Dear Parishioners,

Today we have outdoor Adoration from Noon to 1:00pm. This will be our last outdoor Adoration. Next Sunday we will have Adoration in the Church with a limit of ten people at a time.

There are still over 40 slots open to attend Mass this week. Here are some things to keep in mind:

-If you are elderly or have an underlying condition you are still strongly encouraged to stay home.

-Archbishop Gregory is keeping in effect the dispensation from the obligation to attend Mass (You are not obligated to attend Mass)

If you are coming to Mass, please

-Sit in the front section of pews. This will make it easier to wipe down the pews after each Mass;

-Move inside the pew to keep a distance of six feet from the aisles. Members of the same household can sit together;

-Avoid touching surfaces. If you cough or sneeze please cover you mouth and nose with your elbow;

-Wear a face mask that covers your mouth and nose while inside the Church;

-Sanitize your hands with the hand sanitizer while coming forward to receive Holy Communion;

-Maintain a distance of six feet from other people, especially in the line to receive Holy Communion;

-Move six feet away from the Priest after receiving Holy Communion. Remove your face covering and consume the Host;

-Maintain social distance as you leave the Church;

-Give thanks to God for seeing us this far through the pandemic and for the great gift of the Holy Mass.

If you would like to sign up for Mass, but are unable or having difficulty, please e-mail me (tlahood@stmaryum.org) and I will try to help. 

Today is Pentecost and the close of the Easter Season. It is still incredible to think that we missed all the Holy Week and Easter celebrations as a parish. This was a great sacrifice. We can hope that our sacrifice saved many lives. We can take some time today to meditate on the great gift of Divine Life that comes to us in the Holy Spirit. This is truly the loving generosity of the Father, that he gives us both His Son and the Holy Spirit. Everything He has He has given to us. Here is a reading from St. Irenaeus on Pentecost:

From the treatise Against Heresies by Saint Irenaeus, bishop

The sending of the Holy SpiritWhen the Lord told his disciples to go and teach all nations and to baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, he conferred on them the power of giving men new life in God. He had promised through the prophets that in these last days he would pour out his Spirit on his servants and handmaids, and that they would prophesy. So when the Son of God became the Son of Man, the Spirit also descended upon him, becoming accustomed in this way to dwelling with the human race, to living in men and to inhabiting God’s creation. The Spirit accomplished the Father’s will in men who had grown old in sin, and gave them new life in Christ. 

Luke says that the Spirit came down on the disciples at Pentecost, after the Lord’s ascension, with power to open the gates of life to all nations and to make known to them the new covenant. So it was that men of every language joined in singing one song of praise to God, and scattered tribes, restored to unity by the Spirit, were offered to the Father as the first fruits of all the nations. 

This was why the Lord had promised to send the Advocate: he was to prepare us as an offering to God. Like dry flour, which cannot become one lump of dough, one loaf of bread, without moisture, we who are many could not become one in Christ Jesus without the water that comes down from heaven. And like parched ground, which yields no harvest unless it receives moisture, we who were once like a waterless tree could never have lived and borne fruit without this abundant rainfall from above. Through the baptism that liberates us from change and decay we have become one in body; through the Spirit we have become one in soul. 

The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and strength, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of Godcame down upon the Lord, and the Lord in turn gave this Spirit to his Church, sending the Advocate from heaven into all the world into which, according to his own words, the devil too had been cast down like lightning. If we are not to be scorched and made unfruitful, we need the dew of God. Since we have our accuser, we need an Advocate as well. And so the Lord in his pity for man, who had fallen into the hands of brigands, having himself bound up his wounds and left for his care two coins bearing the royal image, entrusted him to the Holy Spirit. Now, through the Spirit, the image and inscription of the Father and the Son have been given to us, and it is our duty to use the coin committed to our charge and make it yield a rich profit for the Lord.

Have a blessed Pentecost, Fr. LaHood