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Entries for February 2018
Meet Fr. Howard Dinner!
We are so pleased to have Fr. David Howard become the new pastor for our region of St. Peter and St. Mary! We hope you will take this opportunity to meet him. Join us for a spaghetti dinner hosted by the Bible Study. It will take place at St. Peter's in
Fr. Kennedy Hall (lower level of the church) after the Saturday 5pm Mass on February 17th. Be sure to tell everyone! We look forward to seeing you!
Lenten Penance Service
There will be a Lenten Penance Service for our Pastoral Region on Thursday, March 8th at 7:00pm at St. Peter. Three priests will be available to hear individual confessions.
The penance service includes:
- Opening prayer and song
- Scripture readings (an Old Testament, a New Testament, a Psalm, and Gospel)
- Homily
- An Examination of Conscience
- An Act of Contrition and general confession of sins
- Individual confessions with soft background music
- Closing prayer and song
Our Pastoral Region will alternate the location where the Penance Service occurs. The Lenten Penance Service is at St. Peter's and the Advent Penance Service is at St. Mary's.
BELLS OF ST. MARY’S UPDATE
We hope all of you are enjoying our new IT Verdin Digital Carillon Bell System. As you have likely experienced, we are able to choose different ringing patterns and peals that include some great realistic bell sounds! We have also selected music to play that is appropriate for whatever liturgical season we are in. It has certainly made a real difference here at St. Mary and is no comparison to the single bell that has rusted in place up in the front of the church.
As you might recall, for most of last summer, the soil was too wet to mount the last two additional speakers. (By the way, those 2 speakers were generously donated by a very kind parishioner). The large lift to climb up on the chimney required dry soil so it would be secure when extended to extreme heights. Thanks to parishioner Konrad Sandker, the speakers are now mounted (no charge for use of his lift and manpower) and Kim Trout (the audio engineer) has wired them into the bell system, each speaker with an independent volume control.
Another generous parishioners wanted to make sure we had a beautiful plaque that recognizes those who made gifts or memorials to make the Digital Bell Carillon possible. We worked with Lee Ann Helton at the Trophy Cup here in Bethel who did the layout on the plaque and donated all of the engraving. You can see that plaque in the St. Mary's Gathering Space. It is beautiful!
The system even has a wireless remote control where we can choose which song or bell peal plays on each button! It is easy to change each button at the main bell control. This is extremely useful when a funeral toll is needed or when bells for a Mass that isn't at the regularly scheduled time should occur.
Things never seem to go as you expect but this project has certainly been worth the wait. It has been completed thanks to the nearly 60 donors in our parish who saw the vision and importance to St. Mary having a bell system. It is important to note that no money from the weekend collections were used to complete this installation. It has been a great addition for St. Mary's 75th Anniversary!