Saturday, January 7, 2017

The Epiphany of the Lord - January 8, 2017

As we end the Christmas season with tomorrow’s feast of the Baptism of the Lord, I would like to take this opportunity to wish you a blessed Christmas one final time for this season. And while I am at it, I would like to add a few other notes.
                  
First of all, I want to say “Thank you” for those who made Christmas special for us. That includes “the usual suspects,” such as Laurie Lanz for all her work with the music, and for Yumi Fisher for her time directing the children’s handbell choir. John Lester and his team did their usual wonderful job of decorating the church. But I want to add a personal note of thanks to everyone who sent cards, gifts and goodies (with calories that I didn’t need). I really appreciate celebrating Christmas with my parish family.

Speaking of thanks, I want to include a note of thanks to Fr. Pat O’Brien. Fr. O’Brien has been a contributor to our parish family since early in Fr. Michael’s tenure as pastor taking one Mass every Sunday. He had not been coming to help recently, since the weekend he passed out while I was on vacation, but for quite some time he would call each week and would promise that he would be back once he was feeling better. He hasn’t been calling lately, so I asked the clergy office of the diocese if they had any idea of how he was doing. Recently they told me that Fr. O’Brien is going to be entering a nursing home. Effective January 18, Fr. O’Brien will be living at Locust Grove Assisted Living in West Mifflin. If anyone wants to write to him, the address is 4043 Irene St., West Mifflin, PA 15122. I wish we could have had time to give him a nice farewell and to thank him for his service to St. Malachy, but I hope that he knows he will be in our prayers.

Also, I want to remind you that we have changed the schedule for Confessions. I always found the schedule very tight between Confessions and the Saturday evening Mass, particularly if Confessions ran overtime. So please remember that we now have Confessions every Saturday afternoon, from Noon to 1:00.

Another change you have probably noticed is that we have adjusted the sound system. I would still like to revamp the system entirely, but thanks to Dan Chujko, it is at least somewhat easier to hear in our church.

There was another bit of work done lately, but that was not planned. One day during Christmas week, a pipe broke under our parking lot and created a lake in the lot. Thanks to Bill Rusnak and his crew for fixing the problem in very short time and getting things back in order. The only complaint that I have heard about the job is that the pipe didn’t break while school was in session, when we could have had a couple extra days off. (That complaint came from teachers, not students.)

One final note: I had a bit of a fall one night last week. It turns out that I have a couple of fractured ribs. Please excuse me if I am not quite as mobile as usual in the next few weeks. (And please don’t offer me a hug.)

                                                                                              Father H