Gratitude, Sales, & Maintenance

Friends

    Peace be with you. 

    This Thursday we will celebrate Thanksgiving, a day for gratitude for the gifts that we have and will have been given. Please find some time that day, whether it’s at our Mass or on a walk in the afternoon, to reflect on the many blessings you have in your life. I hope you’re able to gather with family and friends to enjoy some turkey and stuffing and watch some football. I want you all to know how thankful I am to be here in this parish as your pastor. I feel very fortunate to be included into your families in small and big ways and to be a spiritual father to you. I especially feel grateful for all the little ones you bring to Mass who sing God’s praises. They so often lift my tired, heavy heart with their little voices, smiles, and fives after Mass. 

As many of you know, I enjoy helping to clear snow off our sidewalks and parking lots. You may have encountered me driving our John Deere lawn tractor with the snow blower trying to make it safe for people to come to Mass before or after Masses. The trouble I had was that I would often be covered in snow afterwards because it didn’t have a cab. Recently, I approached P&K Midwest and inquired about the possibility of purchasing a plastic cab for our John Deere lawn tractor just so I could get some protection. Unfortunately, our tractor was too old and too small for a cab. So, we negotiated the price of a new one with a cab and I was able to purchase one for a reasonable price. However, they weren’t interested in taking our old lawn tractor as a trade-in. So, if you’re interested in a John Deere tractor with a snow blower and a mower deck, please put a sealed bid in an envelope and either put it in the collection or drop it off at the parish office by December 2, 2024. If you’d like to see it and/or give it a test drive, please give me a call at the parish office or stop me after Mass and I can show it to you. It’s been a good machine and deserves a good home. 

Lastly, some of you may have noticed a few weeks ago that the basement bathrooms in church were closed off. We had some issues with standing water at the foot of the steps and in the women’s restroom one weekend after a particularly heavy rainfall. We’ve had issues with rain coming into a different part of the basement but, to our knowledge, it had never leaked in this part before. Until we’re sure that we’ve solved the problem we’re going to wait to replace the tile on the floor. But we’re going to open the bathrooms again with rugs. It’s not the prettiest solution to be honest. It’s a very man-brained way of solving the problem but it’ll have to do for now. Please be patient until we can figure out a better solution. As always, if you want the better bathrooms, use the ones in the first floor of the rectory. 

Know you are in my prayers.