Over the past couple of weeks, you may have noticed that we’ve reconfigured our seating.  Instead of every third pew being available, we’ve opened every other pew.  Over the last few weeks, we’ve noticed a marked uptick in Mass attendance, even at Masses that previously were never close to being full.  The Pastoral Team and Pastoral Council both engaged in discussions about the best way to manage this increased attendance, keeping people as safe as possible while maximizing the number of people who can celebrate Mass in the church.  (The overwhelming feedback that we got suggested that people would much rather be in the church than watching a live stream in the basement.) 

This new arrangement should allow us to accommodate more people in the church, while still keeping people 6 feet apart.  The previous arrangement separated folks by far more than 6 feet, which we thought was the prudent way to go during the first few months of reopening.  After carefully watching what other local parishes are doing, we felt this was a good time to make this change. 

In the coming weeks, you should also notice some additional signage that will spell out how and where to sit in the available pews in order to accommodate the greatest number of people while maintaining six feet of distance between people.  I know this is a little bit of micro-managing, but since we’re still knee-deep in this pandemic, I’d rather be safe than sorry.

Additionally, beginning this weekend we’ll offer an overflow Mass in the basement.  Now that Fr. Gil has been ordained and we’re back up to two priests on Sundays, we’ll be able to offer a live Mass in the basement instead of just live streaming […]

This Saturday we’re celebrating First Communion for our second graders.  (I guess they’re not second graders any more, are they?  They’re now rising third graders!  Sorry about that.)  Instead of our usual practice of celebrating First Communions at our regular Sunday Masses, this year we’ll have two private Masses on Saturday for the First Communicants and their families.  This will allow us to gather in small enough groups to maintain social distancing.

First Communion Weekend is always special, but this year it feels a little extra special.  These children prepared all of last year with the expectation that they’d receive the sacrament in May.  Like so many other things, that was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic.  I know that it’s been tough for them to wait so long, but to see how eager they are to receive the Blessed Sacrament is truly inspiring.  It shows that they really understand how special the Eucharist is and how close it brings us to the Lord.  They remind us all that we should never take the Eucharist for granted or lose sight of how truly blessed we are to be able to receive His Body and Blood here at Mass.

When we see the “holy longing” of our younger parishioners preparing for their First Communion, it should remind us of some of our other parishioners who are experiencing that same longing.  We still have many parishioners who are homebound or in nursing homes who can’t attend Mass.  We have many others who haven’t come back yet because of medical vulnerability or anxiety.  They are all part of the Body of Christ, and we miss them.  When we receive Holy Communion at Mass, let us take a moment to pray for […]

Believe it or not, it’s been almost two months since we’ve resumed public Masses.  I know that this has been a huge adjustment for all of us, and it will continue to be a challenge until the pandemic is truly behind us.  However, we’ve also seen tremendous grace at work through this whole process.  Here are some observations:

Mass attendance has gradually increased a little bit each week.  Our first weekend back, there was (understandably) a very small crowd.  Each week we’ve seen a few more people return.  We haven’t made much use of the overflow Masses yet, but right now many of our Masses are at capacity – we’ve figured out that we can get about 80 people in the church right now while maintaining social distancing – so we expect that overflow Masses will be needed regularly.  However, we don’t anticipate having to turn anyone away in the near future; since we can accommodate another 100 people in the gym.
I am so grateful for how patient all of you have been with all of the changes we’ve had to make.  I know that many of these changes are difficult.  People have been so gracious about things like wearing masks and receiving Communion on the hand, which I realize are big changes for many of you.  Thank you for adapting so readily.
Most of all, I have seen so many beautiful displays of our parishioners’ deep love for the Eucharist.  So many parishioners have made big sacrifices and put up with significant changes just in order to receive Communion.  I’ve also seen many tears of joy, especially when people return for the first time after a long time away.  It’s truly inspiring; you […]

In last week’s column, I talked about how the leadership of our Church is responding to the racial unrest our nation is experiencing.  This week, I’d like to talk about the Church’s broader response to the sin of racism.  After all, the responses made by our leaders are based on the social teaching of the Church. They are rooted in the Christian belief of the dignity of every human life, and this belief has compelled the Bishops of the United States to speak out against the sin of racism long before the current wave of unrest began.

The U.S. Bishops recently (2018) published a document entitled Open Wide Our Hearts (http://usccb.org/issues-and-action/human-life-and-dignity/racism/upload/open-wide-our-hearts.pdf) addressing the sin of racism.  It’s just one of many things that they have written on the subject, but I think it encapsulates the Catholic perspective on racism very well.  It is certainly prophetic, and parts of it look like they could have been written last week.

The Bishops caution against thinking that racism is “someone else’s problem”, but rather stress that a sin against one member of the Body of Christ damages the whole Body, and that each and every one of us (including the institutional Church) is in need of ongoing conversion.

With the positive changes that arose from the civil rights movement and related civil rights legislation, some may believe that racism is no longer a major affliction of our society— that it is only found in the hearts of individuals who can be dismissed as ignorant or unenlightened. But racism still profoundly affects our culture, and it has no place in the Christian heart.

Each of us should adopt the words of Pope Francis as our own: let no one “think that this […]