Greetings!
We hope this week finds you and your loved ones well. It was a pleasure to see so many of our parishioners, most for the first time in nearly two months, at our mother's day drive-thru blessing. It was also great to be able to welcome back Fr. Lawrence!
The community is certainly a source of hope and proof positive that the Spirit is truly alive in the Church. The Holy Spirit is the major player of this weekend's readings, giving power and authority to the early Church. Because of the Spirit's active presence in our lives, acting always as a direct conduit for our faith, we both receive the grace and reason for hope. Hope that is needed now and needed to be shared.
The apostles were not exactly given specific blueprints as to how to build the Church. But Jesus left them with a promise, and that promise was the Spirit. Their openness to God's continued work in the world and their lives even after Jesus ascended into heaven, allowed them to receive the fullness of the Spirit into themselves. They did amazing things and we are here, 2,000 years later, because of their trust in God at a time when they had more questions than answers and when their future seemed uncertain at best and in jeopardy at worst.
As a successor to these apostles, Bishop Barres has issued a
letter
regarding the reopening of public masses and other updates. The full letter is available in the link below and has been published to this weekend's parish
bulletin
(link also below).
Thank you for being the hope to the community of Valley Stream, a community that has been very much affected by the coronavirus. God Bless!
Sincerely Yours in Christ,
The Clergy and Staff of Blessed Sacrament
P.S. Don't forget to tune into mass for Ascension Thursday on May 21 at 9am on our parish webpage and Facebook.
