Pastor's Column for July 28, 2024
Dear Parishioners,
Last week our phone system was receiving voicemails that people may have left us but it was not notifying us that a voicemail had been left. We don’t know how long this was happening…at least for a few days but it could have been for a couple of weeks or more. So if you left a voicemail and the call was not returned to you, please give us another call. This would be true at any time…if for some reason (usually technological), a phone call or email is not returned promptly, please do not hesitate to call us back or send another email. Technology is prone to more & more failures (as we witnessed this past week with the “CrowdStrike” failure which affected millions of computers throughout the world & stranded people at airports). We benefit greatly from technology but we also suffer because of it. I do want to emphasize again that if you reach out to me via voicemail or email, please know that I do my best to respond to the most urgent requests first, and again, sometimes I may not see a request that is timely due to the number of emails & voicemails I receive (some of which need to be sorted out due to spam or “junk” mail). Right now, I have over 50 emails that I need to sort through, some of which (mostly from the Diocese!) have been there since March! I remember someone telling us at a pastor’s workshop that email is a tool of the devil, and to some degree I believe that. Anyway, I just want to let you know that we and I always try to respond as best we can but if there is something that is timely, please don’t hesitate to call or email again. Thanks for your understanding.
My thanks to the many people who volunteered to bring Holy Communion to the sick & homebound and who attended our meeting after Mass last weekend. Please let us know if you did not receive a pyx and/or card with the prayers on it and we’ll be happy to give you one. Now comes the work of matching up ministers with those who have called to let us know they would like to receive Holy Communion at home. So I’ll be making an announcement this weekend to those who are watching us via livestream & asking them to please reach out to us if they are not currently receiving Holy Communion so that we can have someone bring it to them. You can even let us know if you would like a quick or longer visit…some would like to chat for a little bit while others need their rest and we want to respect that. We want to accommodate you to the best of our ability so please give us a call and let us know when it would be good for someone to bring you the Eucharist at home. Most ministers would find it most convenient to bring it to you after one of our weekend Masses but some are available to bring it on another day & time that is better for you so let us know what works best for you.
Our summer maintenance crew has been working hard on stripping & waxing the floor in the church. They may have only certain sections done by the time we have Mass this weekend but I wanted to let you know that if parts of the floor don’t look right, that is the reason. I’m grateful for the great job our maintenance people do throughout the year, especially during the summer months when we have many projects to complete. We just brought on a couple of more full time maintenance people to help us keep our property…both inside and outside…well ordered & maintained. And thanks to our landscaper who does a great job with the task of caring for our large outdoor property.
Next weekend is our parish picnic after the 11am Mass so remember to come hungry for both food and fellowship with fellow parishioners.
Fr. James P. Schmitz
