October 31, 2021
My Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
We celebrate the Solemnity of All Saints on Monday November 1st. It is a day to celebrate the gift of all saints and martyrs that are known and unknown throughout history. On November 2nd, we observe All Soul’s Day where we commemorate all the Faithful Departed. All Soul’s Day is a day of prayer where we remember all those who have died. We will be lighting a candle for all our parishioners we have buried since last All Soul’s Day at each Mass this weekend. We will also light a candle for Mgsr. Kenny and all our Founding Members of our Parish who made all this possible. At the side of the Church, you will see Crosses that are placed in remembrance of Parishioners that have passed in the last year. On the Anniversary of their passing, we present the family with the cross. We also have an Annual Memorial Mass that will be held on November 6, at 8:15am for all our parishioners we have buried since last All Soul’s Day.
Just some updates on our campus. We completed the building of the slide feature of the playground of our Early Childhood Education and Youth Center. We would like to thank Mike Heser, Ron Peitzmeier and Mike Heser Jr. for helping us build the slide feature. Our 8th Grade class helped fill the area around the slide feature with rubber mulch. The rubber mats of the playground were installed by Dave Mills, Andrew Rainbolt, Rob Woodling, Bobby Paladino, Mark Lindauer, Jason McGill, Luke Ranck, John Barta, Jamie McCarville, Matt Rasgorshek, Greg Haus and Zach Henery. The playground equipment was installed by Ed Prosser and the mulching of the other areas of the playground was done by Angie and Dave Mills. Thanks to all the hard work of our volunteers, we completed the building of the playground. I am grateful for all who made time to help us make this possible. We blessed the playground on Wednesday 20th of October and the playground is now used by our preschoolers.
With the installation of the pergolas in the Entrance Plaza done, we have completed the renewal of our Entrance Plaza of our Church. We are now looking to install some benches in the Entrance Plaza and the Entrance of our School patio so that all can gather. Currently we are looking for 7 – 8 foot benches and 4 – 4 foot benches. If you would like to purchase a bench in memory of a loved one which would include a personalize cast bronze bench plaque in their name, kindly contact the Parish Office. The cost each 4 foot bench is about $700 and the cost for each 8 foot bench is about $1100.
Over the last few years, our School has worked with Catholic Charities to provide mental health services for our students by a licensed mental health practitioner in a confidential manner as referred by the administration of the school. Realizing that life brings on sets of challenges that can be difficult to navigate, we are working in partnership with Catholic Charities to provide such services to help members in our Parish to navigate some of life’s most difficult challenges. Thanks to Catholic Charities, we are able to offer therapy services here in our Parish for individuals, couples and families by a mental health practitioner at no cost. It will require a referral from me. If this is a service that you currently need, kindly contact me at the Parish Office. All referrals are handled confidentially.
We removed our Tabernacle in our Blessed Sacrament Chapel so that we are able to install the Lunar insert in it. Once that is done, we will relocate our Tabernacle so that it to be both visible and accessible in our Church as well as to have the Eucharist to be exposed in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel. A temporary Tabernacle is currently in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel.
We continue to pray for all those affected by the new strain of COVID-19. We also continue to do our best to keep everyone safe. We have opened our Parish 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 masks 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