My Dear Friends,
What a glorious day we had last Sunday when our parish community came together to unload the first half of our pipe organ! Parishioners, young and old, were present and took some part of the organ into the church: from large pieces of wood casing or steel beams all the way to light tubes or small pieces of wood that will all come together in the coming weeks to form Opus 166 in our balcony. If you’ve been on our social media, you have probably seen the many pictures that were taken that day. The smiling faces of our children wanting to play some small part in this historic event stand out along with some of our elderly parishioners who even taking a small piece of wood into the church were left with smiles as big as that of the children.
But what made last Sunday truly unique was not only the arrival of the organ, but the way this brought our community together during our centennial year. Even people who were just visiting for Mass took part in the unloading of the truck. Uniting as a community around history is what stood out for me as I reflected that evening on the day’s events. It took 6 hours and 15 minutes to unload the truck. Some stayed from beginning to end. Some could only stay for a few minutes. All were a part of history.
Helping us unload the truck were six workers from CB Fisk who will be with us for the next six weeks as they install the pipe organ upstairs. Many of you met them and worked closely with them last Sunday as you helped them unload the truck. Their names are Andrew Gingery, Tim McEwen, Jason Fouser, Bonnie Walker, Locke Meyer, and Burke Sampson. In a few weeks they will be joined by “voicers” who will basically give voice to our organ: Nami Hamada and Tony Miscio.
Please pray for these hard-working individuals who have been charged with the sacred task of putting this instrument together in our church for the greater glory of God.
If by chance, you could not make it last Sunday, fear not. The second half of the organ arrives next Sunday, March 8. This is the truck with the pipes for the organ, and it may be even more intricate than the wood casings we unloaded last week. So, set a date with history and be here next Sunday at 2pm as we continue to joyfully bring this instrument into its permanent home for centuries to come!
One final announcement, please pray for our young second graders from our school and religious education program who will be making their First Confessions over the next two weeks. They are so excited to be making this next step. One of our 2nd graders stopped me a few weeks ago and asked if she could confess “right now.” I told her gently to keep preparing and examining her conscience to make a good confession on First Confession Day. Wouldn’t it be great if during this Lenten season we all had the same enthusiasm to embrace the Lord’s mercy given to us in this great sacrament. Pray for these children, and one last thing: pray for our brothers and sisters who are discerning whether or not to return to confession for the first time in many years this Lent. It is a difficult decision that would be greatly aided by your prayers. So many of Christ’s sheep return to the sheepfold during Lent, let us pray for each and every one of them.
God Bless You All,
