Pastor Letter – Welcome Home! – Emailed June 3, 2021

Dear Parishioners,

In a huge way, WELCOME HOME! You can be back in church to participate at Mass, receiving Holy Communion. For many it has been a real long time to be together. All of us have been through a lot this past year and a half! Let us put “the past in the past”, not forgetting, but moving forward.

Likewise, the summer is upon us and the “ordinary time” (counted time) of our liturgical year resumes.

In church, we can seat ourselves wisely in all the pews, respecting others. The use of the face mask is optional now. Blessing ourselves with holy water and offering the sign of peace are actions in which all can participate. Altar servers are also “back in action” for assisting the priest at Mass.

While sharing Holy Communion will be with just consecrated bread (no consecrated wine) please remember that all do still receive the REAL PRESENCE OF JESUS CHRIST in this “one” substance.

Offertory gift processions can resume, as well as entrance and recessional processions. Greeting one another will be part and parcel of what IHM parishioners have always done, making others feel “at home”.

PLEASE NOTE: There will be a few weeks starting in JUNE 2021 that the 10:00am Sunday LIVESTREAM will not happen. Everyone is entitled to a vacation from volunteer ministry and the IHM camera crew needs to order and purchase some materials for the future of LIVESTREAM. These materials take some time to be received.

If you have been a Lector, an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion, or an Usher before COVID-19 and want to resume (this is highly encouraged!) these ministries, please contact Julie Bowling at the rectory (330) 929-8361 or email her, jbowling@ihmcfo.org as soon as possible. We need you very much!

Deacon Joe will be orchestrating very soon the altar servers training and re-training. Jeff Mills will be gathering the choir and cantors for liturgy.

All in all, let us be grateful to God, who has brought us through these difficult and strange times and has never left us unaided by His love, mercy, and power.

Many blessings,
Father Jim

 

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