Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,

What a great privilege it is to be a priest but especially during the sacred seasons of Christmas and Easter.  It feels good to be getting back to what used to feel like “normal”. The Masses for Christmas were extraordinary. I thank Jason and the choir for incredible music.  I thank Brian and all the Gospel singers for the music at the Masses on Sunday evenings.  I thank Tina and all who helped with a wonderful Christmas pageant.  I thank my brother Kenneth and his team for beautiful decorations for Christmas and all who worked so hard to make our Christmas liturgies so reverent: all of our lectors, Ems, servers and ushers.

Fall has been a very tough time for the priests at Blessed Sacrament.  The death of Father Bala was really upsetting. Aside from Fr Curley, he was the youngest of the priests here.  At the same time, Fr. Fenlon, who helped with Mass on Tuesdays had a stroke and is now in hospice.  Fr. Rubio, who had been saying our Mass in Spanish returned to Mexico. Father Curley has had another procedure for his Glioblastoma and has been staying with his family.  We are not sure when he will return.  Hard to believe, currently I am the only priest assigned here.  Thank God for Fr. Nichols who is retired but providentially is living on 72 Street and has been a great help filling in.  We are praying that the Archdiocese will send us another priest, but with the shortage of vocations this could take a while.  The shortage is forcing us to re-evaluate our Mass schedule.  Three Masses a day is no longer feasible.  Starting in January, we are going to temporarily eliminate the 5:30p.m. daily Mass. (We will still have a 5:30p.m. Vigil Mass on Saturday and a 5:30p.m. Mass on Sunday).  We will combine all the existing Mass intentions with the intentions for the 12:00p.m. Mass of that day.  If people who have a Mass intention would prefer, they can contact the rectory and move the intention to another date.  I thank everyone for their understanding and patience with this situation.  PLEASE – PRAY FOR VOCATIONS!

Father David Nolan