Tag: Pastor's Desk

Around the Parish – Sunday, February 5, 2023

Written by on February 4, 2023. Posted in News, Around the Parish.

In the coming weeks, we will have a Lenten Schedule posted in our bulletin as well as in our church of all the events and dates of Lenten activities happening in our parish, or events that our Diocese has asked us to post in the parish. One item to keep on your radar for Lent is a special scriptural study entitled “A Virtual Pilgrimage to Israel.” For three Thursdays, we will gather as we walk through the life of Christ in the land that He actually lived in through pictures and videos of my two trips to Israel. We will gather on Thursdays, March 16, 23, and 30 at 6pm in the Parish Office Conference Room. I highly encourage you to come and join us for a Lenten spiritual refreshment.

Another activity/change to our normal schedule will be for our weekly adoration. During the Fridays of Lent (excluding Good Friday), we will have adoration from 6-7pm. We will not be having adoration on Wednesdays during Lent. Also during that time on Fridays, I will be hearing confessions from 6-7pm. At 7pm we will have Stations of the Cross, concluding with Benediction at the end of stations. This is another great weekly meditation to help us enter into the spirit of Lent.

On Palm Sunday, Immaculate Heart will be once again be raffling off 2 Easter Lottery Baskets and 7 additional baskets. We are asking for donations of lottery tickets for the two lottery baskets. All scratch off tickets can be placed in the collection basket, brought in to the parish office Monday—Thursday 9a-3p, or mailed to the parish office.

On another note of maintenance to our physical plant: one of the toilets in the ladies restroom in Gallagher Hall will need to be replaced. On Tuesday, January 31, we noticed that the toilet was leaking and is cracked. With that crack, we have been leaking a lot of water, causing our water bill to be extremely high. We have been looking for the leak in our building, and have (we hope) found the culprit. Thank you for your continued support on these surprise matters that need to be addressed. As you know, home-ownership comes with many ups and downs, and tons of work.

Here’s a few thoughts for your week: Never give up on anyone; miracles happen every day. It is not hard to make a decision once you know what your Christian values are. The biggest mistake we can make is being afraid to make one. With God’s help,
turn your can’ts into cans and your dreams into plans.

Pax et Bonum, Fr. Andy

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Around the Parish – Sunday, January 29, 2023

Written by on January 28, 2023. Posted in Around the Parish, News.

February Second has a few meanings in our world: First, most people recognize it as Rodent Celebration Day: Groundhog Day! For two years, I lived in Punxsutawney, PA where Groundhog Day is truly an experience to be had. I never went to Gobbler’s Knob for the celebration as it happens in the dark cold night of winter. There’s very little that would get me out of bed at that hour in the usually snowy days of early February.

The second and third meanings are a bit more spiritual and have more important meanings for our lives. The Second of February is the celebration of the Presentation of the Lord, honoring Jesus Christ’s presentation in the Temple when he was a young child.

Jesus’ presentation in the Temple reflects how he fulfills the Old Covenant. According to Old Testament law, a sacrifice had to be offered in the Temple when a child was consecrated to the Lord. Mary and Joseph honor this tradition.

The third celebration for February Second is Candlemas, or also known as little Christmas. Upon the presentation of the Lord in the temple, the image of light entering the temple is seen as Christ bringing light of God’s salvation to the world. This celebration of Candlemas is the day that candles are blessed for use in the home as well as in church.

On February Third, the church celebrates Saint Blaise, Bishop and Martyr. We know more about the devotion to Saint Blaise by Christians around the world than we know about the saint himself. His feast is observed as a holy day in some Eastern Churches. In 1222, the Council of Oxford prohibited servile labor in England on Blaise’s feast day. The Germans and Slavs hold him in special honor, and for decades many United States Catholics have sought the annual Saint Blaise blessing for their throats.

We know that Bishop Blaise was martyred in his episcopal city of Sebastea, Armenia, in 316. The legendary Acts of St. Blaise were written 400 years later. According to them Blaise was a good bishop, working hard to encourage the spiritual and physical health of his people. Although the Edict of Toleration (311), granting freedom of worship in the Roman Empire, was already five years old, persecution still raged in Armenia. Blaise was apparently forced to flee to the back country. There he lived as a hermit in solitude and prayer, but he made friends with the wild animals. One day a group of hunters seeking wild animals for the amphitheater stumbled upon Blaise’s cave. They were first surprised and then frightened. The bishop was kneeling in prayer surrounded by patiently waiting wolves, lions and bears.

