“See, I am going to bring them back, among them those who are blind and those who are lame, for I have become a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.” Jer 31,8.9

“Jesus said to Bartimaeus, ‘Go; your faith has made you well’. Immediately the man regained his sight.” Mk 10,52

Dear parishioners,

We see in this Sunday’s readings, God promising love-driven healing for the lame and the blind, and in the gospel, we see Jesus delivering on the Father’s promise. More on this in Sunday’s homily.

For now, just a few things.

You will find at all the exits this Sunday a small card presenting Darwin Ramos, a Filipino youngster who was born into an impoverished family in Manila in 1994, who developed a muscular disease at an early age, and who begged in the streets to support his family. Taken in by the Tulay ng Kabatoan foundation, he was baptized in 2006, confirmed soon after, and lived a short life of profound holiness, dying just short of his 18th birthday. We wish to make him known because he is a child, because he is Filipino and because the postulator for his cause for beatification and canonization happens to be a Dominican who hopefully one day will be here in person to present Darwin to you. Please take a card as you leave. There is a website address on the card if you wish to have more information.

As I’m sure you’ve noticed, Steven Colon has mobilized an army of Knights of Columbus, ushers, and, I believe, a few others, to count the people in attendance at all our masses last weekend and this weekend. We need to thank Steven for his excellent coordination of this task, and we need to thank all those who collaborated in it. Thanks to you all. Last week’s total was 1971 people in attendance. That’s just under half of what our attendance was prior to the pandemic.  Let’s see what this weekend’s tally will be.

There will be a flu shot clinic here at St. Mary’s, in the church basement, on Tuesday, November 2nd, from 10:00 a.m. till 3:00 p.m. Pre-registration is required. The link to the pre-registration site is in the parish bulletin and on our parish website. Just look for “Wellness Pharmacy Flu Shot Clinic”.

Due to declining demand, there will be no more live streaming of the Saturday 9:00 a.m. mass effective next Saturday October 30th. We will continue to live stream the Sunday 11:15 and 3:00 p.m. masses indefinitely, for the sake of the people who can never come to mass.

Next Sunday will be the special collection which I announced last Sunday, and which will help cover the cost of our Columbus Plaza, which will be inaugurated on November 20th. You can take the envelopes that are in the pew home today, if you wish to make a contribution next week.

Every day, I check the seven-day average for daily new cases of Covid-19. For the past two weeks or so,  the trend has been  consistently downward, but it’s been trending upward over the last three days.  Let’s just stay the course of masks, distancing and vaccination,  and hope for the best.

God bless us all and keep us safe in the week to come.

Fr. Guy