A NOTE FROM FR. VINCE
Hi Everybody!
I’m here to report that everyone I know and have talked to has “quarantine cabin fever”! Can I add you to the list? Here’s some detailed news you might wonder about as parishioners:
- Randy Mudge, business manager, and myself will be having another leadership meeting this week. That includes 2 trustees, chairs of pastoral and finance councils, and president of the school board. Even though it seems like life is passing very slowly, there still is a lot to discuss with leaders.
- We are working on a ‘reopening plan’. It is very complicated. Once we receive word from the Bishop that we can reopen, we want to be ready. You can imagine how many details and persons are involved in pulling that off. We will keep you abreast of details as we work on them.
- Knowing that the initial crowd size will be smaller for several weekends, we will be preparing our ability to video a ‘mass-a-weekend’ in the main church. Presently, our taped masses have been in the chapel.
- Again, my email is frvinard@gmail.com and my phone number is 515-778-9370. I do want to hear from you as to how things are going, suggestions, or concerns, etc . If I were to hazard a guess as to when Catholic churches can open in metros around the state, it might be June. But if it’s the last day of May, that would be Pentecost Sunday. That would be a great feast to kick off on. We shall see.
MOTHER’S DAY. Apparently, we are still having it! I don’t mean to kid around, but you know how strange this Mother’s Day will feel. Until this year, I was always ministering on the 2nd Sunday of May. So this was the year that I could travel to my parents grave in New Hampton on Mother’s Day. I can travel there, but would have to come back the same day….my sister there is still under ‘keep away’ rules. She has her own daughters and grandchildren she can’t see, and I’m further down that list. Lol. So maybe 2021.
Hopefully, in this crisis, we become even closer to our mothers, both living or deceased. We pray that ‘absence makes the heart grow fonder’. I had initially Googled what I thought was the right phrase: ‘distance makes the heart grow fonder’. Come to find out, that phrase is from the hard rock group, Poison. Let’s stick with ‘absence’!
Stay strong everybody!