Dear Sacred Heart and St. Ann Parishioners and friends:
Sixth Sunday of Easter (May 17)
Please join me for the live-stream Saturday Afternoon Mass on our Pastoral Region Youtube page at 5:00 p.m. Saturday, May 16 by highlighting and clicking on the following address: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVLLqbEY5hKWinwz069MVcg or by accessing the Sixth Sunday of Easter Sacred Heart Mass Youtube link on either of our parish websites. We will also have the prerecorded Sunday Morning (May 17) 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. (As I have mentioned in the past, the homily will be the same at both Masses.)
Please, please, please hit the “Subscribe” Button
If you have not done so already please 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 618 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. Please help me avail St. Ann and Sacred Heart parishes with more latitude in what we can do by clicking the subscribe button. I am truly begging you to help me with this.
Songs for this week’s Masses are:
Gathering Hymn: Three Days
Mass of light for mass parts
Psalm: Let All the Earth
Hymn during the Preparation of the Gifts: We Have Been Told
Communion Hymn: Eat This Bread
Closing Hymn: With One Voice
When can we get back to Church? Answer: As of, but not before, May 25
The first day we are permitted to celebrate “public” Mass (i.e. Mass with a congregation) is a week from this coming Monday! Monday, May 25 (Memorial Day) is a holiday. This is the first day when we can resume Masses. The only Masses which will be available between now and then are the live streamed or recorded Masses on our Youtube site. HOWEVER When Masses resume, it won’t be anything like it used to be. Everyone who comes to Mass will wear a mask. Pews will be color coded using tape. There will be three sections reserved for various groups or individuals. Pews will be marked off for 1) FAMILY HOUSEHOLDS WITH CHILDREN (small or large), 2) SAME HOUSEHOLD COUPLES, and 3) INDIVIDUAL SINGLE ADULTS. Social distancing MUST be followed to the letter. There will be no allowance for handshaking, two or more group conversations (either in the building or the parking lot), and a plethora of additional provisions.
By mid next week, I will provide through an email blast to all parishioners at both St. Ann and Sacred Heart a very lengthy list of the requirements imposed on Catholic Churches before we are permitted to reinstate public Masses. Catholic Churches are disproportionately disadvantaged by the requirements because we have Holy Communion. I will provide you with a long list of “How To” instructions that will be operative at every Mass. I will also make a video describing the new “do’s” and “don’ts” of how to go to Mass during the COVID-19 times.
Summer Festivals
A number of people from both parishes have been asking whether there will be changes to the July Festival at St. Ann and the August Festival at Sacred Heart. I am talking with the chair-people of both festivals. We definitely will have the major raffle at both parishes. We do not know what the rules regarding regulation of crowds may be by mid- summer. We are actively considering a variety of options. I will keep you informed as soon as we make a determination.
Emergency Anointing of the Sick and Regular Confessions
I have been and will continue to hear confessions at the standard times. (NB only 15 minute window of confessions on Saturday afternoon at St. Ann.) I will also continue to respond to emergency anointing requests, especially when the presumption is that the person is dying. Please be aware however that, to date, I have been refused entrance by two of the hospitals. I have been permitted, after screening, into some senior residential and nursing homes, but not all. Most of the emergency calls have been and continue to be at private homes.
Your pastor in the Lord Jesus
Fr. Larry Tharp