Dear Parishioners of St. Joseph:

1. Marriage of Kelley and Ethan Seal -- I'd like to congratulate our parishioner, Kelley Mazzola and her new husband, Ethan Seal, who were married at St. Joseph this past Saturday. It was a small, but dignified, "6-feet apart" ceremony. Please keep them in your prayers as they begin their lives together. 

2. Return to Mass

As you know, we'll be returning to Mass on May 31, 2020 Pentecost Sunday. We've been working hard to adapt the Diocese's guidelines to our parish, as well as other best practices. We'll also be meeting with a few parishioners from the medical and academic communities to get their input as well. I've attached the Diocese of Jackson's guidelines to this email.

- Dispensation - The dispensation from your Sunday obligation is still in place. So you are not obligated to come. If you are not feeling well, have any signs of symptoms, have had contact with someone who has or if you are at a higher risk level, please stay home. 

- Capacity -- We will be limiting our Sunday Masses to 50 people at St. Joseph and 25 for Daily Masses. 

- Sign-up - Please sign up in order to come, at our sign-up page -- https://www.signupgenius.com/go/9040a4baba72fa2f85-pentecost -- for the upcoming weekend and next week's daily Masses. Sunday Mass times are 9 AM, 11:30 AM, and 5:30 PM.

- Masks are absolutely mandatory! -- Please bring your own.

- Live-stream - Thanks to David Garraway, we will continue to live-stream from Facebook live, but instead of 10 AM we will now stream at 9 AM. Watch here: https://www.facebook.com/stjosephstarkville

- 6-feet/no lingerin' - In order for us to be as safe as possible, we ask that when you come please keep 6 feet of distance between yourself and your neighbor. Every other pew is blocked off to maintain 6 feet in front and behind. Families who live together, may be as close to one another as you like. We ask that you do not congregate before or after Mass while in the Church building. There will be 6-foot markers on the pews and on Communion Aisles. This way we can see a visual of what 6 feet looks like. 

- Offertory -- We will not be passing the basket for some time. We have purchased some long-handled baskets. We will also make online giving available and encourage it's use. https://osvonlinegiving.com/592. There will be no procession of gifts at the offertory either. The gifts of bread and wine will be at the Altar and the collection will be sealed and placed in the safe immediately after the collection.

- Communion - If you are not comfortable receiving Holy Communion, that's okay. We ask that you keep your mask on while in line. Stay 6 feet apart. Our tendency is to get close to the person in front of us. Receive Communion in the palm of your hand. Then take the Blessed Sacrament with one hand and remove your mask with the other hand in order to consume the Host. We'd like to ask that you bring your own small bottle of hand sanitizer to use before coming to receive Holy Communion. Each minister will sanitize before distribution as well. 

- Our favorite seats - We will only use one entrance to the building coming into Mass. When you come in you will be greeted by an usher who will help you find a place to sit, in order for all of us to remain 6 feet apart. Unfortunately, we will most likely have to sacrifice our favorite places to sit in the Church.

-- Liturgiucal Ministries -- At this time, we will not use Altar Servers or Communion Minsters. We still have a great need for Lectors and Ushers.Thank you to all of you who have stepped up.

- Music - Unfortunately, there will be no choir. Only a cantor and instrumentalist will be present. The hymnals have been removed from the pews as well. 

-- We will omit the exchange of peace and there will be no option to receive the Precious Blood. 

-- Cleaning - We will be cleaning and disinfecting as much as possible between the Masses. 

- Restrooms - We ask that you use the restroom before you come to limit the public restroom's use. Of course, we will be cleaning it more often, but it would help to cut down on bathroom traffic. But please go if you gotta go!

3. Parish Pastoral Council -- We were able to have a conversation about all of this last week. One of the things we talked about was Parish Pastoral Council Elections. Together, after a recommendation, we decided that the current Parish Pastoral Council will serve one more year, since it doesn't look like we'd be able to hold elections for a while. The Finance Council will continue to rotate membership. Thanks to our PPC members -- Glenn Schmidt, Hillary Smith, Rosy Taquino, Tom Simmonds, Chris House, Kathryn Barbier, Flo Henley, and Beverly Wilson.

This time of quarantine has been a struggle for many.So let's continue to reach out to each other and pray for one another. 

Hang on to hope and keep the faith!

Peace,

Fr. Jason