Happy Independence Day! I hope everyone enjoyed last night’s fireworks. Today, I will be leaving after the 8:30 Drive-In Mass to head down to San Alfonso Retreat House in Long Branch, NJ for Seton Hall Clergy Continuing Education Study Week. I arrive this evening and will be in class Monday through Friday. I return on Friday and will be staying over in Arlington Friday night and back in the parish early Saturday morning. Please keep me in your prayers for a quick and safe commute back and forth. I will bring your prayer intentions with me, along with my Frisbee, sandals and swim suit. What a great way to spend this week!
We have cancelled tonight’s Sunday 7:00pm Mass and will resume it next week. Enjoy the time with your families.
You may have noticed that we have a senior priest who’s been helping me out by filling in for me on retreats and vacations. Father Richard Curran is a semi-retired priest who lives in a family home in Plymouth. I met him at Jim Murphy’s mom’s funeral at St. Joseph Church in Somerville. He’s energetic and is remarkably well versed in the sciences and he’s presently writing a book on the intersection of science and religion. He will be celebrating this morning at 10:00am and 11:30am Mass, he’ll also celebrate the 5:00pm daily Mass on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. I want to thank him for providing this coverage. He is a great homilist and such a good friend! Please make him feel like a member of our family.
I hope everyone likes the new paint scheme on the front of the church entrance. This week we will have Arch Painters come in and undertake scraping the woodwork and then painting all the trim work. While that is being done this week, the electricians will be on the premises installing the sconces and ceiling light fixtures. We have completed the repositioning of the service coming into the building and bringing the system up to code.
I did get word that the company that is fabricating the four church doors have had delays due to supply chain problems with lumber. It looks like the doors will be delayed until September. Frankly, I am not upset or concerned, it is better to have them fabricate the jobs with care rather than rushing them. I do feel bad for our summer residents that you will not see the completed work, but we will put updates on our Facebook page and when the job is complete we will feature a picture of the entire façade of the Church on our website.
This week I purchased a slightly-used copy machine for the parish offices. No sooner did I sign the purchase agreement, than the old copier started to break down – God is good all the time! We purchased the machine from a different supplier and the service on the machine promises to be more timely and effective.
In a few weeks we’ll have the TURKEY SANDWICH FUNDRAISER – guarantee your sandwich(es) by preordering. I want to thank those who organize and run this event.
Happy Independence Day!
Father Carmichael
