28th Sunday of the Year

Dear Friends in Christ,

Beginning in late November, we will be live streaming our 11 am Sunday Mass on the church’s Facebook page and placing a recording of the same on our YouTube channel. For several years we have received requests to provide this sort of service, and technological development has now made it possible to do this with relative ease. We do, however, need to train several volunteers from the parish to operate the equipment which sends the streaming signal to Facebook, and if you are willing to volunteer for this purpose, please send me a note at pastor@stmarysgvl.org. In a few days I will be in touch with those who offer their time to arrange a training session.

To make the streaming possible, we have installed four cameras at strategic locations in the church, but they are all trained on the sanctuary. This means that if you are present at Mass while we are streaming the liturgy, you should not be visible on camera except perhaps for the first few pews and even then only from the rear. In other words, no one need worry about their appearance, except of course for the usual preference for Sunday best!

Finally, please take note of these coming events on our calendar:

This week the sacred liturgy includes four important observances: Monday is the memorial of St Teresa of Avila, the Spanish Carmelite mystic and reformer who died in 1582. Wednesday is the memorial of St Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr, who died at Rome in 107 and whose letters written on the road to his death provide a clear glimpse of life in the early Church. Thursday is the feast of St Luke, author of the Gospel which bears his name and of the Acts of the Apostles. And Friday is the memorial of Saints John de Brébeuf, Isaac Jogues, and their Companions, eight French missionaries to the Huron and Iroquois Tribes who died between 1642 and 1649 and are collectively known as the North American Martyrs.

Next week is the annual Retreat for Priests of our diocese, and most of the priests in Greenville will be at Kanuga Conference Center outside of Hendersonville. For this reason, we will have a modified liturgical schedule on October 23rd, 24th, and 25th, so please check the parish calendar.

Thursday 1 November is the Solemnity of All Saints, a holy day of obligation, and we will have Mass at 7 am, 12 noon, and 7 pm. Friday 2 November is the Commemoration of All Souls, and we will have Mass in English at 7 am and in Spanish at 7 pm.

In your stewardship packet, you’ll find an envelope for All Souls, and if you would like your beloved dead remembered at the altar during the month of November, please write their names on the back of that envelope and drop it in any collection in October.

Father Newman