To My Dear People of St. Faustina,
I pray this message reaches you well, and all in your family are healthy and remain strong. If there is anything we can do for you, please do not hesitate to reach out. I want to thank you for everything you are doing to continue to share God’s love and mercy during this incredibly difficult time. A month ago, none of us could have foresaw the impact that the coronavirus (COVID-19) illness would have on our parish – much less our society. I am thankful for those who have quickly stepped up to try and continue sharing our mission during these difficult times, as well as those that continue to offer their support.
I want to bring you up to speed with a few things happening at the parish in the wake of this crisis. As you may be aware, Harris County and Fort Bend County both issued a “Stay-Home” Mandate earlier this week. This mandate runs through April 3rd and is setup to help flatten the curve by maintaining adequate social distancing during this time. With these mandates in place, we have unfortunately shut the parish down until the mandate is lifted on April 3rd. This means we can no longer open our parish for personal prayer during the day (as we had been doing). Furthermore, we have also been instructed by the Archdiocese to reserve Confessions for now by appointment only. We will continue streaming our daily and Sunday Masses, as well as our Divine Mercy Holy Hour through our different social media channels. In addition, our staff is all working diligently from home, and will be accessible by their office phone and/or email.
In light of this, and in congruence with our previous updates and changes, I want to call on our parish family to continue to help further the mission of our parish, especially during these difficult moments. Please observe the following:
- Please continue to drive your friends and other parishioners to our social media sites to pray with us and receive the latest updates regarding the virus. Those sites include:
- https://saintfaustinachurch.org/ (Parish Website)
- https://www.youtube.com/saintfaustinacatholicchurch (Masses and Devotionals)
- https://www.facebook.com/saintfaustinachurch/
- https://StFaustinaCCTX.flocknote.com/
- The last site is our Flocknote messaging service, which I want to continue to encourage our parish and ministries to adopt and utilize. Most importantly, it allows us the most effective way to communicate to our parish, which is important during this ever-changing situation.
- We have setup an Emergency Response Team for those in our parish (including possibly you or your family) to receive help or assistance during this crisis. Please know we are here to support you during this time, and we encourage you to visit our website dedicated to this team to learn more about it and how to get involved: https://saintfaustinachurch.org/emergency-response-team.
- Cardinal DiNardo last week stated “I want to share my gratitude for the continued generosity and stewardship of the people of our local church during these difficult times. I ask all of the faithful in the Archdiocese to continue to support their parishes during this time while the public celebration of Masses is suspended. As parishes are dependent on their weekly offertory collections, I ask that families do what they can to support the ongoing mission of their churches through online giving.” With our parish now closed I want to renew my call for our parishioners to move to our online giving platform for their weekly gifts. To access, please visit http://faithdirect.net and use our parish code of TX676.
- As Fr. David Michael and myself celebrate the sacrifice of the Mass each day and spend our time in front of the Blessed Sacrament – we continue to pray for the entire parish community. If you have specific intentions you want us to be mindful of during this time, you can share those intentions here: https://saintfaustinachurch.org/prayer-requests.
As this situation continues to change with time, I invite you all to continue to pray for one another and especially those who serve in your ministry. I am very appreciative for all you have done and all you continue to do to help those at St. Faustina live, experience, and share the great love and mercy of God. If you have an urgent need for Confession or to receive the Sacrament in serious condition, please contact us at 346-773-3500 or info@saintfaustinachurch.org. Similarly, in the case of emergency, grave illness or death please call the emergency line at 346-387-0339 and leave a detailed message with your contact information for a call back. Otherwise, please be patient, hang in there and allow this time to build up our deeper desire and appreciation for the gifts of the sacrament. Be assured of my continued prayers for you and your family during this difficult time. God bless each of you!
Sincerely,
Fr. Dat
Pastor