Father’s Column – December 9, 2018

Posted on December 9, 2018 View all news

Laudetur Jesus Christus! Gelobt sei Jesus Christus!
Sia lodato Gesù Cristo! Praised be Jesus Christ! 

There are two important Advent events coming up this week that I want to invite you all to attend. In fact, I am strongly encouraging you to attend. The first is this Wednesday, with the Musical Oratory of Advent at 7:00 p.m. at Old St. Mary’s. This is an excellent opportunity for all parishioners, regardless of the Mass you attend, to come and prepare together for Christmas. The evening is a reflection on the prophecies found in Sacred Scripture regarding the coming of Christ in time, mixed with hymns, choral pieces, and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. Everyone is welcome to join us!

The second is our annual Rorate Mass on Saturday at 6:45 a.m. This is a Solemn Traditional Latin Mass. This is a Mass held entirely by candlelight. This Mass is a Votive Mass of the Blessed Virgin Mary during Advent. It serves as a joyful reminder to us, during our Advent preparations, of what it is that we have hope in. Namely, the coming of Christ in time for our salvation. This is a German custom and has been called the Golden Mass, as the usual trappings of Advent are removed, and for a brief moment, the joy and fullness of the Liturgy re-appear. Everyone is again welcome and encouraged to attend! We usually have close to 200 people for this early morning Mass, so please plan ahead!

There are a few items to update the parishioners of Sacred Heart on. The first is that our steeple repair went better than expected and is now complete. The bad news is that the roof on the school building needs to be replaced. It does not appear that this job was done correctly the last time that it was replaced, and a so a total replacement will need to be done in the very near future. We have also had several other issues, minor and major come up. Our heating and cooling system in the Church still does not function as it should. The plumbing in both the rectory and the school has also been acting up. It was also brought to my attention that the floors in Church may not be completely stable, and a structural engineer will be out soon to ingestive this. We have also had some gas leaks lately. If you ever smell gas, please let us know right away as Duke Energy has to be called immediately to turn off the gas. Explosions can happen very easily under these circumstances. A gas leak would be considered an emergency situation. 

As you can see, there are a lot of maintenance issues that need to be dealt with. Over the coming weeks and months, I will be developing a plan on how we will tackle and handle these issues. I may be calling on a few of you to assist and advise me regarding these issues, as fixing these will require hundreds of thousands of dollars or more. I believe keeping up this Church is important, and I hope you do too!

Please keep these issues in your thoughts and prayers so that we can continue to keep up on the maintenance that our old buildings, in both parishes, require. Just a quick note, next Sunday’s bulletin will have several financial reports for the past several weeks. The holidays bring earlier bulletin deadlines, but we will update you next week! Have a blessed week ahead!