Fr. Daniel's Letter to the Parishioners
Dear Parishioners,
The Feast of St. Blaise is February 3rd, which is on Wednesday. It has been a tradition that we bless throats on the weekend before St. Blaise so that people may take advantage of the graces from the saint. However, like everything else, it has to be different this year. The priest will say the blessing over all the people at the end of Mass and then anyone who wanted to be blessed with the candles can come forward, keeping social distancing with masks on and without making any contact, to receive an individual blessing gesture. It is our attempt to make things as close to normal as possible while respecting the requirements.
It has been wonderful to see more people at Mass each week. I think that the narrative that was promoted that claimed that Mass is dangerous is not true. We take all the precautions required of us including marking off pews, wearing masks at all times, and maintaining social distancing. In all our time doing this, there has not been one outbreak attributed to any of our Catholic Churches in Maine, and yet, I was talking to a couple who said they were fearful of being at Mass at this time. The strange thing is that later in the conversation, they invited me to dinner at a restaurant with them. Needless to say, it was hard for me to reconcile the reasoning that it was not OK to go to Church for one hour in marked off pews but it IS OK to go for 3 hours at a restaurant. Sorry for my little digression. I brought up the increase of the number of people at Mass as a way to ask that maybe some people could take turns being in the Church and in the overflow section. I realize it is hard to go to Mass in a separate place only to watch it on a screen, but it would be nice if some people chose in holy sacrifice to go into the overflow every other week or once a month to give other people a chance to be in the main church. It is a sacrifice but it is also an act of charity allowing others who cannot always get to church as early as some to sometimes be in the Church to keep their connection to the faith. I have no plans to require people to take turns, but instead appeal to the goodness in the heart to think that maybe once a month people could opt freely to take the least desirable place in order that others could get a chance to be in the church. I think Jesus told a parable once about taking the lowest seat. Maybe God might smile down upon you through the whole Mass.
Just a thought. ---Fr Daniel
