Dear Sacred Heart and St. Ann Parishioners and friends:
Fourth Sunday of Easter (May 3)
Please consider attending “virtual” Mass with me this Fourth Sunday of Easter weekend at Sacred Heart or St. Ann by highlighting and then control/clicking on the following Youtube page: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVLLqbEY5hKWinwz069MVcg Please also remember to click on the “subscribe” button on the top of our Pastoral Region Youtube Page as you are looking through the selections for the Mass you want. At present we only have 420 subscribers and we desperately need one thousand (1000) for us to be able to make full use of the options of our page. Subscribing to our Youtube page is free for you, but is very beneficial for us.
Therefore, please join us for the prerecorded Saturday Afternoon Mass on our Pastoral Region Youtube page at 5:00 p.m. Saturday, May 2 by highlighting and clicking on the following address: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVLLqbEY5hKWinwz069MVcg or by accessing the Fourth Sunday of Easter Sacred Heart Mass Youtube link on either of our parish websites. We will also have the prerecorded Sunday Morning (May 3) Mass from the St. Ann Sanctuary on either parish website or on the above Pastoral Region Youtube site any time after 8:00 a.m. on Sunday. (Please be advised, the homily will be the same at both Masses.)
When can we get back to Church?
We have received news from the six dioceses of Ohio that Catholic Churches will be allowed to hold public Masses again as of the last weekend in May. This will be Pentecost Sunday, and it is my hope to bring our RCIA candidates and catechumens into full communion with the church this weekend. I have celebrated my own private Mass each day since the quarantine started on March 17, but I cannot wait until I can celebrate publically with all of you as soon as I am permitted by the authorities. As soon as I receive additional information from the Archdiocese, I will pass it on to you.
Memorial Masses for those who died during the Pandemic
As you will notice in the petitions at the virtual Masses I have been celebrating, I have done a number of graveside or funeral home services during the Pandemic. As soon as we are permitted to celebrate Mass with a congregation again, I will begin the process of scheduling and celebrating a Memorial Funeral Mass for each of the deceased at a time chosen by the families. The original obituaries simply said “private” and that a funeral memorial Mass will be celebrated at a later date. In case some of the families may not wish to incur the cost of another obituary listing in the paper, we will (with the permission of each family) make certain to publish the time and date for these memorial funeral Masses in both the Sacred Heart and St. Ann bulletins.
Let’s all prayerfully anticipate Pentecost this year by praying for the restoration of Masses with a congregation.
Your pastor in the Lord Jesus
Fr. Larry Tharp