Dear St. Raphael community,
As we approach the great feast of Pentecost in these difficult and uncertain times, let’s continue to do what I invited us all to do in my homily last weekend: reopen ourselves to the power of the Holy Spirit. To be quite honest, I’ve found myself struggling any number of times this week and have had to remember my own advice! Come, Holy Spirit…
A few items this week:
Reopen Update
Last week I indicated that, based on the good work of our Reopen Team of staff and volunteer professionals, our plan is to initially focus on celebrating Mass outdoors. We were hoping to begin celebrating outdoor Masses this weekend, on the feast of Pentecost. However, given the heavy amounts of rain forecast for this week, a bad weather outlook for this weekend, and the desire of our Reopen Team to plan and prepare as thoroughly as possible so that we can minimize transmission of the virus, we’ve decided to plan to celebrate our first outdoor Masses, weather permitting, next weekend, June 6-7, 2020. Stay tuned for more details and the schedule.
Personally, I really would have liked to hold our first outdoor Masses this weekend as part of celebrating Pentecost! Though I think waiting another week is the right decision, I’m disappointed. But, to paraphrase Fr. Adam from Palm Sunday: the Holy Spirit is not quarantined! We will have a beautiful livestream celebration of the Mass of Pentecost this Sunday, and God is ready to pour the power of the Holy Spirit into our lives and our hearts right where we live out so much of our lives as disciples: in our homes, our domestic churches.
As a way of joining together from wherever we are this Sunday morning, I invite you to get dressed up for Pentecost Mass - in red! They don’t have to be fancy clothes (my grandfather would have liked to hear that). But see if you and those you’re praying with for the livestream Mass can wear some red to match our liturgical color for Pentecost: for the Holy Spirit who sets our hearts on fire. And we may even be able to have some fun with our red attire in the “virtual atrium” after Mass (hint, hint).
Fr. Adam
A brief update on Fr. Adam. This weekend, May 30-31, was initially scheduled to be his final weekend working at St. Raphael before moving to his new mission working with the Jesuit vocations office. Due to complications with his moving because of the pandemic situation, we get to have Fr. Adam with us a little while longer! He’ll be here for a shorttime past this weekend, and when we’re sure when his adjusted final weekend will be, I’ll let you know.
Come, Holy Spirit… Come, Holy Spirit… Come, Holy Spirit…
St. Raphael the Healer... pray for us!
Fr. Phil Hurley, S.J.
Pastor