On Saturdays, Mass is to be celebrated at St. Mary Parish at 4:00 p.m. and at Resurrection Parish at 6:00 p.m. On Sundays, Mass is to be celebrated at Resurrection Parish at 8:30 a.m. and at St. Mary Parish at 10:30 a.m. Starting next weekend, July 2nd and 3rd, this schedule will run until the end of June, 2017, at which time it will be reversed. The Saturday schedule for celebrating the Sacrament of Reconciliation will be revised as follows: on Saturdays, this Sacrament is to be offered at St. Mary Parish from 3:00 until 3:30 p.m. At Resurrection Parish, it is to be offered right after the 6:00 p.m. Mass until all confessions are heard. When the respective programs of religious instruction for children resume later on this summer, these will be affected by the Sunday Mass schedule. At St. Mary Parish, the religious instruction program will run before the Sunday Mass. At Resurrection Parish, it will run after Mass.
Change is always painful. I would be the first to say that our weekend Mass schedule is not ideal. Persons at Resurrection Parish who prefer participating at an earlier Mass will be grateful for the schedule change. So also will be persons at St. Mary Parish who prefer to participate at a later Mass.
In both parishes, a number of persons perceive that of the four different times at which weekend Masses are scheduled, Saturday at 4:00 p.m. and Sunday at 10:30 a.m. are the best times. It has been suggested that each parish be offered one of these preferred times. If this was to happen, the Pastor would have to leave right away from the same parish after both Masses to get to the other parish. If I had to rush off each weekend after both Masses in the same parish, I could easily be perceived as a visiting priest for a whole year in the parish from which I would have to rush off.
Our present schedule, flip-flopping as it does each year, allows the Pastor to remain after one Mass in each parish each weekend to visit with individuals and to participate in parish activities. A feature that I myself do not like about the present weekend schedule is that of having to rush off after the first Mass on both Saturday and on Sunday to get to the other parish. Sad to say, logistically, I simply do not have the normally needed time to visit with persons who have legitimate matters that they want to discuss with me.
A number of persons feel that the presence of the Pastor at parish activities is important. As less than ideal as is the present schedule, at least it frees me to attend parish activities after the Saturday Mass in one parish and after the Sunday Mass in the other parish.
As to the specific times at which the weekend Masses are to be celebrated, thought has been given to this also. Parishes are not permitted to offer a weekend Mass before 4:00 p.m. on Saturdays. Several persons would regard celebrating Mass at 6:30 p.m. on Saturdays as being too late. On Sundays, it has been suggested that we celebrate Mass at 9:00 a.m. in one parish and at 11:00 a.m. in the other parish. Many perceive that 11:00 a.m. would be too late if this was the only time that Mass is to be celebrated in that parish on Sundays. Logistically, an interval of two hours needs to occur between the times of the Mass celebrations both on Saturday and on Sunday.
As less than ideal as is the situation of the weekend Mass schedule in both Resurrection and in St. Mary Parishes, let’s pray for the grace that will enable us to relate to the opportunities that are offered to celebrate Mass each weekend in a grateful manner. In many parts of the world, people do not have it as good as do we in regard to this matter.
Sincerely yours in Christ,
Fr. Nelson Beaver – Pastor