My Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

May the Lord give you His peace! I pray that you are healthy and resting in the peace of Christ. Be sure that daily I lift you up in prayer to our Lord and His Blessed Mother.
I want to express my deepest gratitude to you for the great care and concern that you are showing to our elderly and at-risk parishioners, neighbors and family members. Part of that care and concern has been making the great sacrifice of NOT attending Sunday Mass. The last thing we want to do is to make the Church a place where we pass on the Coronavirus.

How sad it is that this will be an Easter without being able to attend the Sacred Triduum and the beautiful Easter liturgies. Lent is a time of hope, a time of looking forward to the hope of the resurrection of Christ from the dead. This lent our hope of returning to Church and the regular practice of Sunday Mass is going to have to wait. We are now being asked by our Lord to hope beyond the day of Easter to the Easter season. Whatever day it is that the Lord should so choose that we return to Church, it will be a day of rejoicing and celebration. Let’s get ready to party!

As we suffer through this crisis I am constantly turning back to the word “Hope”. Too often we confuse hope with wish. To wish for something and to hope for something are two completely different things. Wish is a desire that something may or may not happen which is left mostly to chance. Hope on the other hand, is one of the three theological virtues given to us at baptism (the other two being Faith and Love). Hope is the certainty that God’s promises to us, all that He said about Himself and His love for us is true! It is trusting in those truths.

We hope in God’s care for us. Jesus will see us through this time of trial. We have only to cling to His love and surrender to His care for us. Jesus told that He would be with us until the end of time. He told us not to worry because the Father; His Father/Our Father, knows our needs before we ask and that every hair on our heads is counted. No matter what comes our way, no matter what suffering we must endure during this pandemic we know, for certain, that God is in control. Do not be afraid, The Father Himself loves you.
During this time of dispensation from attending Sunday Mass and Holy Days of obligation there are some things that would be good to do as a family in order to keep up with developing our faith. Thanks be to God we have television and internet. It would be very spiritually efficacious to gather as a family and watch the Holy Sunday Mass together as a family at home (you can even watch daily Mass if you so choose). You can watch the mass, then, at the time of Holy Communion say this prayer together;

My Jesus, 
I believe that You
are present in the Most Holy Sacrament. 
I love You above all things, 
and I desire to receive You into my soul. 
Since I cannot at this moment
receive You sacramentally, 
come at least spiritually into my heart.
I embrace You as if You were already there and unite myself wholly to You.
Never permit me to be separated from You.
Amen.

 
Forgive me for forgetting which saint, but one of them saw a large and beautiful bouquet of white and red roses in the Sacred Hands of the Lord. When asked by the saint why there were two different color roses our Lord said; The red ones are for each time you received Holy Communion. The white ones are for all the times you made a spiritual communion. So, since we can’t give Jesus red roses, let’s give Him some pretty white ones by praying the above prayer.

Another great prayer you can say together daily as a family is the Most Holy Rosary. Venerable Father Peyton used to say; The family that prays together stays together. He always recommended praying the family Rosary. It should only take about 15 minutes. If you have forgotten how to pray it, once again the blessings of the internet, it’s easy to find online. If you need Rosaries you can stop into the Saint James Church Hall (open from 6am till 6pm daily) and you will immediately see a blue board with Rosaries hanging up. They have been sterilized. Feel free to take as many as you need (without touching others) and keep them and pray with them. I once saw a cute T-shirt that read: Pray the Rosary. Your Mother hasn’t heard from you in decades!

As horrible and as tragic as this Coronavirus is, maybe we can look for some ray of sunshine that we can take from this pandemic. Being forced to stay home; no school, no activities, no parties are all things that have made life very difficult. On the other side of the coin; how often have we complained that life was getting so busy? How many times did we wish that life could just slow down? Haven’t we all felt that a break would be nice? Just time to catch up on chores or spend time with our families with no activities to interrupt? It seems that we have been blessed with a unique opportunity to do just that, to spend time together as a family. Maybe this is a good chance to assess just how busy our lives have become? A time to re-evaluate our priorities. Maybe it is a time to re-arrange our lives so that family comes first? Dinner as a family, time to talk, prayer together and just have plain ole fun?

I know that the internet is a welcomed gift. But I must wonder if X-box, YouTube, and other internet activities are keeping us from each other, even during this lock down? How true it is that we can all be at home and yet be so distant from each other. I have been pondering if this were not an excellent time to learn to just “be”. The spiritual writers call this: Holy Leisure. Maybe God has given us a window of opportunity to learn how to just be together again, form deeper bonds with those of our own household and to rediscover the wonder of the people we call family and friends? Just some of my musings while I sit here at the rectory and watch the workmen repair the Church and rectory.

