Warm thoughts and greetings to all our parish community. What a difficult time to be living in! Please know how much I am praying for you and your loved ones. The most important thing right now is to stay home and keep safe. The news is scary so do not for a second let your guard down. But also, there are blessings in the world around us as well. Appreciate and pray for the good people who are stepping up to study this disease and work on care and medicine for those who have contracted it as well as those who are working on an immunization. First responders and hospitals are on the front lines and so many are stepping up to help any way they can. We can appreciate and pray for them as well. And our civic leaders are working very hard to contain this and provide as much prevention and planning as possible. They too, deserve our prayers and appreciation.

As for us, our blessing is the time at home with those we love most. That is something I know I have longed for when things get crazy busy. And, we also have an opportunity to spend more time in prayer and working on our relationship with God.  How awesome is that if everyone comes out of this closer to God and each other and become better, more loving people?

I talked to Father Jim Walter and our Deacons, and we are working on a plan to have Palm Sunday Mass to bless palms. We then would leave them outside the church and you could drive through and pick them up. If we can figure out how to live stream the mass itself, we will. So, watch for that. We would like to do Mass for the Triduum and Easter as well. We are working on a plan for that to come. 

Stay strong and keep praying and loving your family. And remember, God is with us.