JP2 was born on May 18, 1920.  He's been a hero to millions of people.  At the 2000 World Youth Day in Rome, he challenged us to make a complete gift of ourselves.  That prompted me to actively discern God's will for my life.  Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI wrote a wonderful letter about JP2 here.

     I want to welcome all of our new Flocknote subscribers.  This really is the place with the most up-to-date information.  Our bishop, for example, just gave us the go ahead for Mass in the parking lot.

     Eighteen parishioners visited Jesus today.  We'll continue to be open Monday through Friday, 10 AM to 2 PM.

     Today's Mass in the parking lot went surprising well.  There's one picture above and several on our website.  Thanks to Charlie and Karen for taking the pictures.  You can watch the video here.

     Based on the survey, I expected 5 to 10 cars.  We had about 16 cars with about 25 people.  Most people had their windows up, probably because of the cold.

     After Mass, I distributed Holy Communion by standing west of the rectory.  People drove up one car at a time.  It went very well.  One woman was crying.  I was very much amazed by the devotion of the people.

     Latency is the amount of time it takes for the video and audio to reach you.  For YouTube, it's about 30 seconds.  I generally start Mass at 8 AM on the dot.  You don't see me until 8:00:30.  The latency for the GoToMeeting conference call seems to be about a second.  You notice it if you listen through your window and on your phone.  The phone is a second behind.

     Some people pair their phones to their cars via bluetooth.  You could listen to Mass via your cell phone over your car speakers.  Or you could bring a bluetooth speaker with you in your car.  Before Mass begins, I play music from my cell phone via my bluetooth speaker.  It doubled as a paperweight today because of the wind.

     The wind prompted me to move the flowers up against the rectory.  They blew over in front of the altar.  I did light the candles, but the wind blew them out.  I used two paperweights to keep the pages down.  One flag blew over after everyone left.  Depending on the wind, you'll see varying set-ups.

     We'll continue tomorrow with this Mass in the parking lot experiment.  I ordered a couple of USB extension cables that should make it possible to hide my computer.

God love you,

Fr. Jim