June 27, 2020

Dear Friends in Christ,

Good afternoon, I hope you are all well on this hot and sticky day. We are looking forward to opening the church again for Sunday Mass at 12 pm June 28, our second publicly celebrated Mass since Montgomery County entered Phase 2 of its reopening. With 42 households having registered for Mass, we are near our church’s capacity under the guidelines of social distancing requirements we must follow. Nevertheless, we look forward to welcoming those of you who have pre-registered for Mass and hope next weekend – God willing – to expand the number of liturgies we can offer. In the meantime, the Sunday online Mass will premiere at 10 am tomorrow and we are glad to celebrate with our parish family virtually, as well.

A new offering we will start at 3 pm Sunday, June 28, is the distribution of Holy Communion in front of the church. This offering of Holy Communion is for those parishioners who watch the Sunday online Mass and are not able to receive Holy Communion during the in-person liturgy. Please arrive on the church grounds at 3 pm wearing a face mask or facial covering; I will lead those gathered in prayer and then begin distributing Holy Communion until 3:30 pm. Read more about the offering of Holy Communion on our Reopening Our Parish page.

Lastly, I wanted to make the announcement here that our parish will be blessed with the arrival of Fr. Patrick Agustin as the parochial vicar pro-tem at St. Francis of Assisi Parish on July 8. After ordaining eight new priests to the priesthood on June 20, Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory assigned Fr. Agustin to our parish for the summer. Read more about Fr. Agustin in a Catholic Standard profile, which was published when he was still a transitional deacon. During his time at our parish through mid-September, Fr. Agustin will be getting introduced to parish life and helping with Vacation Bible Camp, which begins next month. If you meet Fr. Agustin at Mass or at the Rectory, please do welcome him warmly!

  

Please pray for our entire parish family, as we continue slowly reopening our parish and dipping our toes in parish life while still remaining vigilant about safeguarding our health during the COVID-19 pandemic, which is still very much a part of our lives and the lives of our brothers and sisters across the world. May God bless and keep you all!

Have a wonderful and blessed week!

Yours in Christ,

Fr. John