or church until symptom free.

Please check out our Weekly Updates via email.  If you have not received an email, kindly call our Parish Office and we will add you in our email mailing list.  Thank you again for supporting us during this time. We continue to keep all those affected by this virus in our prayers.

God’s Blessings,

Fr Marc