The Gospel on this Sunday, the Fifteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, is the parable of the sower. As you may recall, Jesus tells the story of seed that falls either on a path, rocky ground, a thorn patch, or rich soil. The seed represents our faith in Jesus Christ. Which seed landing spot are you? Have you kept up your daily prayer, stayed true to the Sacraments, and returned to St. Mary's to participate in Sunday Mass if you are able? If there have been missteps along the way during the quarantine, that's ok. The Father's love is ready to redeem us in His mercy in the Sacrament of Confession. How about a setting a goal this week to change one thing in your spiritual prayer life. A few examples are committing to praying the rosary each day, read a spiritual book for 15 minutes a day. (a real one with pages or an e book), instead of watching TV, or checking your email, read the daily Mass readings instead. They can be found HERE. Go for it!
Mass Update-After three weekends of public Sunday Masses and three weeks of public Daily Masses, we are grateful to the parishioners, volunteers, and staff who have helped make our liturgies safe and smooth. We continue to worship safely by wearing face masks at all times, practicing social distancing, and keeping Masses brief. The pews and common surface areas are cleaned after every Mass, and the Main Church receives a supplemental professional deep-cleaning service every week. We also acknowledge parishioners have made the prudent decision to stay home out of charity for others, especially those at risk for COVID-19.
At this time, there are no known incidents of someone attending Mass at St. Mary's and then either showing symptoms or testing positive for COVID-19. If in the event you or anyone in your family attend Mass and later present symptoms, please promptly contact the Parish Office so that we may respond appropriately. Thank you for your cooperation and your loving concern for all parishioners.
The weekly bulletin continues to be online only. It can be found HERE.
Confessions will be offered on Saturday, July 11, 1pm, (two priests) and Wednesday, July 15, 5 pm. (one priest).
Parish Online Retreat with Seminarian Vincent, Thursday July 16, 7 pm: All are invited to join us on the Feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel as our summer seminarian, Vincent Vu, leads us in discussion, reflection, and prayer centered on Mary, our parish's patroness and our greatest intercessor. The retreat can be joined by Zoom at this link, https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87439646825, with the password, 20852.
St. Mary's School Summer Camps- Summer feels like it's passing by quickly, but we still have a few camps open for registration. These camps are open to elementary school aged children. - Art (week of 7/13), HSPT Language Arts (week of 7/27) and HSPT Math (week of 8/3). Register online at: https://one.bidpal.net/summercamp2020
CCD Parent Survey- We are currently planning CCD classes for the upcoming year with policies to limit risk to COVID-19 and need your feedback. If you will have a student in our religious education classes from K-High School this upcoming school year, please fill out this survey, https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Q5W66MS, to help us structure our CCD program to best match our St. Mary's families' needs!
The Mother Teresa Vocation Society is a prayer apostolate that asks for your commitment to pray daily for an increase in the response to God’s call and for the perseverance of priests, deacons and those in consecrated life. There are no dues or meetings. The Society offers Days of Reflections throughout the Archdiocese, Holy Hours for Vocations, and Holy Hours in anticipation of the ordinations to the diaconate and priesthood. The only commitment is a simple offering of daily prayer. Please consider registering HERE to become a member of the Mother Teresa Vocation Society.