RANDOM THOUGHTS, Sunday, June 21, 2020
Dear Parishioners and Friends of St. Francis Parish,
I don’t like this heat. Really takes a toll on me. But summer is here and we might as well get used to it.
Presently we are scheduled to begin “normal” weekend masses on July 4 and 5 in the church. We have two problems with that at the moment. The AC and the wi fi service in the church, which is not powerful enough to transmit the live streaming mass. To run the AC in the church with a 30 plus year old system, is very expensive and since we can’t transmit the mass, we will stay in the parish center.
I admire the detail in the Bishop’s guidelines for “reopening” our parishes, but they don’t do much to protect older priests with pre-existing medical conditions, like me.
Celebrating the mass as we are now lacks so much. I really miss the music, Paul at 5 pm and the choir at 9 am. But it’s the best we can do for now. The virus doesn’t care much about how I feel, or you either. Let’s focus on the positive.
I am very happy that the Supreme Court is allowing the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) to stay, for now. Congress will have to take up more legislation, but these DACA kids now have more room for hope.
As you know our fastest growing group of parishioners are Spanish and a good number of them are undocumented and some of the kids are DACA kids who have only known this country. I know this is a political hot potato, but you should know where your pastor stands and if you disagree, that’s OK. We live in America, not North Korea.
Yesterday we had a first holy communion in Spanish, nine of us present. Tomorrow I have a wedding for a couple from New York. About ten people will be there. Hopefully they can have the reception in the fall or next year some time.
Thank you again for mailing or bringing in your donations. If you didn’t do this on a regular basis, we would be in big financial trouble.
Pictures of things that did not quite work out as planned