Family is Most Important

06-03-2021Letters From Fr. BrianRev. Brian F. Manning

Dear Parishioners and Friends of Saint Mary’s,

Last weekend we launched the Celebration of our Sunday Mass under the new Protocols of the State and the Archdiocese. It was heartwarming to see some more folks in church who had not been able to attend for well over one year. Our attendance was slightly over 400 people at the three Masses.  I know over the next nine months or so each week more of our faithful church going Parishioners will be attending Mass. Please come when you are ready. Know we are here when you arrive! Our summer schedule is: Saturday 4 PM and Sunday 7:30 AM & 10:30 AM.

Our Memorial Day Cemetery Mass was moved to our Chapel because of the very rainy and foggy weather. The lawns at the Cemetery were too slippery for people to stand or walk on safely. Because it was celebrated in our Chapel, Terry Kerr came special to provide beautiful and inspirational music. I want to thank our wonderful Sacred Heart Council Knights of Columbus for organizing this special Mass.

Father Campo arrives this week. I am asking him to celebrate the 4 PM Mass this Saturday, June 5th. He is retired, but he will be assisting us on a limited basis. He is very delighted to be back here at “home”, the very first assignment he received after his ordination. All of you made Saint Mary’s a home for him.

This weekend at the doors of the church there will be a second basket to help support the desperately poor and fragile countries of India and Brazil who are suffering so greatly with the COVID Pandemic. For your information there will be no “regular collections with the basket on poles” in church until much later. It is safer to receive your donations and financial support in baskets at the church doors, in the mail or the Rectory mail box or on-line (best accessed: stamrysfranklin.org). I also remind you that we need your personal financial support for Cardinal Sean’s Annual Archdiocesan Appeal. Next week I will report the new pledged amount. We must reach our assessment or pay out of our regular collections to make up the difference. Please consider helping if you have not yet done so.

I have begun my great gardening projects and season at my family’s Cape home. I have been attacking and pulling up weeds for two weeks straight. Usually I do not put any annuals in the ground or in urns until after Memorial Day because the Cape stays cooler than up here. I did, however, plant some marigolds and arrange a few of my urns. Even though it has stayed above freezing there, sometimes the blowing wind can chill and harm the plants. I find out his week how things are. I enjoy gardening so very much that I can get a little impatient to get the garden and the urns looking really ship-shape. I am looking forward to this summer with the arrivals of my nieces and nephews and especially my grand nieces and nephews. I immensely enjoy seeing my now very adult nephews and nieces care for their children. Often when I watch and listen to all their antics my heart gets very full. As I age, I am 72 and one half (I have “very young skin”!), these scenes of my family life greatly touch me.

Even though there are many life lessons for us coming from our experience of the Pandemic, please remember this: your time with family and friends always matters. It cannot be replaced or made up another time. So stop thinking other things are more important, they are merely important and pay attention to what is much more important during the warm and lovely days of summer: your family and friends. God bless,

Fr. Brian

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