From the Pastor: 07-21-2019

I have been hearing many positive comments about the Summer Mass Schedule and am thinking about making the changes permanent. (I need to get permission from the bishop about changing the Mass times.) I know there are some who liked the old schedule but let me argue a few reasons why a change, in the long run, will be for the better:

• Parking! Parking! Parking! Having an hour in between Masses has made all the difference when it comes to parking.
• Sometimes when Mass is longer than an hour (it really is difficult to keep Masses like Christmas, Palm Sunday, and Easter less than an hour…there are just more things to do on those days) or those days when the priest is, ahem, preaching “enthusiastically,” the little bit of extra time really makes coming and going from the parish a little easier
• It is very, very good to fill the church. The singing is better, the responses are better and there is the real feeling that we are a big and bustling parish…which we are!
• There is more time before Mass for quiet prayer and reflection.
• The priests at Saint Joan of Arc have taken on as a permanent assignment the Mass at Indiantown Gap every Sunday morning at 7:30 am. We have the same number of Masses each weekend so we are not getting a sleep-in!

These are just some of the reasons why keeping the Summer Mass Schedule makes sense. I am sure I will hear from you before a final decision is made! Thanks for listening and being open to this possible change! Father Al