I hope when you were at Mass last week or this week, and that you can hear better. We should all be grateful for the extraordinary generosity of two donors who wish to remain anonymous who have donated over 20K to install a new and upgraded sound system. You may have noticed the scaffolding in the church last week that helped the crew rewire the entire church for sound and installed new speakers. Hopefully, the dead spots that have been there for most of the history of the parish are now filled with sound.
In addition to new speakers and upgrades to the soundboard, four individual devices will be available for parishioners who may still have trouble hearing. Through Bluetooth technology the sound that goes into the speakers will also go directly to this small device that people will use for the Mass they attend. There will also be an option to use an app on your smartphone that works directly with your hearing aid. Details will follow on how to use the device and how to get one for the Mass you might be attending. In a former parish I served in, we had an older version of this device, and it really made a difference. To make sure they come back to us after use a system will be worked out. In that former parish the person getting the device left their driver’s license with us and exchanged it back so they could drive away. We will announce how we will do this soon!
Thanks to all who brought socks for the St. Vincent de Paul Center. These will be distributed to those who are in need when they come for support, food, and other needs. A simple pair of socks can change a person’s whole day for the better. We are grateful for the boost this program received from many school children. Your gift will make a difference.
We pray to God that we all will be blessed and made whole in body, mind, and spirit. Hearing clearly the scriptures as they are proclaimed and the difference a warm pair of socks can make is one important facet of the wholeness God wishes for us.
I point you to the presentations that the Social Justice committee is sponsoring each month. They are opportunities to open our minds to what God may be calling us to be and do. The Gulps of Grace presentations are also done with this goal in mind guided by what you have said you are interested in hearing more about. WINGS is up and running again and even though still being done remotely, the topics and presenters who are utilized are an amazing resource to any woman in the parish. The Men’s Club watching football and spending time with each other is a great way for any man in the parish to also know that we do not have to walk alone on the path to wholeness that God calls each of us to achieve. Advent by candlelight is already being planned for and will be in person this year in December.
Our CYO teams are in full play, and it is great having the gym/event center fully up and running. Religious education from the youngest to the oldest attempts to feed our spirits and the center of all of this is our weekly gathering at Mass to hear God’s Word and be nourished by the Sacraments.
I can mention many more activities, gatherings, and events that make us a strong parish, but at the heart of it all is our celebration of Mass each week. Some have gotten used to staying home, others ask: ‘why bother?’ John Baldovin, S.J. tries to answer this question.
“Why can’t we practice our faith at home or communing with nature or by doing some worthwhile service for our neighbors. A simple answer would be because Jesus told us to do it. At the Last Supper he said to his disciples, ‘Do this in memory of me’ –and so Christians have been doing ‘this’ one way or another ever since in a communal way since the resurrection.”
Baldovin writes more on this and I will present it at another time, but the Liturgy Constitution from the Second Vatican Council said this: ‘From the liturgy, particularly the Sunday Eucharist, grace is poured forth upon us as from a fountain; the liturgy is the source for achieving in the most effective way possible human sanctification and God’s glorification, the to which all the Church’s other activities are directed.”
More to follow…see you all at Mass!