Weekly Letter from the Pastor

Dear Fellow Parishioners of St. Benedict:

It feels like we have just come to the end of a long and challenging nightmare – well, maybe that’s overstated, but finally this weekend we are able to enter the church without ribbons on the pews marking social distancing and, as we are comfortable, not mandated to wear a mask.

While specific details from the bishop have not yet been promulgated at the time of my writing this, we are able to implement what we already know. It sounds as though things will open up pretty quickly and that a return to “normal” is on the horizon. However, coming out of the pandemic protocols will not be equally easy for everyone, and indeed I expect that for many there will be some anxiety associated with a return to opening up. We all need to remain prudentially cautious and sensitive to the fears and needs of others. I suspect that in one way or another masks will be a part of our lives for years to come.

The bishops of the New Jersey Catholic Province have decided to lift the dispensation from the obligation to attend Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation beginning next weekend – June 5/6 –appropriately the Solemnity of Corpus Christi and the one-year anniversary of the opening of the churches after the shutdown last year. Yet, for those of you who are unvaccinated or who are still health compromised (physically or psychologically) we need to act with prudence. To that end, we will still maintain seating in the narthex, and separated throughout the church, the Hall of Saints, and the hallway for as long as necessary to help you feel comfortable in church.

Other openings will happen as we all feel comfortable and see the opportunity to make adjustments along the way. A few changes will remain effective going forward. We will continue to use the narthex of the church for entrance on the weekends, while daily Mass goers will continue to enter through the Hall of Saints. We will continue to use the collection box in the narthex instead of passing collection baskets during the preparation of gifts.

You will note that we are gradually bringing back readers and Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion beginning this weekend. We are now also able to distribute Holy Communion at its proper time in the Liturgy. Honestly, I do not know how long (years, maybe) before distribution under both Eucharistic species will become available, much less, normative again. We may see altar servers in place again in a couple of weeks as well. As our sanctuary is fairly small, and the children haven’t been vaccinated, it might still be early to bring them back in full force.

We will be holding a ministry fair later this summer to invite ministers for liturgy. This is an opportunity to tap into the many new parishioners who have joined us over the past two years, and to be able to grow the ministries. We will soon be in need of ministers to assist with taking Holy Communion to the homebound, and to assist at the residential health care facilities covered by our parish.

As we open the summer season this weekend with the observation of Memorial Day, we are conscious of the reality that as things are opening, many of you are off to your summer residences and, as school ends in the next few weeks, that the summer exercises will be underway. Please be careful and safe.

This coming Friday night we will graduate forty-three students from our school. While it is a bittersweet rite of passage for our students, we are happy that we were able to provide them with a mostly normal eighth grade year in spite of the protocols that were in place. We will soon publish a list of the high schools they are planning to attend.

This Friday also marks Father JM’s fifth anniversary of priestly ordination. We will be announcing the plans to celebrate his time with us as he prepares for his transfer to Marlton on July 1st . Also, two weeks ago we observed the fifteenth anniversary of the ordination as deacon for Deacon Steve Scott. We wish them both blessings and God’s good graces in their lives and ministries.

Happy Memorial Day!
Fr. Garry