Dear Beloved Parishioners,
So, a few quick, but important items for this mid-week missive..
The Consecration of Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary will be held here at St. Justin at 1:30 this coming Friday, in church. All are welcome to join our upper block children as we pray the act of consecration here at SJM. If you are unable to attend at that time, you may, in your own household, pray the prayer of Consecration, presumably after a decade of the Rosary (the First Joyful Mystery). That prayer is only to be prayed at the same time or after the Pope done the formal act of consecration in Rome, now estimated to be at 12:30pm St. Louis time.
I will send out a quick missive on Friday at 12:30 with the prayer of Consecration and a quick outline of a prayer service that could be used at home. With that will also be some coloring pages and a bit of information about one of the Holy Icons of Mary revered in Ukraine from the Holy Heroes website… (Perhaps you remember the Holy Heroes website from when we were sending out song sheets for the Sunday online Masses so you could sing at home.)
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With the declining number of Corona Virus cases, and the good news of school cases not having been adversely affected by our Mask-Optional policy, we are going to move to Mask Optional for our All School Masses in addition to our current Mask Optional policy for our Tuesday and Wednesday levels Masses. Obviously, if the Omicron sub-variant induces a surge in the United States/St. Louis, as has been seen in Britain and Japan and other countries, we will re-evaluate and decide accordingly.
The Eucharistic Ministers will continue to wear masks during the distribution of communion for the sake of those who are immuno-compromised.
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Picnic table assembly…
So, the hardware showed up to assemble the picnic tables. If you have some free time on Saturday morning, say around 10:00, please meet me at the gym. The nuts and bolts are all the same size, so a standard ½ in socket and wrench would serve well in the assembly of the tables…
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And a reminder about the Lenten Penance Service on Monday Night, March 28th. We will begin at 6:30pm with a short prayer/reflection time, and then hear confessions until we are done. As in previous years, there will be 5 other priests besides Fr. Johnson and myself. It is a great time to avail yourself to this sacrament of grace…
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Finally, the song of the day, though about a week late, still honors one of the beloved Saints in our Christian heritage – St. Patrick’s Breastplate sung by Sarah Hart.
blessings,
fr bill