Weekly Letter from the Pastor

Dear Fellow Parishioners of St. Benedict:

Here we are, already our fifth Sunday of being away from the church. In some ways it doesn’t seem like it has been that long already and in other ways it feels like forever since we have been here.

Thankfully, so many of you are following us as we celebrate Mass on line each day. Father JM and I are humbled by your response, and the many notes, emails, cards, etc., that you have sent to us to encourage us along the way here. It was awesome to see so many coming through the parking lot and partaking of the Stations of the Cross, and those who come almost every day to pray the Chaplet of the Divine Mercy at 3:00 p.m.

Indeed, today is Divine Mercy Sunday. We invite everyone to take the break at 3:00 p.m. and pray the Chaplet using our website, or following on EWTN television or radio. We are all in need of God’s mercy and, if nothing else, the past five weeks have clearly demonstrated that to us.

We are also grateful to the many of you who have been able to assist us by sending in your regular contributions either through the mail, the WeShare, or by dropping them off. Like so many other places we are seeing a downturn in income and this impacts our ability to keep ahead much less to keep up with the bills that continue to come in. Please do whatever you can to assist.

The human toll of this pandemic has been devastating, though, fortunately we have not been heavily impacted as a parish. Please go to the “prayerwall” on the website and submit any intentions that you would like to be remembered here. We place those in the parish prayer intention book.

We are all equally in the dark as to when we will be able to celebrate Mass with an assembly, or to open the school, or the adoration chapel. Bishop O’Connell keeps us abreast of developments as he is in contact with officials at the state level. In the meantime, we all need to be smart and careful, not taking unnecessary risks with our own health or the health and well-being of others.

Yes, these are strange times. Let us continue to pray for one another, for our church, and certainly for our president, governor, and all public officials, so that they might have the wisdom to get this right. We have sacrificed much. A sacrifice made well should reap some benefit – or as they say – be efficacious. Let us pray that the sacrifices we are making now have been prudential and effective.

May the Lord be with each of you as we walk together and by association along this path –

Peace,
Father Garry