NO PUBLIC MASS

NO HAY MISA PUBLICA

 

VIDEO Mass Schedule

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Saturday - 5:30 p.m. - English

Sunday - 1:00 p.m. - Spanish

Weekdays - 8 a.m. (except Monday)

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​Confessions / Confesion

SATURDAY 4:30p.m.

SUNDAY 12:15p.m.

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Anointing of the Sick by Appt. 660-886-7960

St. Peter Church

1801 S. Miami Ave.

P.O. Box 220

Marshall, MO 65340

Telephone  660-886-7960

Fax               660-886-7954

 

Sacrament of Reconciliation

Saturday at 4:30 p.m. in the Chapel.

Sunday at 12:30pm in the Chapel.

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Parish Office Hours

Monday through Friday

9:00 a.m. to Noon & 1:15 to 4:00 p.m.
Please handle regular business during these hours.

Bulletin deadline is Tuesday at Noon.

27 March 2020, Friday of the 4th Week of Lent

 

V: “The Angel of the Lord declared unto Mary”

R: ”And she conceived by the Holy Spirit”

-Words from the Angelus, derived from Luke 1:26-38

 

Dear Parishioners,

A couple of days ago when we celebrated the Annunciation, we remembered that over two millennia ago the angel Gabriel came to Mary and told her that she would conceive the Savior because of her ‘yes.’ Her ‘yes’ did not mean that she would have an easy, cushy life but that she would have a life with the Lord close to her. That is a good lesson for us. The Lord is still near us, even though we are in tough times. God has not abandoned us and is giving us the tools and graces to live lives of holiness even though we are being asked to keep our distance for the health of all. It is certainly different, but not impossible, for nothing is impossible in God.

Having said all of that, I believe that I need to send something to as many of you as practical about what we are and are not trying to do here at St. Peter’s (and by extension to our mission at Holy Family in Sweet Springs).

First, the prayer and liturgy items:

• Public celebrations of the Mass are suspended through Palm Sunday at least. This is to be in conformity with the governor’s declaration that groups be no larger than 10. The bishop said he would reevaluate the situation at the beginning of April but we are planning as if the prohibition will extend through Holy Week and Easter. The bishop has forwarded guidelines from Rome for how Holy Week is to be celebrated if the pandemic is still present.

• Masses are being live-streamed on the parish Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/stpeter.office (both daily and Sunday, with Mass in Spanish on Sunday also). Daily Mass will be at 8AM each weekday, Sunday Mass at 5:30 on Saturday, and Mass in Spanish at 1:00 on Sunday. You may watch as it is happening or view it at a later time. I encourage everyone to at least view Sunday Mass and to try to make it as prayerful an experience as possible. This might include getting a bit spiffied up (changing out of your pajamas), standing and kneeling when appropriate, offering the responses (And with your spirit, etc), and offering the Act of Spiritual Communion during the time communion would be distributed (it is posted on the parish Facebook page). If other options are necessary to increase viewing (creating a YouTube channel, for instance) please let me know and I will find someone to work on it. Right now connecting to Facebook and YouTube both with one video has been rather difficult.

• The church is open for prayer and adoration. The doors to the St. Mary room will be open during daylight hours. Hand sanitizer is available at the entrances. The Blessed Sacrament has been moved to the church from the chapel to facilitate greater social distancing. I have tried to communicate with all the adorers that their attendance is optional and that no one needs to sign in or out. The Blessed Sacrament may or not be exposed depending on whether or not someone has been in attendance until your arrival. Under no circumstances is the Blessed Sacrament to be left unattended so if someone is the last one in the church and must leave, ring the office doorbell and Fr. Tom or I will repose the Sacrament.

• Mass intentions will be remembered and offered by both Fr. Tom and me. Some already printed in the bulletins before we knew what was going to happen will be rescheduled and offered, possibly at untelevised Masses Fr. Tom or I offer. Additional Mass intentions for the future will be accepted as Fr. Tom and I have celebrated almost all the ones that have been currently requested. Each priest is allowed to accept an intention for each Mass he celebrates.

• First Communion has been postponed to June 14th or later (the Feast of Corpus Christi). We will set a date after we are allowed to celebrate liturgies normally again.

• While I have not heard from the bishop yet, I assume Confirmation will also be delayed. Keep the date on your calendar for now (April 29) and we will let you know if and when we hear about a cancellation.

• Communion visits to shut-ins have been suspended by the bishop until further notice. Communion will be given to the dying (Viaticum).

• The Anointing of the Sick will be administered to the seriously ill and the dying. If you or a loved one is in need of this sacrament, please call the parish office, preferably before going to the hospital as most have radically or completely restricted visitors.

• If the need for a funeral arises, it will have to be celebrated with 10 or fewer people. An option would be to have a graveside service and then to have a memorial Mass and luncheon later when we can gather in larger groups again.

• Confessions will be heard at the normal times (Saturday 4:30-5:15 and Sunday 12:00-12:45) and other times by appointment. Just call the office to make the appointment. I am also considering increasing the confessions times for weekday evenings and maybe weekend daytime. I hear that some of my brother priests are doing drive by confession where the priest sits or stands outside on one side of a screen and people drive up and stop at the screen for confession. I am totally open to doing this and we have a nice circle driveway that would work. However, I need someone to construct some kind of screen for me for the folks that want to remain anonymous. Let me know if this is something some of you would appreciate and I will get on it.

