Dear Parish Family,
As you all know the Governor has implemented as part of Phase 1 the opening back up on a limited basis houses of worship. This means that people can start going back to Mass but only at 10% of what our capacity is. Honestly however, we just received directives from Archbishop Wester yesterday afternoon which covered several mandates that must be in place, and since there are some logistical aspects and some practical concerns that still need to be addressed, and since I as your pastor want your return to Mass to be something joyful and not too out of sorts, we are going to have private Masses for one more weekend this Sunday as we see what will best work for us. Now we will of course livestream our 9:00AM Mass this Sunday and will continue to record our daily Masses. There is simply too much to get in place and too little time, so if you all could be patient for just one more week, then things can go a lot smoother for us all. But the good news is that we will be announcing on Monday how to call in to sign up for whichever Mass or Communion service you would like to attend starting next Saturday evening, with Ascension Sunday. However, daily Mass will be opened to the public starting this Monday, May 18th. We will have Mass at 7:00am Monday through Friday and have an 8:30 Mass on Saturday. Now for the daily Masses as well as for the Sunday Masses during the Phase 1 re-opening, we can only take 40 people at a time in the church for each Mass. So I will be offering additional Mass times starting next weekend. That’s one of the things that we are still working out! So hang in there for a bit longer and check back on Monday for our announcement as to how to sign up for which service you would like to come to as well as the directives given to us during this Phase 1 process. But praise God, I will be able to see a lot of you again here at Mass very soon. But for those of you who have to stay put for the time being, no worries, we will continue to record our Masses for you all.
I’ll keep praying for you all but pray for us also so that we can implement everything on a timely basis.
Fr. Michael DePalma