Fr. Mike's Message - 06/20/2021

Dear Parish Family,

Happy Father’s Day!  We wish all of our fathers, grandfathers, Godfathers, and any men who fill that role in our lives a very Happy Father's Day! Thank you for the love, guidance, mentorship, discipline, and care they show to us.  We are blessed by them and we need them!  I lost my dad on March 2, 2013 and I think of him and pray for him often.  Let’s remember to pray for our fathers, living and deceased.  We will be offering a special blessing for them at our Masses this weekend.
 
I hope you are enjoying your summer.  Things around the parish facilities are in high gear as we host our Summer Knights Camp for our younger parishioners.  The kids are enjoying it and our counselors and staff are doing a great job with them.  Our maintenance crew is very busy with cleaning and preparing the buildings for the return of our students, along with all of the other ongoing work to keep our buildings and campus looking good.  We have several volunteers helping to paint and clean some of our classrooms to spruce them up and make them brighter and cleaner.  Our Food Pantry keeps providing food; our Quilters keep quilting; Encore keeps serving the community; our prayer groups keep meeting; people continue to pray in Eucharistic Adoration on Tuesdays; our parish and school office staff keep things running smoothly...and the list goes on and on.  I love the buzz of activity around here and the energy on behalf of so many to embrace and support the mission of our parish.

Thank you very much to our SFB Ladies’ Sodality for their recent generous gift of $5,500 to our Parish.  The donation was made possible by the over 200 women of our Parish who sent in their annual dues and by the hard work of our quilters who have continued to produce their beautiful works of art that bring comfort to so many.  The Ladies’ Sodality has been around for over 100 years and has served the parish well during that time.  We are blessed!  Be on the lookout for upcoming Ladies’ Sodality events.  Thanks for your support of the efforts of the SFB Ladies’ Sodality!

Our Food Pantry was recently able to procure a used van that will be a huge help to this ministry of our parish.  For years, our volunteers have generously used their own vehicles to drive to St. Louis and other places to pick up food for the pantry.  This van has a lot of room in it and will be a great asset to our volunteers.  The purchase of the van was made possible through a generous grant from an anonymous benefactor who donated money to area food pantries and by a gift from a member of the Schicker automotive family.  We are grateful for their support!

More good news! The Annual SFB Rummage Sale was quite successful again this year.  The parish was presented with the proceeds of the Rummage Sale which amounted to $5,243.72 plus $500.00 from the WCU!  Special thanks to Jeanne Hoelscher and all of our volunteers who helped to put on this rummage sale.  It’s quite an event!  And the best news is that it really helps people to find some affordable things that they need or want for their homes and families.  It’s just another example of what makes our Parish special.

Last week I wrote about the lifting of the dispensation for Sunday Mass. We received word from the Archdiocese that Archbishop Rozanski is lifting the dispensation from Sunday worship effective July 1, 2021.  This is another step back to life as we knew it before the pandemic.  What this means is that the obligation to attend Sunday Mass will be back in place as of July 1.  I’m grateful that so many have returned to Mass over the last few months.  I hope and pray that the importance of the Eucharist grows in each one of us and that this removal of the dispensation will only enhance our devotion to the Eucharist and Mass.  

Please note that parishioners who are sick, homebound, immunocompromised and gravely concerned for their health retain the dispensation from the obligation to attend Mass, which has always been the case in normal times. In order to maximize our available space and offer room for those who desire extra distance, we will continue to livestream Mass into the Choir Room and distribute Communion there. Masses will also still be live-streamed via our Parish Facebook page and YouTube channel. 

With things going back to more of a “normal” for us at Church, we would like to convene our Ushers/Greeters, Eucharistic Ministers, and Lectors for a gathering to renew ourselves in these ministries through some prayer and then a quick meeting to review duties associated with each ministry.  For your convenience, we will offer 2 evening sessions on July 12th and July 20th, both beginning at 6:30 p.m. in church.  If you are an Usher, Lector, or Eucharistic Minister, we would ask that you attend one of these sessions if possible.  If you are interested in becoming a member of one of these ministries, please contact me or the Parish office and we can put you in contact with the coordinator of the ministry in which you are interested.  We are indeed blessed by all who have and continue to step up and serve our parish in these ways.