Last weekend we shared a bulletin insert with upcoming changes in our weekly schedule. The most significant changes to our weekend Mass schedule are: Saturday Evening Mass will now be at 4:30pm; Sunday morning Mass at Saint Francis will now be at 11am. Both changes take effect September 9th, so please help spread the word! We will also be shuffling our rotation for daily Masses to account for the adoration schedule beginning at Saint Wendelin on September 11th, but every parish will still have a daily Mass every week. To keep everyone informed, I want to share some of the rationale behind the changes.
Parishioners indicated that some of our current offerings are not working; the current trends in Mass attendance indicate that the times before 9am are the least well-attended, and the results of the DMI survey showed the same: most parishioners would prefer to attend Mass at 9am or later. This is one reason to implement the above schedule, as it makes provision for the times that the large majority of parishioners want to attend Mass, with an option earlier than 9am for those who hold that preference. Given that we can only have four Masses on a Sunday morning, we need a schedule that tends towards the most equitable distribution of parishioners, in anticipation of growing our attendance in the coming years. Sometimes parishioners may need to attend an earlier Mass, and for those times parishioners will have to look to our neighbors who have the manpower to offer those less “prime” Mass times, but it is my hope that this serves everyone’s needs as much as possible, as this schedule seems most optimal for most people in our cluster most of the time. Additionally, this schedule requires the least change across the board, and that is a high value at this point; in deciding to go with this schedule, we would only be adjusting based on where we currently see issues and focusing on correcting those specific issues, rather than unsettling everything else that is working well. This schedule also allows Fr. Jacquemin and I to offer confessions for nearly two hours on Sunday morning. With both priests beginning later in the morning, we can hear confessions at a time that is convenient for parishioners, thus encouraging use of that important sacrament. A note about confessions: our flyer had a typo, and as a correction there will not be scheduled confessions following 8am Mass on Saturday mornings. With our new schedule, we will be offering nearly 8 hours of confession time in the cluster, so please take advantage of this great sacrament!
I hope this schedule will be good for the long haul and allow us to build up the parish with more catechetical offerings, group studies, and times for prayer. Please continue to pray for our parish during this time of pruning – we know if we allow the Lord to prune, we can look forward to a future of growth and fruitfulness. Lastly, this week our two seminarians returned to seminary for their next year of studies, and for Deacon Adam it is his final year. Please see their farewell messages below, and continue to pray for them as they carry on along the path of their vocation. May God bless you in the week ahead and may Mother Mary lead you more deeply into the Sacred and Merciful Heart of Jesus. I remain,
Affectionately Yours in Christ,
Fr. Hess
