First Week Back!!!

Last week we celebrated the resumption of publicly celebrated Sunday Mass.  Our crowds were probably about 25% (perhaps a little more) of the average before COVID.  I was pleased to see all those who came trying your best to adhere to the new precautions and requirements.  I appreciate your patience.    As time goes on we will learn efficiencies and become more comfortable in our practices.  Perhaps some restrictions will also be removed or at least lessened in succeeding months.

Remember that the Bishops of Ohio have released all Ohio Catholics from the Sunday precept obligation.  If you are ill, please watch from home.  If you are medically compromised by illness or age, please don’t take unnecessary risks, but shelter at home.  We will continue to provide a weekly Sunday Mass on our Youtube channel either from Sacred Heart or (when we finally get the internet magic installed) from St. Ann.  Remember that you can access our Youtube channel  either from your computer, your smart TV, or your internet activated smartphone. 

The Sunday Mass schedules for Masses at St. Ann and Sacred Heart will remain as they have been, as will the weekday schedule.  I am going to have to cancel the Saturday afternoon confessions at St. Ann, as I cannot find a priest to help, and having Mass at Sacred Heart at 4:00 p.m., I cannot be two places at once.  For the time being, confessions at St. Ann on Saturday afternoon will only be for fifteen minutes from 3:30-3:45 p.m. but even this is very dangerous for me trying to get from one place to another in such short time.  I will try to create another time for confessions at St. Ann, but in the meantime, feel free to attend the confessions at Sacred Heart every Tuesday from 6:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. or Saturday morning from 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. at Sacred Heart. 

Friday Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament

Now that the COVID restrictions have been somewhat relaxed, Sacred Heart again invites you from 12:00 p.m. until 3:00 p.m. to Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.  There are no specific number restrictions, but you must wear a mask the entire time and you must properly social space.  Remember also as we move into summer that I must require at least one person, preferably two or more to be in church throughout the time of exposition.  If the Blessed Sacrament is exposed and you are the only one, you must stay until your replacement arrives.  Otherwise, I am not permitted to have exposition. 

Please continue to follow all the rules posted at the doors; wear your masks and socially space so we are not at risk of being closed again. 

Reflection on Scripture For the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity 

One God in Three Divine Persons.  We believe this doctrine; even though we cannot fully comprehend it.    So why do we have a Sunday dedicated to it?   My answer is that the Most Holy Trinity is the most important revelation the world has ever received.  God reveals himself to the world (us) in Jesus Christ.  Jesus, the Son of God, speaks of the Father and the Holy Spirit as co-equal, co-eternal articulations of an otherwise mysterious God.  And yet, because human minds are so small and God is so big; the revelation itself is a mystery.  You cannot fully understand the inexplicable.

And yet we humans are so conceited as to believe that using philosophically nuanced words, we can explain revelation that is clearly beyond our comprehension.  A humorous case in point; some years ago I spoke to the First Communicants and clarified the Latin words used at the consecration at Mass.  After First Communion Sunday, I received a note from one child, “Thank you for teaching us Latin.”  Here I had spent six years in my studies of the Latin Language, and he presumed that since he knew a few words, he had mastered the language.  You may say, “That’s cute.  He was only seven years old.”  As adults, our cynicism enters in and we say, “The Trinity is too complicated of a concept.  I won’t believe in that which I cannot cognize!”   Really!   You believe in your mother’s love when you are a baby, but you cannot articulate it in words.   You believe the radio signal is coming through the air, but you cannot hear it without instrumentation.  Every day we rely on things we do not understand.  The key to sanity is to appreciate the mystery.  As followers of Christ, today we appreciate the mystery. 

Next Week:  Feast of Corpus Christi    

Dt 8:2-3, 14b-16a

1 Cor 10:16-17

Jn 6:51-58

Theme:  “Hoc est enim corpus meum.”