St. Patrick Church and School

Good news continues to come in with regard to the decline in Covid cases and the on-going expansion of the availability of vaccine shots. In light of the good news, the diocese recently encouraged each parish to develop a plan for the reintegration of liturgical practices that were suspended or altered due to the pandemic. In consultation with the parish council and with medical people in our parish, we developed the following plan. As always in regard to the pandemic, the timeline can be altered in response to actual conditions occurring.

1. The Holy Water has been opened for use at your discre-tion as you enter and exit the church.

2. The full complement of servers and ministers at the altar will be reinstated immediately.

3. The regular confessionals were opened back up on Satur-day, March 13th. Please note, our regular confessionals have a high positive air pressure, which means that the air in the confessional is constantly being pulled out and fresh air brought in at a rapid rate.

4. The Hymnal/Missalettes will be returned to the pews on March 27th/28th. We ask that any hymn books or mis-salettes that you may have at home be brought back to church and left at church the weekend of March 20th/21st.

5. On March 27th/28th we will be reducing the number of pews that are blocked off. The LEFT two sections will still have every other pew blocked off for those who may still desire to continue that seating arrangement, the RIGHT two sections will be completely opened up with no pews being blocked off, keeping in mind that we still strongly recommend following CDC guidelines in re-gard to mask wearing. As a parish family, we want all people to feel safe and welcome no matter what their comfort level is, we are all children of God beloved by the Father.

6. On April 3rd/4th the Ushers will begin again to take up the regular collection. The children’s collection at the 8:30 and 10 am mass will still be suspended for the near fu-ture.

7. Spraying the pews and wiping them down with towels between masses will be suspended on April 3rd/4th, pro-vided conditions continue to improve.

8. The Sign of Peace will be reinstituted on April 3rd/4th for family members only, or a head bow to your neighbor.

9. While our parish livestreaming of the Sunday 8:30 a.m. Mass has been a wonderful and important aspect of our response to the pandemic and has allowed people who needed to remain home for medical safety reasons to re-main connected to the parish, the widespread availability and roll out of the vaccine is making this feature of our Sunday experience no longer necessary. As a result, the FINAL livestreamed 8:30 a.m. Mass will be on Sunday, May 23 – Pentecost Sunday. After May 23, we will not be livestreaming the Mass anymore.

10. Communion can be received on the tongue if you so desire beginning the weekend of June 26/27.

While it can be a divisive subject for some, we still encourage and recommend mask wearing as suggested by the CDC. I look for-ward to continuing to grow together as a parish community and to slowly reintegrating the various liturgical practices that we sus-pended or altered due to the pandemic. God is and always will hold us in the palm of His hand and guide us even in difficult times.

- Fr. Troy Schweiger