Good evening everyone:

There are a few things we need to get the word out about here. Let's start with the good news.

Fr. Mike O'Brien -- Fr. Mike will be coming to spend a few days with us here in Starkville as he comes back from Ireland for a little while before he heads back. He will be with us at Mass on January 14 in Macon, MS at Corpus Christi and the 9 and 11:30 AM Masses on January 15 at St. Joseph. We will have a parish dinner down in Macon that nights and a light reception after the morning Masses on Sunday. 

Now the not-so-good news...

Parish Hall, Flooded -- About 2 hours before the 4 PM Mass on Christmas Eve a pipe froze and burst in the ceiling above the Campus Minister's Office. It leaked enough water to flood almost the entire building. The water main was turned off and most of the water was pushed out of the building that day, but there was still a lot of wet carpets. The plumber came today and water is now restored to the the Center. Professional Cleaning and restoration services have been called, as well as our insurance, and we are hoping to have them by next week some time. Everyone's work schedule is backed up because of the Winter storm and the damage it left throughout our region. In the meantime, Dcn. Jeff, Dawn, Dcn. John and several volunteers have helped clean every item, strip the carpets out of the building and relocate the offices to usable spaces. THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU!!! 

In the coming days and weeks, there will be displacements and disruptions. This is not ideal, but we'll do everything we can to keep those disruptions to a minimum. Many apologies to those these decisions will adversely affect. So, here we go...

Religious Education -- We are planning on having space available for classes to resume on schedule when they begin January 8. Plans will be finalized in the coming days. 

RCIA will resume on schedule as well on January 18 at 6 PM. Again, finalization will come closer to that date.

The 9 AM and 11:30 AM choirs will have to practice in the church building for the time being.

The Parish Office reopens on Monday, January 3, Dcn. Jeff and Dawn and our "parish office" are temporarily located in the lounge in the Parish Center.

SEEK22 -- There are over 60 students traveling to St. Louis, MO from Mississippi State University to be at the SEEK conference this coming week. Keep them in your prayers as they travel. 

No Daily Masses or Confessions at St. Joseph this week.

Peace,

Fr. Jason