St. Therese, Little Flower
Catholic Church

Happy Solemnity of Pentecost! We cry out (singing in our hearts!) Come Holy Ghost! Today marks 50 days since Easter. It has been seven full weeks. What a unique experience it has been. I hope it looks rather different a year from now for all of us, allowing us to worship together more and more fully.

Public Masses have begun once again. Please pray that this transition is as smooth as possible. It will be difficult. We all need to make adjustments so that we can safely encounter the Lord in Holy Communion, and we need patience with ourselves and others as we follow the guidelines of Bishop Rhoades and Governor Holcomb. We must do everything that is required of us in order to be able to celebrate Holy Mass as a community of faith, even if that means many small sacrifices. All of it is worth it because the value of the Mass is infinite.

Check your mailboxes later this week for a letter from the parish regarding the re-opening of Masses. We will outline the various liturgical modifications and expectations of all attendees. It is important to follow it all out of respect to our authorities and out of charity to our neighbor.

Bishop has just written a letter to the faithful of our diocese that gives us a plan for liturgies reopening this spring / summer. I highly encourage you to read this in its entirety. It will take under ten minutes and our evenings are not overbooked. A more in-depth letter for pastors, and I’m sure follow up communications, outlines things more clearly for the parishes. Here are some of the things that are worth knowing.

I saw a parishioner in the grocery this past week, and as we talked I could see that she really missed coming to church and that some of her days have been quite hard on her. She was able to hold back her tears but only barely. When I explained that she could come to pray any day (from 8am-10pm) she seemed relieved and I think she was resolving to make a stop sometime soon. Even just that little bit meant a lot to her, and I hope that knowing that God is still here becomes a comfort for her.