Now is an excellent time to form a more developed prayer life and to learn more about the Faith. FORMED.ORG is an excellent resource and our parish recently renewed our subscription for another year. There are all kind of prayer resources, Scripture studies, spiritual movies, children’s stories, Christian music, and much more. Check it out. Our Bishops’ conference website also has many resources available (along with all the official announcements and decisions of the conference). It also has a copy of the daily Mass readings on it and it can be found at: www.usccb.org. Consider changing or adding to your prayer life by reciting a rosary, the Divine Mercy chaplet, or watching daily Mass, either what Fr. Tom and I have been live-streaming or other options such as found on EWTN (satellite or cable TV). Coming to the church and spending some time with the Lord in the form of the Blessed Sacrament has always been considered laudable. Maybe now is a time to carve out a regular time to spend with Jesus in this manner. When we get back to some normalcy, we will be looking for more people to fill various time slots.

Some practical items:

• Bulletins are still being printed (although many fewer than normal) and are available in the St. Mary room. We will mail them to whomever needs or would like one, as we have been already doing. The bulletin is posted on the parish website every week.

• The parish library is open and available for use. It is in the St. Mary room. No one, as I am aware, is really in charge of it (if there is, forgive me. No one has told me about you). Therefore come check out what there is, take a book (no need to check it out – I trust you), if St. Peter’s name is not written inside the book, please write it in it (so that you remember later where you got it), and then bring it back when you are done (and maybe check out another book!).

• Another parish installed an outside prayer box. I am open to us having one, but it would need to be constructed so that the papers with the prayers did not get wet. Anyone interested? It would be a nice substitute for the prayers many of you write that are brought with the gifts at Sunday Masses. Fr. Tom and I would collect them and add them to our specific and general intentions at Mass just like we have done previously.

• The parish grounds are open for your use/walking/etc. Please keep animals on a leash, pick up after them, and practice/enforce social distancing (6 ft apart) by parking in every other slot and keeping an appropriate distance from those with whom you do not live. Getting out and getting some fresh air can be a great way to let God lift one’s spirit. Maybe combine a walking visit with a visit to the Blessed Sacrament.

• St. Peter School is functioning, just not with the students present in classrooms. Our teachers have been creating educational experiences for our students, either through take-home packets or on-line learning experiences. They have also been interacting with the students one-on-one, through electronic means mostly, for those that need it. We all know this is less than ideal but our teachers are working hard to do their best for our children. If there are problems or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact the child’s teacher first and then Ms. McCoy, our principal, if an interaction with a teacher is not helpful. Ms. Medrano, our custodian, is working diligently to disinfect the whole place and Ms. Duncan has been holding down the office.

Now for some needs:

• The Community Food Pantry is still in need of donations and their need will increase as unemployment increases. There is a drop off area/basket in the St. Mary room if you wish to drop off items here as many of you have in months past. Cash sent to them or dropped off with us also works!

• Volunteers for various small tasks for which we get requests (such as helping direct traffic at the MPS school lunch distribution sites).

• Volunteers to help organize such requests and projects. Some things that I would like us to start doing include: running errands for the shut-in and those that might need to be or are required to be quarantined, calling on/checking on parishioners and others that live alone and don’t have family in town, helping others (especially our elderly) learn about or figure out various means of electronic communication and education (not necessarily in person but maybe helping someone over the phone figure out Skype, Formed, etc)

• Other worthwhile ideas and needs some of you might have that we as a parish and mission can offer and try to accomplish.

While all of the above is important and most of the items definitely more important than my last request, my last request is also significant. It is that you do not forget your parish financially. Very few of our expenses have disappeared at this time and yet, I predict that without some effort and reminding, our income will most likely drop significantly. We have some reserve funds and I will be meeting with the Finance Council soon to figure out how much of our reserve we can safely spend. As a parish family we have salary obligations, utility costs, maintenance issues, requests from the poor, and the costs associated with trying to operate more remotely and the costs of any new ministries we may try to undertake to continue sharing Christ’s presence with each other and the rest of Saline county.

I would ask that you please consider sharing a part of your treasure with us as most of you do whenever you come to church. Since we are not able to worship together physically, I ask that you consider mailing in your contributions, consider switching temporarily or permanently to electronic giving, or drop your contribution off at the parish office. Amber, our parish secretary, can give or send you information about electronic giving. There is also a form on the website https://www.stpeterchurch-marshallmo.org/ to fill to sign up for electronic giving. There is also a slot in Amber’s office door for anyone that might bring by a contribution when the office is not open.

We live in interesting, different, sometimes stressful, sometimes anxious times. But we do not live in a time or place that is absent the Lord’s care, grace, providence, or love. It may be hard to see it at times, but it is there, for sure. The Lord promised he would not abandon us and He has not. He did not promise us an easy life, a life full of pleasures, a life without strife, or a life without sickness and disease. He did promise a life of peace if we follow Him – not necessarily a life of mere earthly peace or calmness, but a life of confidence, strength, and divine, eternal peace if we let Him lead our lives and way.

Know of my daily prayers and thoughts for all of you. Fr. Tom has also been offering the same. I, too, at times have been anxious but I try as quickly as possible to remind myself of the Lord’s presence and care. That is part of my prayer for you, that whatever comes your way, that you may quickly remember and realize that the Lord is with you in the situation. It is that thought that always gives me peace.

With God’s blessing and peace,

Fr. Mark Smith

Mission Statement

 

We, the Parish of St. Peter in Marshall, MO., by virtue of our baptism, are a Catholic Christian community called to bring about the redemptive power of Jesus through the sacraments. We endeavor to keep abreast of a changing world and the rites of the church so that we may truly understand the loving relationship we have with God our Father, and our Brothers and Sisters in the faith. We therefore resolve to be a Eucharistic people, knowing that Christ is our head, and we are the members of His body the church striving to treat all members of this family in the loving and reconciling manner.