It was also First Communion today, so when I decided to preach, I walked down into the nave and preached there. So you can’t see me on camera…and I’m not sure how well you can hear me. It should be ok, but I guess we’ll see.

Alleluia! Christ is Risen!

With regret that we couldn’t livestream the Easter Vigil – which was awesome – I present to you a very tired pastor celebrating the 9:00 AM Easter Sunday Mass.

I’ve used this homily before on Holy Thursday, but it evolves each time. (And I think it gets longer. I didn’t realize quite how long it was until I came here to post it.) Anyway, enjoy! We will not be streaming our Good Friday liturgy nor our Easter Vigil – it’s just not feasible given our limited technology. Easter Sunday, however, will be on.

Here’s the video of our 11 AM Palm Sunday Mass. It starts with the Solemn Procession, so you’ll hear us long before you see us. We started in the vestibule before moving in. The homily is pretty short, because we just had the long passion narrative, but there’s something to think about there.

Unfortunately, the Festival of Praise that I was supposed to speak at later this evening at Saints Martha & Mary Parish has been canceled. I don’t think it was going to be live-streamed anyway, but I was still looking forward to doing it. Maybe some time in the future.

I’m most of the way back! As some of you know, I’ve had some pretty serious computer troubles for the last couple weeks. Tried replacing the power supply unit, but no luck; turns out the motherboard was fried. So I had to bite the bullet and buy a whole new system, which I am gradually getting set up. (Say a prayer that I can salvage some of the files from the old hard drive.)

Didn’t want to leave you all hanging, though, so I thought I’d catch you up on the last two weeks. First, the 4th Sunday of Lent brought us the much-loved parable of the Prodigal Son. (I think I did well with this one, in all humility.)

And this week, the fifth Sunday of Lent, bring us the semi-uncomfortable story of the woman caught in adultery. Unfortunately, this version is probably the worst version of this homily from this weekend. I nailed it on Saturday night, which is odd: Saturday is normally the warm-up act; and I did reasonably well at the late Mass. But we’ll see what you think.

Should have shamelessly self-promoted these earlier, but better late than never.

Tonight I am preaching at St. John Neumann in Franklin Park as part of their Lenten mission. Mass is at 7. I have no idea if it will be live streamed or not. If it is, I’ll try to get the video put up on here later; if not, I might potentially put the text of my remarks up, but I wouldn’t count on it.

Also, on Palm Sunday, I’ll be preaching at a Holy Hour at St Richard Church in Richland Township. I think that’s also at 7, but I’ll have to double check. Fairly certain that won’t be live streamed, but could be wrong on that, too.

And sorry for the lack of any posts lately. I’m having major computer troubles. The motherboard on my home PC is fried, and that’s – of course – the computer I do most of this kind of work on. I’ll hopefully be ordering a new one soon, but for now, it is what it is.

Not my best work here. Shoulda spent a little more time on it, but didn’t have time to spend on it…

Wherein I compare myself to Jeremy Irons and then ask people for money. Fun times!

Readers from St. Richard will remember that my weekly email to the parish was called the Conway Communique, and came out (eventually) every Friday morning. It had a little meditation in it and then just a quick rundown of what was happening that weekend.

I wasn’t able to keep that going once I left, but now that I’m in charge again, it’s back…on a new day…with a generic name. (For now. I might fix one or both of those.)

Anyway, I reckon I might as well get back into posting them to the blog as well, so here we go…

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“Eighty and six years have I served Him, and He never did me any injury: how then can I blaspheme my King and my Savior? … Hear me declare with boldness, I am a Christian.”

With these words and other similar sentiments, Saint Polycarp, whom the Church commemorates today, went to his martyrdom in the year 155 AD. Yet as compelling as the account of his martyrdom is (and it’s a powerful story), it’s not what he’s most famous for.  The fact that he was a disciple of and ordained to the priesthood by the Apostle John is also an intriguing piece of his story, but even that isn’t important.  What really matters is what Polycarp taught – and still teaches. As he wrote in his Letter to the Philippians: “Stand fast, therefore, in these things [the virtues], and follow the example of the Lord, being firm and unchangeable in the faith, loving the brotherhood, and being attached to one another, joined together in the truth, exhibiting the meekness of the Lord in your [dealings] with one another, and despising no one.  When you can do good, defer it not.”

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Just a few updates to bring to your attention:

1. I apologize for the lack of bulletins this past weekend. It seems FedEx was dealing with some major operational disruptions that delayed delivery.  That being said, the bulletins did eventually arrive…at about 11:00 on Monday.

We are in the process of terminating our relationship with the current bulletin company and moving to one that seems better able to manage their operations.

• As previously announced, this weekend we will finally be able to roll back some of the COVID restrictions that have been in place. Regardless, we still encourage masks, and we will continue to have a section of seating where masks are required.
• This weekend we officially kick off the 2022 Parish Share Campaign. By now you’ve received the official mailing from the Diocese and have had a chance to start to pray on how you can support our parish.  Our assessment this year is the manageable sum of $193,967.
• Anointing of the Sick will be celebrated after the 11:00 and 11:30 AM Masses this weekend.
• Volunteers are needed to work the parish fish fry. Be sure to visit http://cdsfishfry.org/volunteer
• Lent begins next weekend. Check out our website, Facebook page, and (hopefully) bulletin for a rundown of all the events we have planned.

Have a great rest of your week! See you Sunday!

Fr. Mike

Oremus pro invicem!