Various and sundry observations from Holy Name of Jesus Parish:
I. When will we be re-opening the church for public Masses? At this point, our hope is for the Feast of Pentecost, May 30th and 31st. As you know, once we open, things will be incremental and we’ll still be abiding by social distancing and other prudent practices regarding hygiene. Please continue to pray for the end of the pandemic and for all who are suffering the most during this time. We’ll let you know as soon as we have a plan for resuming our liturgical life at Holy Name.
a. First Holy Communion is tentatively planned for May 31st, but we’ll have to proceed with caution until we know for sure. Confirmation will have to wait until a little later in the summer, but we’ll schedule it as soon as we’re able.
II. How will we replace Summerfun, now that it’s cancelled? As you know, replacing such a wonderful event is simply not possible. But we’ll do our best to have some fun in the upcoming year and raise the funds we need to pay our bills and serve our community. The first priority is to sell all of our raffle tickets. We are giving away $6,000.00 in prizes, so we’d at least like to break even. Please sell your tickets and come pick up some more. At this point we have not changed the date for the drawing, so selling all of the tickets during the month of May is important.
a. Our first event that is a substitute for Summerfun is the pizza sale that we’re hosting next Sunday, May 17th. You can pre-order 14” pizzas from Papa Murphy’s (please call 715-551-0040 to order) and we’re selling pepperoni or sausage. We’re accepting a free will offering, and all proceeds go to support Holy Name of Jesus parish. The pizzas will be fresh but not baked (so as to keep everything as hygienically pure as possible). Pick-up is Sunday, May 17th from 9:00-11:00 a.m. By the way, they’re selling like hotcakes!
b. If you have ideas for other events, please let me or someone on staff know. We’ve been blessed to do little things the past few Sundays and we have an idea for May 24th too.
III. We’re still waiting on the sound system team to install the new components in church. That will include new speakers in the back of church. I hope this work is done before we return to church, but only time will tell.
IV. Painting in church has begun. Once again, God willing this could be finished before we return. The carpet will come later – at this point, I’m not sure when that will be installed, but certainly before August. By the way, these projects are all paid for by donations that mostly came in before I began as pastor last summer. The money was restricted for these projects and we just wanted to make sure we could balance the budget before moving forward. Thanks to all who contributed this year, and to the Providence of God, we did it!
V. Don’t forget to visit Jesus in church if you’re able and willing. There’s no pressure to come out, so I don’t want you to feel guilty if you’ve been laying low in a spirit of caution and respect for others. But if you’re healthy and wanting to stop by church, we’re open 7 days a week, with confessions available every day. Eucharistic Adoration on Sunday morning is wonderful, though we’d really rather be attending Mass together. Check the bulletin for times when the church is open and confessions are available.
God bless you, one and all!
Your friend in Christ,
Father Martin