Welcome to St. Mary’s Parish

Next weekend, St. Mary’s is open for Business!

Come May 30th, at the 7 p.m. vigil mass of anticipation, we will be operating at 25% capacity. St. Mary’s can comfortably hold 450+ something. We have over 3k square feet at St. Mary’s and we’re going to use every square inch. With that being said, we’re shooting for 100-110 people per mass. This won’t be much different than any normal weekend masses. Saturday vigil mass houses anywhere from 60-100 people, the 9 a.m. houses 120-150 people, and the 1 p.m. holds around 50-80, depending on the time of the year. With that being said, we’re in good shape. We will have signs posted to where we can enter and exit, ushers will be around to help ’usher’ for people who are uncertain; and we will have a very safe and orderly way about cleaning and sanitizing our interior. St. Mary’s will have some mass parts streamlined and simplified. I will give more info and details come Pentecost weekend. Until then just be assured that we’re OPENING SOON!

The Ladies Sodality

I want to make a small correction and thank all our ladies who are working behind the scenes. Several ladies are contributing to the mask-project; many are helping out in many other ways. I just wanted to reach out and say, THANK YOU, Again! For everything, for your generosity, time and talents; from the Ham dinner to now and everything in between. Thank you for supporting our parish and community. Lastly, we received a check from Catholic Financial Insurance Inc. -via through a parish family; who were awarded a $500.00 check, as a contribution for our Floor project. Please give thanks to this wonderful family, and pray for them and Catholic Financial Ins.

First Communion, First Confession and St. Mary’s Graduates!

I’m happy to announce, this year’s First communion and Gradation mass will be held Sunday, June 14th at the 9:00 am mass. We will also be celebrating Corpus Christi. We won’t have any reception or gathering afterwards, but we will honor our first communicants and graduates on June 14th. Also, we’ll be meeting Saturday morning June 13th, at 10:00 am, for first communion practice and first confessions; and give a TY to Carol Cauley!

St. Mary’s Ministries?

The June, July and August Ministry schedules will be postponed until further notice. I appreciate everyone’s patience these past 3 months; especially with the Church, as she shifts back to public ministry. Please observe the emails, Facebook posts & bulletins for relevant info. Thanks to everyone who is helping behind the scenes. Please pray for them, the parish & myself during these times. -Fr. C

Pentecost Novena

Next week Pentecost is coming, and it’s the perfect time to do a Pentecost Novena. Many will pray this powerful novena, from Friday, May 22 to Saturday, May 30. Sunday, May 31, is the great Feast of Pentecost. All one has to do is look up or download the novena online. The Novena Prayer Card and short reading for each of the nine days can be downloaded here: diolc.org/deeper.

So, what about the Children’s Lenten Mite boxes?

Since the suspension of public Masses occurred during Lent, we are aware that the mite box program was affected. We encourage you not to collect the boxes until public Masses are restored. At that time, since they have the potential of being contaminated, we recommend that you follow the specialized internal controls set in place during the pandemic. That is, store them safely in a lockable place without touching them for at least three days. Then the money can be counted and deposited at the parish. Forward the totals to the Mission Office and we will forward the collection to MCA. If you have already gathered the boxes and deposited the funds, no worries. You can forward the totals at any time. As always, if you have any questions, please e-mail or call.