Pastor's Letter-- December 6, 2020

If you have not been able to see and study our parish plan yet, please visit our website to learn about it here. I spoke about the plan at last week's Masses and in the bulletin last week. Please study this and pray with it to learn how God wants you to be a part of this important work for your own personal discipleship and for the benefit of your parish family and local community to whom we are called to serve and share the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

In the back of church you should find multiple display boards that give a visual update to our renovation plans for the church. While things are going much slower than I had hoped for starting this project, I do still have great hopes that things will be ready for Easter (God willing). I decided it would be good to get something out there for you to see more clearly now that we have some final decisions on things. Visual images are much better than what I can type in the bulletin (the August 30th and Nov. 1st bulletins are very helpful for understanding where the project is at this point). Nothing really has changed from the past few months except finally choosing specific materials and colors for the carpet and marble (different from the ones you will find in the image renderings). The samples you will find for the tile floor show a match to the Sheldon slate in the baptistry (with natural variations and differences six decades apart). The marble is a light-tan colored marble named “crema marfil” (search online for images) that we were able to find in sufficient stock in Chicago. The fabricator Daprato Rigali Studios in Chicago will be specifically in charge of the marble work for the altar of repose (where the tabernacle resides near the crucifix) and for the devotional shrine. Bishop Rhoades has gifted our parish with a marble statue of St. Thérèse that he received from a closed convent. I'm thrilled to have it, especially at no cost! You will also find a wooden example of what the sanctuary steps will look like. Having a wider landing at each step will be good for multiple purposes, including weddings, funerals, and allow for greater balance when going up or down the steps.

With the pastoral plan and these church renovations, it is easy to lose track of what Advent is about: preparing our hearts for the Lord's coming. Thanks be to John the Baptist in today's readings who makes it abundantly clear to us that we have no more important work to focus on than the work of holiness. Conversion is the most “practical,” “efficient,” and “useful” of all projects (to speak in terms of contemporary values), because when we do continually turn and grow closer to God, everything else we do is done more perfectly because it has less of our sins in it, and more of God's love in it, channeled through us. Let's not let COVID delay this work of interior renewal as it is slowing down the renovations of our church interior.

Saint Thérèse, pray for us!