Pentecost Sunday: We will resume celebrating Sunday Mass in the church on Pentecost Sunday, following the usual Sunday schedule: Saturday vigil @ 5:30 pm; Sunday @ 8 am, 10:30 am, 2 pm (Spanish) and 6 pm. Please read the detailed instructions issued by Bishop Stika last week, and be prepared to follow these instructions carefully. You will need to sign-up to attend a Pentecost Mass at Saint Mary’s. The sign-up sheet will be posted on the parish website next Wednesday at noon. Seating at the 8 am Mass on Pentecost Sunday will prioritize parishioners aged 60+. Maximum seating in the church for any Mass will be 100.
Weekday Mass: We will resume celebrating ferial Mass in the church on Memorial Day at 9 am. Anyone wishing to attend this Mass will first need to carefully read the detailed instructions issued by Bishop Stika last week, and be prepared to follow these instructions carefully. After Memorial Day, all ferial Masses will be celebrated in the church until further notice, and will follow the usual (pre-pandemic) schedule. There will be no need to sign-up to attend a Mass celebrated during the week.
Our Graduates: Congratulations to the class of 2020!
Middle School
Tennison Barnes
Caleb Beauchamp
Jenna Burbar
Victoria Corbett
Ilse Dale
Sarah Duhamel
Olivia Fellers
Kayden Ford
Catherine Gergel
Vic Landa
Alley Paoletto
Trey Phillips
Leif Ross
Alyssa Shedlock
Fernanda Solis
Raymond Tung
Bethany Walsh
Yasmin Zambrano
Isa Zolnierczuk
High School
Jacob Adams
Patricia Anguiano
Marcus Cacheiro
Meghan Campbell
Jose Osvaldo Contreras
Patrick Daigle
Joe Duhamel
Issair Franquez
Brandon Hernandez
Shelby LeBlanc
Ian McKenna
Pedro Medina
Anthonia Okoye
Nathan Paul
Bethany Quilty
Ella Stewart
Marigrace Tidwell
Alex Waraksa
Autumn Rose West
College
Thomas Colburn from Stanford University
Suzanne Kass from Franciscan University
Hailey Mesmer from NC State
Gabriel Vacaliuc from Rice University
White Elephant: Our White Elephant Thrift Store resumes operations on Tuesday. Our generous White Elephant volunteers are mostly in the “vulnerable category” during this pandemic, and so Father Shelton has arranged for a couple of younger parishioners to care for the store and its customers for the remainder of 2020. This arrangement will be evaluated in November. Modified hours of operation are: Tuesdays and Thursdays from noon to 7 pm, and Saturdays from 10 am to 3 pm.
Parish Office: The parish office remains open and the staff continue to work their usual hours, but please contact them via telephone rather than through in-person visits.
Sacraments of Initiation: Bishop Stika is working with his advisors to develop a safe approach to resuming celebrations of Baptism, Confirmation and First Communion.
Funeral Mass: Funerals with Mass in the church will resume in June, but will follow guidelines similar to those decreed by Bishop Stika for Sunday Mass.
Reserving Parish Facilities: Thanks to the generosity of generations of parishioners, Saint Mary’s has nine buildings serving our ministries and apostolates. These facilities also allow parish families to host receptions and other gatherings, and civic groups are grateful to us for allowing them to host their annual banquets here. Five years ago, our parish still employed four janitorial staff members, but we have since reduced that number to only one contracted housekeeper. This means we are unable to provide any kind of janitorial services before or after private or civic events, and so we rely on private/civic users to clean the facility they use. Although private/civic users agree to provide this cleaning, we struggle to ensure cooperation with this requirement. The added requirements pertaining to the pandemic make this situation even more serious. Therefore, we need to develop a reasonable and effective approach to ensuring compliance before we can resume accepting reservations of our facilities for private or civic use.
Pentecost Novena: The Blessed Mother and the Holy Apostles prayed the very first Christian novena during the nine days between Ascension Thursday and Pentecost Sunday. They prayed for the coming of the Holy Spirit, and we join them each year. The Pentecost Novena begins on Friday, May 22nd.
Come, Holy Spirit, Creator come,
From your bright heavenly throne!
Come, take possession of our souls,
And make them all your own.
You who are called the Paraclete,
Best gift of God above,
The living spring, the living fire,
Sweet unction, and true love!
You who are sevenfold in your grace,
Finger of God’s right hand,
His promise, teaching little ones
To speak and understand!
O guide our minds with your blessed light,
With love our hearts inflame,
And with your strength which never decays
Confirm our mortal frame.
Far from us drive our hellish foe
True peace unto us bring,
And through all perils guide us safe
Beneath your sacred wing.
Through you may we the Father know,
Through you the eternal Son
And you the Spirit of them both
Thrice-blessed three in one.
All glory to the Father be,
And to the risen Son;
The same to you, O Paraclete,
While endless ages run. Amen.