The legend has it that as the hunters hauled Blaise off to prison, a mother came with her young son who had a fish bone lodged in his throat. At Blaise’s command the child was able to cough up the bone.

Agricolaus, governor of Cappadocia, tried to persuade Blaise to sacrifice to pagan idols. The first time Blaise refused, he was beaten. The next time he was suspended from a tree and his flesh torn with iron combs or rakes. Finally, he was beheaded.

With the celebration of Saint Blaise, we also bless throats with the candles blessed on the second.

I encourage everyone to bring different candles with them to church to be blessed at all the weekend masses next weekend. Following mass next weekend, I will also be blessing throats for anyone who wishes to receive this blessing.

As mentioned in last week’s bulletin, the Knights of Columbus will be sponsoring Bingo on Friday, March 17 for Saint Patrick’s Day. Food and non-alcoholic beverages will be available for purchase that night. While bingo is played, the parish will also be hosting a bake sale that same night. We are looking for any volunteers to help in the kitchen with food preparations as well as donations for the bake sale. Please contact the parish office at your earliest convenience to let us know if you can help with this.

I look forward to seeing you all at our Mardi Gras party on February 18. Please RSVP as soon as possible to the parish office.

With Mardi Gras in our view, that means Lent is right around the corner. In the coming weeks, we will have a schedule of events in our parish for Lent in the bulletin. I hope we all can take opportunity this Lent to grow in our prayer and discernment of the Lord’s will.

Pax et Bonum, Fr. Andy

Mardi Gras RSVP Form

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Around the Parish – Sunday, January 22, 2023

Written by on January 21, 2023. Posted in News, Around the Parish.

At the end of last weekend’s masses, I had announced that the gas company came to the rectory on Thursday, February 12 to inspect the supply, and subsequently shut off gas service on noon of that same day. For about the past month, strange occurrences were happening with the natural gas, most noticeable with the stove and oven. At the moment, natural gas supplies the furnace, the hot water tank, and the oven/stove. After discussing what was going on with a few professionals, we called the gas company to come out and inspect the problem. After the inspection, they noted that there was a decent leak between the meter and where it comes into the rectory. This caused the gas company to inform us that they were required to shut off service until the leak was repaired.

As soon as we were informed that the gas would be shut off, Maureen, Marge, and I called numerous companies hoping that someone could come and repair the line as soon as possible. Most companies informed us that they did not service gas lines, and the ones that did, said they could not do the work for 2-3 weeks. Luckily, Wilson Excavating was able to take on the task immediately. Their team came out on Thursday evening to inspect the project and formed a plan. The old gas supply line coming from the meter was buried under ground outside the back door of the rectory, and that is now against the new code. With that being said, the plan became to run the new supply line above ground next to the rectory from the meter and into the rectory next to the back door. Once inside, the supply line enters the basement and connects to the rest of the appliances in the house. The aesthetics of the project are not exactly the best, but with the limited amount of time, and the fact that we are in the winter months, the location of the new supply line is the best that we could do at the moment.

Once the new line was connected, the gas company came to inspect and turn on the service. Being that a new line was connected to the meter, the gas company considers the connection is a “new service,” and therefore requires the entire house to pass a 3lbs of pressure test. Not surprisingly, we failed. Almost all of the connections (the oven/stove being the only exception) were leaking during the pressure test. This required us to repair or replace (and in one situation, to remove) the bad sections of the piping.

In total, this very large and unexpected repair took almost 9 hours to repair on Friday, February 13. From shutoff at 12pm on Thursday to return of service at 4pm on Friday, we were without gas for a total of 16 hours. I am very grateful to Wilson Excavating for their fast response and excellent work. The total cost of the emergency repair is still not completely totaled up at the time of writing this column.

This action was one of the major indications something was wrong.

The apparent reason for the fluctuation of the gas is water in the supply line. Due to the leak in the gas supply line outdoors, water was seeping into the line causing a fluctuation in the supply of gas into the rectory. The only way to remove the water in the line immediately after the repair is to now push air through the lines. The other option is to allow the water to evaporate over time.

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