There will be seven Masses to celebrate the Solemnity of Christmas Dec. 24-25; daily and Sunday Mass schedule remains the same during the Christmas Octave Dec. 26-31; a four-Mass schedule caps the octave with the Solemnity of Mary Mother of God.
On November 19, 2020, in the pastor's monthly chapter talk, a "Year of St. Joseph" was declared to help strengthen our ties to our patronal saint and to help us discern our collective future emerging from the Covid-19 pandemic and other global crises. On December 8, 2020, Pope Francis declared a "Year of St. Joseph" for the universal church. We are excited by the reinforcing possibilities for us at the parish. The Vatican text: http://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_letters/documents/papa-francesco-lettera-ap_20201208_patris-corde.html
OCTOBER EXPERIMENTAL EVENING SCHEDULE BEGINS! Starting Thursday, October 1, a new experimental and a la carte evening parish prayer schedule will begin. Most importantly, we will introduce a 7:00 PM Mass in Spanish that will run from Monday-Friday as long as parishioner demand warrants the Mass. Parishioners can also choose to come at 6:00 PM Monday-Friday for a 20-minute period of silent contemplative prayer led by Msgr. Kerrigan or other clergy. At 6:30 PM, the evening prayer of the church, “Vespers,” will be conducted in Spanish. Parishioners are invited to attend one, two or all three of the services; they are separate events. But parishioners are also advised to enter (main center) door and exit (side doors) in the same uni-directional pattern that we use for Mass. NEW MONTHLY FIRST FRIDAY SCHEDULE BEGINS OCT. 2 † 8:30 AM Mass (English) as usual † clearing of church for sanitizing after Mass † 9:10 AM (approximately) Exposition and Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament † 12:00 PM Benediction and Angelus † 6:00 PM Silent Contemplative Prayer † 6:30 PM Vespers (Spanish) † 7:00 PM Mass in Time of Pandemic (Bilingual)
Due to Covid-19 restrictions, our new clergy can't work the doors before and after Mass as we'd wish. Additionally, we have very few parishioner e-mail addresses captured in our systems. We are trying to work on both issues by announcing that Fr. Lukas Blicharski is assigned to receive e-mails from parishioners, for the initial purpose of building a database, but also for the opportunity to say hi to Fr. Lukas and to request any pastoral services from any parish team members. Let the e-mails roll to: Fr.Lukas@sjcbb.net. As a side note, parishioners interested in Msgr. Kerrigan’s monastic writings and how they may be applied here can go to https://mepkinabbey.org/category/covid-19/ and look for his essays.