Hello Everyone,

I wanted to respond to a few questions that I have received recently:

We are currently working on a plan and will be communicating with the families who were scheduled to receive sacraments this year directly, as soon as everything is in place. 

While we will NOT be hosting our traditional in-house VBS, we are looking at offering an online option for you to use at home. I will be meeting with a small committee to address the details soon. We will keep you informed as final decisions are made.

I wish I knew definitively but the last I knew, Henrico County Public Schools has five different "return to school" options in place. As I hope you are all aware, coronavirus is not going to "go away". It is here with us for the long haul. We are currently working to devise several options for faith formation for the Fall. We have much to consider, while the children are not among the high risk population, many of our catechists are within those groups. The diocese is guided by civic rules and then prepares further guidelines for churches that adhere to the civic rulings. Finally, St. Michael uses the diocesan guidelines to develop a plan that is specific to the needs, population and environment of our parish. Overall, phase II has not changed much for churches. We are awaiting further guidelines from the diocese regarding "looking ahead" to fall. Once we receive those guidelines we will compare it to the options we have formulated and you will be the first to know!

This Sunday we celebrate the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. Part of our Catholic identity is the fact that we do not simply believe the Eucharist (or Communion) is a remembrance of the Last Supper, we believe - and profess when we say "Amen" to receive the Eucharist - that Christ IS the Eucharist. We call this the full or true Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. We believe that when the priest prays the prayers of consecration, the simple gifts of bread and wine are transformed through the miracle of transubstantiation into Christ's true Body and Blood. Transubstantiation tells us that the bread and wine still look the same but we know that despite their appearance Christ is in the Eucharist, body, blood, soul and divinity. I've included a video below of one of the Eucharistic miracles. If you wish to learn more about this key teaching, go to my Eucharist playlist on YouTube to see some other options for you and your children.