Nov 18, 2021

Greetings,

Happy (almost) Thanksgiving! Last year was a rather humble Thanksgiving. If you remember, I had COVID. Luckily, (not so much for her) Marcy Smith who often cooks for the priests and seminarians also came down with it and so she made Thanksgiving dinner for the two of us and we ate in the breakfast room of the rectory. Neither of us could smell or taste much besides salt, but at least we didn’t each find ourselves quarantined in our rooms or alone in our respective houses.

Can you believe that last year at Thanksgiving Fr. Simone was still with us? (He was under quarantine, but still able to go home.) Fr. Rosing from Holy Family Parish came to our rescue and celebrated Mass. (I had a private Mass in the rectory chapel.) In one short year, Fr. Simone was transferred to St. Charles, Fr. Morris came and was transferred to Sts. Peter and Paul and now we have Fr Bozek. Gads! What a year.

As is our custom, Thanksgiving Day Mass will be at 9:00am. I truly enjoy this Mass because of this community. For those who are able, (I realize it is not possible for everyone) you know that the highest form of thanks that we can give is the celebration of the Mass and those who come give it their whole heart which makes it so uplifting. As you give thanks for things on this day, include a prayer of thanks for this parish. We are so very blessed and it behooves us to be aware of how blessed we are.

IN OTHER NEWS:

THANKSGIVING DAY MASS:  The Mass on Thursday will be at 9:00am.

OFFICES CLOSED:  The parish office will be closed on Thursday and Friday this week.

EXTRAORDINARY FORM:  As most of you know, the Holy Father came out with a letter entitled, Traditionis Custodes, in which he greatly restricted the celebration of the extraordinary form of the Mass. In an effort to both conform to the Pope’s letter and continue a ministry to those who are spiritually nourished by this form of the Mass, our bishop has formed a committee whose job it will be to come with a plan that meets certain requirements for the celebration of this Mass throughout the diocese.

In a nutshell, with the new restrictions placed on those who may celebrate this Mass, the bishop wants diocesan wide, long term, intentional proposals submitted by this coming Easter from which he will direct the future of the extraordinary form in our diocese. Up until this time, it has been rather random, individual parishes doing as they see fit--as they would, say, celebrate a Life Teen Mass. The difference is, any priest can do a Life Teen Mass. There is now an extremely limited number of priests who can do the extraordinary form.

There will be no foreseeable changes during this process. The proposals are to be submitted at Eastertime and then we shall see how long after that any binding changes are made. In the meantime, there will be meetings and data gathering. During the month of December, there will be counts of attendees at all eight parishes where the Mass is celebrated. Your positive, constructive, supportive (and signed) letters to the bishop would be helpful. He is in a bind too! He could have (as some bishops have) simply ceased the practice in this diocese, but instead is looking for a way to keep the Mass present while respecting the Holy Father’s directives. In the interim, please keep him, the parishes and the priests in your prayers.

God bless,

Fr. Valencheck