A little bit of business:
Palm Sunday: This Sunday I will be standing on the back porch handing out blessed palms, from noon until 1 PM. Following the diocesan directives, I will be wearing gloves and handing the palms to you through your car window. Just pull up behind the rectory and I will hand you palms and a bulletin. I’ll even give you a blessing. Please stay in your car and keep the required distance.

Stations of the Cross: On Good Friday I will be putting out fourteen 3-foot crosses along the sidewalk of our Church property. Starting from the front of the Parish Hall and ending at the Church you will be able to walk the stations by simply walking down the street and stopping at each station. If you choose to make the stations, please keep six feet between you and anyone else who may be walking the stations.

Drive up Confessions: On Good Friday I will be again on the back porch from 1-2pm and again from 6-7pm. Please be alone in the car, pull up to the back porch, roll down the window and begin your confession. Please do not get out of your car. I will have to stay the appropriate distance from your car, so you’ll have to confess in a stage whisper. I will make sure that the area is clear and free, so no one hears your sins. If you see a car ahead of you, please wait at the bottom of the driveway with your window up. This way we can secure the confidentiality of each confession.

The Church: Due to the virus we had a little bit of a slow down and so the Church is being worked on just at a slower pace. It should be done by the Sunday after Easter. New floor is done, statues are being moved and the organ has returned to the loft. The pews will be coming in next week and the tabernacle is presently making its way back to the center of the sanctuary. It is looking great!

Religious Education: This is a bit tricky because we have four children preparing for First Holy Communion on May 17th. We are going to keep a close eye on the time schedule and perhaps find other means to prepare the children to receive their First Holy Communion as soon as they can. All other students please try to keep up on any religion studies during this time. You can check in with Carole LeBlanc about any religious education questions.

Homebound Food Needs: If you are homebound either because of age, illness or quarantine and need food please contact Saint James food pantry and we will arrange for delivery to your home.

The Rectory: The kitchen floor will be finished by this afternoon and the new kitchen cabinets should be in by Monday. The dining room floor has been sanded and refinished and looking great. The first-floor bathroom, the origin of the flood, should be finished by next Tuesday. Good thing the insurance is covering all this work.
Gas: Some people saw the gas truck outside the rectory and thought we may have had a gas leak. No worries, there was no leak. Eversource was changing the gas line because the previous line was too old.

Website: During this pandemic we have had a good amount of time to work on the parish website. From the website you can watch daily Mass recorded by our diocese. There is great information about lots of things as well as the latest bulletin. I have taken a lot of pictures of the progress in the Church and rectory for you to see. It’s all there on the website.

Finance: Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! The great people of Saint James Parish are living up to their reputation as good stewards of their parish. People have been dropping off their envelopes at the side door mail slot of the rectory or mailing them in. Although our weekly collection is down, we are doing ok. I know and deeply understand that these days are becoming financially difficult, but we still need your financial support so that we can continue to serve the wonderful people of South Grafton. Sandy Caldwell and Celeste have worked very hard to create the NEW ONLINE GIVING page on our parish website https://stjamesgrafton.com/. Now, protecting your security, you can donate directly to Saint James Parish Online. Just go to the parish website and click on the Online Giving button and then follow the steps. You can give once, weekly, or monthly. If you donate online, you will have no more need to use envelopes. As you manage your personal finances in order to weather this present crisis of our time, please pray over what you can do to continue to help support and build up our Saint James family. Every little bit helps. Be sure that I have been finding ways to cut costs and be more fiscally responsible with your money. This is your parish and it is my obligation to be a good steward of your gift. Thank you!

Live Stream and Homilies: I am trying to learn how to do live stream. You’ll have to be patient with me, I am not a tech guy (that was the comedy of having been assigned as chaplain to WPI). For now, I am posting, as best I can, my daily homilies on my YouTube Page and then they are being uploaded onto our parish website. If you need some snooze time you can watch my homilies on our parish website. Or, if you want, you go to YouTube and type my name, Fr David Mary Engo into the search bar you’ll come to my YouTube channel. You can see all my latest homilies there and some older stuff. If you subscribe, it will alert you every time I post a new video.

Once again, you are all appreciated and prayed for. If you need anything, please do not hesitate to call. Jesus always said; Do not be afraid. Let’s live each day knowing how much we are loved by our good and gracious God…onto death, death on a cross!

May God bless you and may Mary keep you!
Fr David Mary