1/31/21

Dear St. Joseph Parish Family,

I can't believe that January is over! It's been a busy month at St. Joe's with the construction. Walls are going up in the parish hall and soon there will be new rooms down there. Also, the boilers that heat the church, rectory, and school are starting to be a real problem. They are quite old and we've had to do numerous repairs to keep them running this winter. We may be at the point where it makes sense to put in new boilers; however, new boilers would be very expensive, so we're seeing if we can't squeeze more life out of the current ones.

This Wednesday is the feast day of St. Blaise when we have the throat blessings. The blessing will be a little different this year because of the pandemic, but there will be the throat blessings at the 12:10 pm daily Mass this Wednesday.

On Saturday, February 6th, 9 Dominican friars will be taking their solemn vows. That's when a friar takes the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience usque ad mortem – until death. Religious (Catholic friars, monks, nuns, sisters, et al.) all take vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in order to better imitate Jesus Christ, who was poor, chaste, and always obedient to God the Father. Please keep these 9 friars in your prayers as they enter permanently into their vocation as friars – one of them may well serve at St. Joseph's someday.