July
29, 2007
Sunday
in the Chapel
By
the numbers
Occasionally we take a count of people who come to church on the weekends.
The usual attendance at the 9am mass is between 150 and 200 people.
The usual attendance at the 10:15 mass is between 125 and 175 people.
Since the room holds around 600, we are used to filling less than a
third of its capacity, and that can have a negative effect on the quality
of our Sunday worship.
There’s a better sense of community when it feels like “everyone’s
there.”
Mass
Intentions
For the past year we have been taking only one mass intention for both
the 9am and 10:15 masses. This would make it easier to merge the masses
and honor both of those intentions. We’ll contact those involved
to notify them of any change that we decide upon.
Remembering
the Parish While Traveling
If you’re going to be away this summer, please remember to support
our parish during the summer months. Our bills don’t go away --
just some of our people! And be sure to invite any houseguests to mass
with you when you’re hosting visitors from out of town.
Online Masses
We are now able to stream masses and other events live over the internet
to homebound folks and to relatives who live in other lands. If you’re
interested in this, in this, click
here.
e-mail Father Ralph:
Past Columns:
July 15: Celebrating Kelly
July
8: I'm so not dead yet
July 1: Worse than Raccoons
June 24:Sommertime
June 17: Celebrating
Fr Cine
June 10: When Nature Turns
June 4:Celebrating Father
Jim
May 27: Praying in Tongues
May 20: Making (up) the
difference
May 13: Loving our Mothers
May 6: About Father George
April 29: Hearing Voices
April 22:Three Stones
April 15: What a week!
April 8: Alleluia! Alleluia!
April 1: Holy Week
March 25: Climate Change
March 18: Take A Step
March 11: Cold Enough for
You?
March 4:Stocking the Shelves
Feb 25: Basket Case
Feb18: Ashes and Desert
Dust
Feb11: Get Ready, Get Set,
REST!
Feb.4: Lent Lurking
Jan.28:Catholic Schools
Week
Jan.21:Crying in Church
Jan.14: Love ahead
Jan.7: So How
Was Your Christmas?
Columns
from 2005
Columns
from 2004
Columns from
2003
Columns from 2002
I
was trying to avoid the inevitable. Because we were blessed with so many
priests we were able to continue a weekend mass schedule that would weary
other parishes: 12 masses plus weddings and baptisms. But recent changes
in staffing are challenging us to look at the schedule. Father John is
now the temporary administrator of Our Lady of Fatima in Manorhaven --
an appointment that has been noted as “indefinite” for now.
We hope for his speedy return, but there’s no way to plan for when
he’ll return. For the past couple of years we’ve had a hospital
chaplain in residence (Fathers Anthony, Luke, and Raymond) and while they
had full time jobs at Nassau University Medical Center, they also helped
us on some Sundays. So far, we have not gotten a new priest in residence
to take their place.
Thus we are now “downsized”
by two priests. I hope this will be only temporary and I’m working
with the new priest personnel director in the Diocese to get our priests
back. But in the meantime, we are seeing the future -- less priests available
to parishes. (Hey, wouldn’t NOW be a good time to talk with your
sons and grandsons to see if they’d ever consider priesthood as
a vocation? Future priests are not hatched, you know. They come from families
-- either local ones or overseas.)
After many weeks of discussion
with our parish staff, we looked at whether there was a way to reduce
the mass schedule without unduly inconveniencing too many people and we
have noticed for several years that the 9am and 10:15 masses in the chapel
were less than half filled. During the summer we are used to dropping
the 10:15 and just keeping the 9am mass. So the proposal is to continue
on with this schedule in the fall. There was some discussion as to whether
we should just keep the 9am mass or whether we should move it a little
later (9:15?) to bring it a little closer to the 10:15 time.
What do you think? I especially
want to hear from those who regularly attend the 9 and the 10:15 and I’ll
be at the 9am Mass this Sunday to talk about this. Once I get some feedback
(email me here) , we’ll
want to work with all our faithful ministers (music, lectors, servers,
extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion, ushers, etc.) to arrange a
new schedule.
