Community
Dear sisters and brothers in Christ,
I pray that you are blessed and healthy. While I was pretty sure this Pandemic was going to create a paradigm shift that might very well effect every aspect of our lives, I was not expecting us to be going backwards halfway through the summer. Next to the tremendous loss of life here and throughout the world, the saddest part of all of this is the number of people who want to twist this health crisis into a political tool or a question of personal rights. Someone may feel they have a “right” not to wear a mask, but they do not have a “right” to not do so in public and possibly make others sick. And they certainly do not have the “right” to not wear a mask and then go into a store or doctor’s office, which are private property. As I mentioned several weeks ago, having rights and freedoms does not mean that you can do whatever you want.
This has been on my mind a lot lately. Since we have started having public masses, not to mention hearing confessions, anointing the sick and having various meetings, I worry about the possibility of transmitting this virus from one person to the next, or even to my whole community. We have all done about as much as is possible to social distance ourselves and continually clean our hands and wear masks, but our ministry sometimes dictates that we get closer to people, not to mention those who simply walk up to us, some of whom are not wearing masks, or at least, not wearing them properly.
As we get new information we will continue to reassess the situation and what we can and cannot do. While we had begun a few face-to-face meetings, we have decided to return to Zoom type meetings as much as possible. I realize that some people are very anxious to return to “normal,” but I am afraid that may never happen. Even if we find a vaccine, the current politicizing of this health pandemic means that many people will refuse to take it. And while I sympathize with your frustrations, I have to take the safety of every parishioner, especially those who are at most risk, into consideration.
I also want to thank those who have very generously contributed to our efforts to make our online presence more permanent. Due to the current situation, we will be looking for other material that we can place online as well. If you have any suggestions please let us know.
As we bid farewell to our seminarians, we are looking for volunteers to fill in the gap. There is a sign-up sheet in the back of church for 9:00 am liturgical ministries. We also need extra help with sanitizing our church after each mass. The seminarians helped us check off a number of items on our To-Do list. I would like to continue to do so. We all know how much Scott does around here and whenever there is a repair to be made it usually gets added to his list. I would like to start a “St. Al’s Maintenance Ministry” to address some of those items. It will basically be like the “Mission Team,” but focused right here at our own parish. Some items might include heavy cleaning, organization, cleaning & relining the shelves and drawers of the sacristy, painting, addressing water damage, sanding and refinishing wooden items, re-doing a couple of the bathrooms in the ground floor of the rectory, and other such projects. In order to remain socially distant my thought is to divide these jobs into tasks that could be done by an individual, a couple, or maybe even a family. We may still have to have Scott or even a professional come in to do the finish work, but the idea is to do some of the prep work and not only save the parish some money, but check a number of items off of the list and beautify our parish grounds. Once we have the initial list created and divided into manageable tasks we will have a sign-up list for volunteers.
Please continue to stay safe and healthy. Let us also continue to pray for an end to this current health crisis, as we keep in our hearts all of those who are separated from their loved ones because of it, and especially those who have lost love ones to it.
In the Redeemer, Fr. Rick