Today we come together to observe—whether near or far—and celebrate the Feast of the Most Holy Body and Blood of the Lord: also known, of course, as Corpus Christi.

     For us in our state and diocese, it is a time of transition from the protocols of the pandemic that we've been observing for over a year now. Truly it is a time when we at St. Edward’s want to say to all: “Welcome home.” We do that knowing there are parishioners who are not yet ready to come back, and there are others, sadly, who just don't plan to come back for reasons of their own. That is, maybe they've just gotten too comfortable with other Saturday and Sunday activities. And we need them back badly, too.

    So we're still in the process of trying to bring back as best we can, I guess you could say, the “old normal.” It's going to take some time, and so I ask you, be patient, even if we stumble along the way. We'll never be the parish we once were, but that doesn't mean we won't be an even better parish.

    This is where all of you come in. We're going to need—and this, of course, refers to the congregation at Mass—we're going to need altar servers, readers, and Eucharistic ministers to once again step up. Also those willing to take the Eucharist to the homebound. I'd say we've done pretty well up until now carrying on the worship and the life of our parish, but there is so much more to do.

     So please consider yourself—even if you've never performed any of these ministries, because they are really needed—that you step up. We'll be reaching out to all our veterans in these areas to ask you to resume your service of God's people at St. Edward’s. And so, I ask you from my heart to prayerfully consider how you can help when you are back, to help the Lord and your fellow parishioners. So the time is now.

     At home, please help us along the way with your prayers.

     

     And Bishop Brennan has asked that we read his letter addressed to all of us, and so I'm happy to do that now. So please take his words and mine to heart as we strive to be an even better parish than ever we were.