St. Edward Parish

To all the members of my parish families of

St. Edward the Confessor  and St. Martin of Tours~

Greetings to all of you we have good news!

              We will be returning to the public celebration of Mass at our parishes at St. Martin and St. Edward the Confessor beginning this Saturday, May 30 with the vigil Mass for Pentecost. That’s 4:00p at St. Edwards and 5:30p at St. Martins. The dispensation from Sunday obligation to attend Mass is extended through September 6, 2020.
               With the return of the public celebration of the Masses I would encourage all of you to be both patient and charitable. There are certain restrictions and protocols that we have to follow that allow us to be able to have public celebration and it will be a little bit different for a while so please be patient and kind.
               Our daily Mass schedule will resume the Tuesday after Pentecost and will follow the normal Mass schedule that we had prior to the pandemic. We will also continue to Live-Stream a Mass every Sunday for the foreseeable future. This Sunday Live-Streaming will be at St. Martin’s at 8:00a and the following week at 9:30 at St. Edward and will be going back and forth each week.
               When you come to Mass at St. Edward there is only one main entrance and all of us will be using that one.  At St. Martin’s we‘ll only be using the West entrance located by the parish office.  All of the other doors to the church will be locked.
               When you come to Mass, we are asking you to please wear a mask. At St. Martin’s and St. Edward’s masks are available for the first two weeks if you don’t have one. If you take one of those masks please keep it with you and use it when you come back to Mass. These masks are yours to keep we don’t want them back and they are essential for you being at Mass.
               There is a limited capacity at both parishes. At St. Martin’s the number of people we’re allowed to have at a single Mass is 225. At St. Edward’s it’s 65 in the upper church with overflow in the lower level of the church.
               We would encourage you when you come to Mass to follow the directions of the Ushers at all times and they will be available to help answer questions and they will direct you and dismiss you for Communion. At the end of Mass for the dismissal please wait for the ushers to dismiss you by row. This is part of our safe distancing. Please do not gather in the church or the narthex after Mass to visit as I know we have missed each other a lot. You may visit outside of the church. 
               Our bathroom policy is no more than one person or one adult and a child in the bathroom at a time we are asking that you please monitor yourself.
               In regard to receiving Holy Communion, I would strongly encourage everyone to receive in the hand. For those of you who desire to receive on the tongue you may do so, but that will require some logistics on my part. If a person receives on the tongue I will need to dip my fingers into a lavabo dish to remove any particles of the host, use hand sanitizer and distribute to the next person.  In charity if you’re willing I would like to ask everyone to receive in the hand at this time.
                I have to thank both parishes.  You have all been so very generous during this pandemic in your support of your parish family. At the Masses there will be a basket at the entrance of the church that will be there when you come in. It will be removed during Mass and returned after Mass if you want to bring your contribution and do it that way. However, at this time I would encourage you to continue to mail in your contributions or use on-line giving if that suits your purposes. Again God Bless you for your kind support of your parish families.
                Please sit in those pews that are open. White ribbons are blocking those pews that are not to be occupied. This is for social distancing and very important. When you come for Holy Communion I would like to remind you that you should keep 6ft between and other persons that are not part of your family group.
                I am delighted that we are going to be finally celebrating Mass together in this way and I look forward to seeing you. Keep us in prayer that we have all of our things in order that we can make this celebration of Mass as reverent and as wonderful and as holy as we can be and at the same time keeping it as safe as we possibly can.

In the grace and peace of our risen and ascended Lord,

Rev. Msgr. Thomas A. Martin
 

Bishop Bradley has announced the decision to resume the public celebration of the Holy Mass beginning on May 27, 2020 with daily Mass and in anticipation of the Feast of Pentecost on May 31, 2020. Parishes will need to be ready in order to re-open by following the diocesan "Preparation Plan." Guidelines for the Faithful will be released in the coming days

https://www.diokzoo.org/news/diocese-readies-to-resume-public-worship-beginning-may-27-2020

Click to give a gift to your parish at diokzoo.org/parish-fund. 

 

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