27th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Dear Parishioners,

Everyone should have received a financial report in the mail this past week. Most of the news was very good. Because we had bequests, a successful Heart to Heart fund drive and our endowment appreciated the past year, this allowed us to take on many capital projects. We still have a couple of more to complete.

Some of you will probably notice that soon the sky lift will be back to work on the area between the bell tower and the church proper. We have found through our roofing and tuckpointing that somewhere along the line someone put a false bottom in the gutter running alongside the bell tower. The belief was this would take water away from this area. Because of this engineering, the gutter is only two inches deep at one end while in most places it is four inches deep. This causes the gutter to overflow and water to run down the side of the church. We are fixing this problem and we will be adding another drain pipe. Again, for some reason, there is one less drain pipe on the East side of the church than the west side of the church. With these repairs and some roofing, we feel we can finally seal the leak in the choir loft. At least we will improve the situation.

The other major project for this year will be to add some up to date speakers to our sound system. Our church has great acoustics for music, but not for understanding readers, preachers etc. We hope to improve this problem so that more of us can hear at Mass. It is frustrating for those in the congregation when they cannot understand and it is frustrating to the reader or preacher when they feel like they are not understood. I pray that the solution the sound engineers have recommended will help with a problem that has been with us for a long time.

Without your generosity we would just have to limp along with these difficulties. Because many members of Sacred Heart have donated their time, talent and treasure we can make things better. That is the good news. The challenging news is that we have a big plant and there are other things that need to be addressed soon. More news will be forthcoming about these.

I do not enjoy raising money or overseeing repairs, but I like it less when things are allowed to deteriorate. I know all of you do not like to see this either. I thank the Pew Pals and Facilities Committee for their continued help. Without them, work would not get done. We love our church building, but it needs maintenance if it is to remain the beautiful structure it is.

Blessings,

Fr. Mark

P.S. Thank you for everyone’s cooperation as we blocked off entrances, etc. so that we could refinish the church doors. The work is now done. Monies from endowment appreciation, the Heart to Heart Fund and a donation from our Altar Society were used. The cost was approximately $8000.