Dear Parishioners,

I am restarting this Pastor’s Page on our website for the coronavirus outbreak. I hope to post something every day to keep you connected. I found a couple of articles online.

First, from Fr. Paul Scalia, here is an article about what Pastors are going through: https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2020/03/22/priests-without-people/

Here is an article from the same source about what all of us are going through: https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2020/03/23/doing-nothing-is-doing-something/

How hard it is to do nothing! We all feal so useless. But, we are getting more of a Lent than any of us imagined. We should take this as a time of grace. Perhaps we will aquire habits of prayer and renewed relationships that we can carry into the time when we get back to normal.

Following on Fr. Scalia’s article, there will be no greater time of Priests without people than the Easter Triduum. One parishioner quipped that I will have to wash my own feet on Holy Thursday. The Vatican has issued guidelines on how a Priest can celebrate the Triduum by himself. Here is an article on that: https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/vatican-publishes-guidelines-for-easter-celebrations-during-coronavirus-42652

We can all pray that this crisis passes before Easter. I know how much you miss the sacraments and the Mass. We Priests certainly miss ministering to you. Keep up your prayers. We are all learning patients through this. God Bless. Fr.