Youth Ministry Hiring Process
Since I’ve been back from my little time away mid-June, I’ve been busy with the hiring process for our parish’s new youth ministry coordinator position. Jerico resigned in May and finished volunteering with our youth group in June. With our posting at the end of May and beginning of June, we had a handful of applicants, all of them very interesting and seemingly good potential. While we are just wrapping up our interviews it may still be a bit too early to announce anything official yet, but I predict it will be soon. A hard decision is a good thing because it means there were good candidates, so thanks be to God for that! So keep an eye out for that announcement, and pray for our youth and young adult ministry and the people who will be involved!
Votive Candle Stand
All the way back in January I wrote a little message about votive candles where I asked the question about whether our parish should pursue having votive candles. This started a conversation among some parishioners who were generally in favour of our parish having some of our own, and they forwarded me their support of the idea. Meanwhile, I discussed this with our parish liturgy committee over the months. More recently, April, I wrote another but bigger bulletin message on the meaning and practice of votive candles. This also helped generate conversations about the use of votive candles in our parish. More recently, the parish liturgy committee and I worked to identify what might work best for our parish as a solution.
I’m pleased to announce that we have finally ordered a votive candle stand just recently and expect to receive it this Fall. The stand is created by St. Killian’s, which has a unique candle burning system. The system is safe, clean, and smokeless. The candles are placed in the glass holder and are lit. As the candle burns down to the bottom when there would be nothing left, it will slide down the tapered holder, and fall into a tray below. The tray is filled with water, which would ensure the flame is extinguished, and catches the remaining wax that can be easily cleaned. A few local parishes have these stands as well: St. John XXIII parish, the St. Boniface Cathedral, and St. Joachim parish in La Broquerie. I believe Holy Cross parish has one as well. The stand we’ve decided on is a 68-candle unit. We haven’t quite figured out where exactly it will go, so please feel free to share your thoughts.
Precious Blood and Eucharist
Thank you to those who responded to my message and request last week on indicating your desire to receive the Precious Blood as an option during Holy Communion, as was previously a custom in our parish before COVID. We now have a good sense on what we might anticipate on a given Sunday Mass and the liturgy committee, and I will work with our liturgical ministers on figuring out how we might best respond to that.
It’s good to remind everyone that this has and will always be an optional method of receiving Holy Communion. Jesus Christ is fully present, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, under either or both species of the Eucharist. The Body and Blood are separated under the forms of bread and wine by Christ in reference to his death. But when we receive Holy Communion, we commune not with a dead man, but with the Risen Lord who is entirely alive and present to us, like the Apostles at Easter. No one would be required to receive from the chalice, and if one was sick, it would be best to refrain from the communal chalice as well so as to not spread an infection to others. Look forward to more communication on this in the future.
I wish you and your loved ones a blessed long weekend.
Fr. Brian Trueman