Twenty-two more people attended Mass this past weekend.  We went back over 400 and reached 407.  The 12 PM Mass was the most crowded with 91 people.  Both the 4 PM and 10 AM Masses had 85.  While all Masses had plenty of room, we need to be strategic at the 4 PM, 10 AM, and 12 PM Masses.  In particular, the wedge sections on either side of the church are for families of four or more.

     It's great to see people returning to Mass inside the church.  I anticipate that as the pandemic decreases, Mass attendance will increase.

     Recently, I wrote about the prospect of an addition to the church from the canopy entrance to the back entrance of the parish hall.  While we could still do that, I've begun thinking about how we could accomplish many of our goals without adding to the footprint of our buildings.  I'll be discussing it with the staff, Finance Council, and Pastoral Council.  With a much less ambitious project, we could start implementing it right away.  Basically what I have in mind is to repurpose existing rooms so that we might use them better for the food pantry, meetings, the religious articles store, and confessions.  Because of the pandemic, it's hard to predict what our needs will be in 2022 or 2025.  Doing something simpler to meet our current needs seems more prudent.  As we figure out what our needs will be in upcoming years, we can discern how large of an addition to build.

     Martin Luther King, Jr., was known for promoting unity between blacks and whites.  This morning, I offered Mass for the promotion of Christian unity.  Many have recently been calling for greater unity in our country.  This will not be easy, but the Christ like approach is to work for unity.  The devil's old tricks lead to division and destruction.  While those in cahoots with the devil will continue to work for division, we followers of Christ need to rely on Him and allow Him to work through us to bring about greater unity.

God love you,

Fr. Jim