Second Sunday of Lent
Dear Parishioners,
The time has come to start to reinstall the stained-glass windows in the church. We will have to vacate the church this week and next week as the work continues. I know we are all anxious to see the restored windows.
We are in, what has been labeled, phase II of the window restoration process. In the next two weeks we hope to reinstall a lot of the glass that has been taken out and re-leaded. The workers can make more progress if they have complete access to the church. If they must start and stop then it will take them a lot longer.
Bovard Studios also hopes to start removing more glass and begin phase III during the next two weeks. This will lead to the restoration of the glass on the upper level of the church on the East side. On March 21st the workman will cease their activities until after Easter. In May they will finish up installing the windows that are complete and move on with removing those that are not.
Because of all this, we will be having daily Mass in the temporary Chapel in the Lee Center and we will be having Lenten devotions in Culemans Hall the next two weeks. We will use the Audio-visual room and the media it provides to pray the stations. There will be a temporary confessional set up for reconciliation at 5:00 p.m. Then we will have the soup supper and the speaker.
The School Mass will be in the gym in Culemans Hall this week. That Mass is at 9:00 a.m. on Thursdays. Funerals will be moved to another parish during this time period. Weekend Masses will remain in Church on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning throughout the restoration process.
The good news is that stained glass refurbishment is on time and within budget. I appreciate everyone’s cooperation as we forge ahead with the work. Once again I thank Don Lewis for overseeing this work. He had given a lot of time to this. Let us pray that our church will continue to be an inspirational space for Catholic worship for years to come and pray for the safety of all who are doing the work.
Blessings,
Fr. Mark
P.S. I would like to welcome Bill Peiffer and Tom Weaver to our parish council. They are replacing Don Lewis and Al Gorgal. The members of the council at this point are:
Denise Maynard, Thomas Buchmeyer, Rafael Ceja Elizabeth Lareau, Joni Mack, Sara Murray-Otto
Carl Pfeiffer, Alyssa Schmidt, Kory Schultz
Connie Morris, Jim Watson
Fr. Mark, Fr. Matthew