Lots of Good News

04-18-2021From Fr. Antony's DeskFr. John Barbella

It’s always nice to have some good news to report, and we have lots of it this week. Our second-grade school and CCD students will be receiving their First Holy Communion over the next couple of weekends. First Communion is always an uplifting celebration, perhaps my favorite of the whole year.

Please pray for the children and their families. May the children’s reception of Jesus in Holy Communion be for them and their families a powerful inspiration to stay close to Jesus throughout their lives.

In addition to First Holy Communion, we have even more good news concerning the Holy Eucharist in our parish. Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament has been extended on weekdays in our Church. It will begin after the 12:10pm Mass and continue until 7:00pm Monday thru Friday. The only exception will be when there is a Serra Club Mass on the first and third Tuesdays of the month, in which case adoration will conclude prior to that Mass.

It is the good people of our parish and their love for Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament that makes it possible for us to extend Adoration at this time. The willingness of so many people to commit to a regular hour of adoration is essential to making this work in our Church. Thank you, to each and every one out there who gives that hour to the Lord! I don’t have to tell you how much our good God repays those who give Him this time in prayer.

The next bit of news concerns our school roof, which has been replaced over the past two weeks. You will recall that as part of our recent capital campaign to which so many of you were so generous we replaced the roof over the school gym a couple of years ago. At that time, we were hoping to get a few more years out of the rest of the school roof, but that became impossible.

Since we did not include the entire school roof in the campaign, we had to ask the diocese to loan us the money for that project. They were happy to do so, once more indicating the love and support our bishop shows to our parish and school. The cost of this project is about $95,000, and we are grateful to our bishop for helping us out in this way.

I didn’t intend to make this column into a commercial, but we might all remember this when responding to this year’s Bishop’s Annual Appeal! Making a gift of any amount, according to our means, would be a nice way to say thank you.

Please remember to pray for me, and our First Communicants. I know how many of you faithfully pray that Hail Mary for me each day, and I really appreciate it.

Let’s also keep praying for those who are sick, for the poor, and for peace.

Have a great week!
Fr. John

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