Pastor’s Piece – April 18

Happy Easter!

Easter Sunday went well. Nevertheless we need to change a few things, and for pastoral reasons, the earlier the better. So now I will offer my morning prayers an hour earlier. I can sympathize with the difficulty. The piety of my youngest brother speaks for many. When he was informed that the family was gathering to join me at church on Easter Sunday at 9:00am, he responded, “The one time in my life that the bishop says that I don’t have to go to Mass on Sunday and you want me to get up early!”

The second thing that we do well to do is for those of you listening to my Private Mass on you car radio, I will meet you where the sidewalk that extends from the church steps arrives at the parking lot for Holy Communion. Remember that if you’ve parked near the Parish Hall, I will meet you at the bottom of the office steps by the traffic cone for Holy Communion.

The latest information from Bishop Burbidge regarding this unique circumstance is that he has canceled all Confirmations in the Diocese of Arlington till May 8. That means we still need to prepare for our First Holy Communions scheduled for May 8 & 9 and Confirmations May 16. Of course whether we have those events will depend heavily on what the governor says before then. Nevertheless there are some things that we can be certain about regarding next month. If we are permitted to have public Mass in May, I don’t imagine that the bishop will make them obligatory. Secondly, we know that Governor Northam has shut the schools and their facilities down till June 10. So there is no hope that SKD will be meeting at Bull Run Middle School before then. You all are always welcome at your parish church SSM. That is the best that my crystal ball can come up with at the moment. We pray that this ends soon.

Till then, a joke, where did the Terminator find toilet paper?

Aisle B. Back.

Christ’s Peace,

Fr. Murphy

 

P.S. Confessions this week can be found Wednesday 6:30-7:30pm, Friday morning after Mass, and Saturday 3:45-4:45pm.