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Ascension of the Lord
16 May 2010
Dear Friends in Christ,
1. On Tuesday 8 June 2010, Father Bart will celebrate the 25th anniversary of his ordination to the sacred priesthood, but since that day is in the middle of the week, we will keep the feast on the following weekend. On Saturday 12 June 2010, Father Bart will be the principal celebrant at our usual 5 pm Sunday Vigil Mass, and after that Mass, there will be a reception in the Macalka Dining Room of Pazdan Hall. All are invited to share in the joy of this Silver Jubilee by extending to Father Bart your congratulations on twenty-five years of service to the Lord Jesus and His Church.
2. For the past few years, the number of priests available for assignment in the Diocese of Charleston (and, indeed, in most of the United States) has been in decline, and we have long anticipated that our shrinking numbers would demand the reallocation of priests in creative ways. Well, the future is now. Bishop Guglielmone has appointed Father Dwight Longenecker to serve as the parochial administrator of Our Lady of the Rosary Church in Greenville, while continuing his service as Chaplain of St. Joseph’s School. Father Longenecker will begin his assignment at OLR in July, which means that he will end his service to St. Mary’s in June. I am deeply grateful to my friend and colleague for the three and a half years of priestly ministry he has given to St. Mary’s, and we wish him well in the adventure of his new responsibilities. The LORD has given, and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the Name of the LORD!
3. Father Longenecker’s departure will mean that only one confessor will be available for the Sacrament of Penance on Wednesday afternoons during the Holy Hour and that someone else will become the Director of the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults. I will soon make provision for these changes and then let you know how we will rearrange things to adjust for the new circumstances.
4. Restoration work on our stained glass windows has moved to the east side of the church, and much progress was made in the past week. We anticipate that the entire project will be complete by the end of June, and if you have not yet made your gift to our capital campaign, now would be the perfect time to do so.
5. The brass sanctuary lamp which hangs from the central arch over the altar is more than one hundred years old and badly in need of restoration to keep it from falling apart. We have sent it to New York for the needed work, and until it returns to us, a sanctuary candle will burn just to the left of the tabernacle as the perpetual sign of the Real Presence of the Lord Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament.
Father Newman