Mondays from 2-4 PM and 6-7 PM (including today).

     Fridays during the 3 PM Holy Hour.

     We broke more records but had plenty of room inside our church.

8 PM         160

8 AM         163

10 AM       190

12 PM       153

2 PM           82

     Our old single Mass record of 161 was set last week.  The new record is 190.  Last week we set a total record of 709.  For Easter, 748 people joined us inside our church.  More were outside in our parking lot and watching from home.

     Thank you to our staff, ushers, lectors, extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion, musicians, livestreaming camera operators, everyone who attended Mass inside our church, everyone listening outside, and everyone at home.  Your help and cooperation made it possible for us to keep people safe while doing our best to enter into the sacred mysteries.

     Since I didn't know how many people would attend Mass for Easter, I wanted us to be ready for 900+.  We maximized seating capacity.

     Now that we're going back to six Sunday Masses (we had only five for Easter), let's change the seating again to make it simpler and more flexible.

     In the parish hall, we'll have couples by the windows, two columns of singles in the middle, and triples by the bathrooms.  A triple can easily be converted into a couple and single by moving one chair to the wall.  I also removed the backup seating by the collection basket.  We'll have extra chairs in the sacristy if we need them.

     We'll also have extra chairs in the new confessional by the foyer.  We can't use the new confessional just yet because of the pandemic.  So, the confessional screen remains in the back of the parish hall.  We can put extra chairs in the candle room, the foyer, and outside the front entrance - if needed.

     We'll continue to designate six pews for groups of four or more.  If we don't have that many groups, we can convert them to singles at the pew ends.

     The ushers will continue to invite those who can walk to sit further inside our church.  We've seen a lot more parishioners with contraptions come to Mass.  We want to be able to seat them by the canopy entrance.  If you haven't seen it, it's really gratifying to see relief on their faces when they're invited to sit close by.

     I continue to be excited and overjoyed to celebrate Easter.  We do so for the whole eight days of the Easter Octave as if each day is Easter Sunday.  We round out the Octave with Divine Mercy Sunday next Sunday.  We'll pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet before the 2 PM Mass on Sunday.  We also do so at the beginning of the Friday 3 PM Holy Hour every week.

     If you haven't been back to Mass yet but would like to come (especially after being fully vaccinated), consider coming to daily Mass at 8 AM or the 2 PM Sunday Mass.  It's easier to navigate the more lightly attended Masses.  You'll be able to take in the wonder of being back in church without having to worry so much about people being too close.  Once you see how things are done, then you'll be better able to attend a Mass with more people.

God love you,

Fr. Jim