Join Us on These January Dates
Dear Parish Family,
By the time you read this, I will be in Italy on pilgrimage with a group from multiple places in our diocese, including four parishioners. Please know that I am carrying you with me in my prayers as we walk in the footsteps of saints – please pray for us.
After consultation with the Pastoral Council Task Force, in coordination with Bishop Thomas, we have scheduled a final Mass for Sacred Heart Church. Bishop Thomas will celebrate a final Mass at Sacred Heart on Saturday, January 6th, at 4pm, which is the Vigil of our parish feast day. We were limited in scheduling this Mass due to Bishop Thomas’ availability with such short notice. I hope and pray that Bishop Thomas’ presence and shepherding will help bring healing and comfort to our parish family, especially those most deeply rooted in the former Sacred Heart parish. We will also celebrate our parish feast of the Epiphany of the Lord at 9:30am, Sunday, January 7th at our Epiphany Genesee St. campus (St. Stephen). PLEASE save these dates and plan to attend both Masses that weekend – I will be at both, why not you? Please join together for the Saturday Vigil (4pm January 6th) to support one another, grieve together, unite as one parish family, and help give the Sacred Heart church building a fitting, reverent, and prayerful final Mass as we worship God together through the healing power of Jesus’ sacrifice in the Eucharist. Please also join together Sunday, January 7th, at 9:30am (Epiphany Genesee St. campus) to celebrate our parish feast day and join together again in unity with our parish family. This will not be an easy weekend to say the least, but please plan to give more time to the Lord and your parish family on our feast day weekend.
Our feast day weekend will help kick off our new Mass schedule. I began consulting parish leadership regarding a new Mass schedule back in June when I met with both finance and pastoral councils to present our facilities recommendation. Then in September I consulted further and worked with pastoral council to come up with our new Mass schedule moving forward in January – this is at least a start to a new reality of worshiping together as a parish family (beginning the weekend of January 13-14).
Saturday Vigil Mass – 4pm at our Epiphany White Street campus (St. Thomas Aquinas)
Sunday Mass – 9:30am at Epiphany Genesee St. campus (St. Stephen)
One Sunday Mass will help gather more of our parish family together to more vibrantly and fittingly worship God through the Mass. It will also allow for more fellowship and activities after Mass without another Mass coming up/splitting people up across campuses/Masses. We will still have more than adequate space to accommodate the number of people we currently have coming to the two current Sunday Masses. If we (each one of us) better reach out, evangelize, and invite family, friends, and others to Mass or back to Mass and fill up the one Sunday Mass, then we could consider adding a Mass. I will write more about the new Mass schedule later.
Let’s continue to keep one another in prayer.
In Christ,
Father Eric