Onward!
As we continue to move forward with Beacons of Light, I want to emphasize that we must think as members
of the Body of Christ first and foremost over being parishioners of Holy Angels, St. Michael, Ss. Peter & Paul, or Sacred Heart. Instead, we are now collaborators in making our Family of Parishes not just work, but thrive and grow. Decisions are made with the good of all in mind. If we keep in mind that we are not opposed, but instead we are in this together and we work together, the Beacons process will not seem like a long-drawn-out stalemate. This doesn’t mean we are always going to agree, but we can at least decide to try to do the best we have with what we have, which is a lot for us here in NW-7. The Lord has laid a good foundation for our Family to bring salvation to Shelby County and to show others that Jesus in the Eucharist is the center of our lives and families. Only the Eucharist will give our hearts rest and peace.
The Family of Parishes model is presenting difficulty when it comes to scheduling and administration. Scheduling funerals, weddings, and other events between four parishes and four priests is going to be a real chore and challenge. We will be hiring someone to help myself in working out a reasonable way to make this whole thing work.
As you may have noticed from last week with the Mass schedule, we will not be able to have Confessions anymore during Mass. This is because of the priest being at different sites on Sunday morning, preventing the priest from being available for Confessions during Sunday Mass. We at Holy Angels will have Confessions from 8:30-9:00 a.m. on Sunday morning, plus the other three hours a week we have available to receive the gift of mercy in Confession. We will end the practice of hearing Confessions during Mass the first weekend of June, June 4-5. We are doing this early to lessen the amount of modification we will experience as a parish on July 1 and give Fr. Aaron and I some easier Sundays before we get started in earnest with Beacons of Light on July 1. We will begin hearing Confessions from 8:30-9:00 a.m. at Holy Angels on Sunday morning, June 5. This is an opportunity for us to get intentional and make sure that we now put going to Confession on the schedule and not just make it an instance of convenience. Thank you to all our parish staffs who have been wonderful to work with and have been very forward looking. This gives me a lot of hope for how well our Family of Parishes can work together.
Peace in Christ,
Fr. Jarred Kohn