I'm not closely following the federal government news stories, but I'd like to offer a suggestion for our response to the craziness out there.  I found an article at Crisis Magazine very helpful.  Author Jane Stannus opines that our best response is to build a Christian civilization, prioritizing the most important elements:  the Mass and the Catholic family.

     The Mass is the source and summit of our faith.  Jesus feeds us with Himself.  He's got a great plan and invites us to freely take up our crosses and follow Him.

     Since our society is rather sick, it's even more important for us to strengthen families.  Marriage is between a man and woman.  Many couples are blessed with children.  It's in the family that we learn to love God and neighbor.  With stronger families, we'll build a better civilization.

     If we keep these most important matters in mind, then we will be more effective in proclaiming the truth in charity to a culture that very much needs it.

     Because of the pandemic, we're using new technologies to keep people connected.  Yesterday, Tom and I worked on the audio in the church.  We couldn't fix the low speaker volume.  Our sound guy is coming tomorrow to work on that.

     We did make progress with the buzz in our YouTube feed.  Tom installed a ground wire.  I replaced the wireless keyboard and mouse with wired ones.  I moved the computer further from the monitor.  The third test had no buzz.  Today, I found out that there was no buzz because there was no sound.  I broke it yesterday.  Today, I fixed what I broke.  We use OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) which receives the video feed from our livestreaming camera and audio feed from our sound system.  While looking for a setting to filter out the noise, I accidentally disabled the audio feed.  My second test today worked reasonably well.  The buzz was greatly diminished.  I did look for a noise filtering feature in OBS and will try to work on it again.

     Because of the Roe vs. Wade anniversary on January 22nd, we'll focus on protecting the most vulnerable among us:  the pre-born.  Our bishop is calling upon us to join him in a month long prayer campaign.  See the article here.

     At St. John's, we already have a 3 PM holy hour on Fridays.  We'll pray on January 22nd.  Then, on January 29th, we'll join the March for Life remotely by marching around Lakehurst.

     I've not reported on the coronavirus numbers as much as I used to do.  My main sources are OCHD.org and COVIDActNow.org which you can look at yourselves.  Even so, I'd like to offer a couple observations.

     It seems to me that new cases were trending down until December 30th and are now trending up.  I hope that the Christmas and New Year's bump will peak within a couple weeks and that we'll see a steady decline afterward.

     The new thing I offer are percentages of those who have died from the coronavirus.  The OCHD reports the ages of those who test positive and those who die from the coronavirus.  We've all heard that those with underlying conditions are more vulnerable.  We're more likely to have underlying conditions the older we get.  Well, the percentages reinforce that we need to be very protective of older folks with underlying conditions.  We could have younger people do more as long as they are careful around older folks.  The OCHD also reports that the leading underlying condition is cardiovascular disease.

0-18         4041         0           0.0%

19-44     13663        21          0.2%

45-64       9199       170         1.8%

65-74       3228       224         6.9%

75-84       2322       410       17.7%

85+          1631       498       30.5%

     Today's Mass readings appear here.  At the end of the first reading, we see:

In the previous verses, St. John emphasizes remaining in God's love.  Between politics, our sick culture, and the coronavirus, there are many things that may cause us anxiety.  Responding "yes" to God's love by putting Him first makes a tremendous difference.  As God perfects us, His love drives out our fears.  We're then more ready to do His will, proclaim the truth in charity, and invite others to follow Him.

God love you,

Fr. Jim