FROM THE PASTOR’S DESK

Dear St. Mary’s Parishioners:

At St. Mary’s Parish, we are blessed in many ways. Spiritually, we have a strong sacramental, devotional, catechetical, social and evangelical outreach. Many parishioners are involved in our various ministries and apostolates. Physically, we have a beautiful church which you generously gave of your own physical resources so that it could be renovated in 2009. We have a wonderful rectory and a parish hall that receive much use. With this message, I would like to draw attention to how we use the parish hall. It is a sign of a vibrant parish that our hall receives much use. I used to joke at our staff meetings that we would always eventually end up talking about the hall: who is scheduled to use it, when certain parish hall rooms would be available, and what is broken in the hall.

I would like to emphasize that it is very important that individuals or groups who use the hall must reserve a room or rooms ahead of time by filling out the request form on our website, under the Parish Calendar tab, or call our office staff if you have any questions. Also, please be very respectful of the hall, its fixtures and the chairs and tables in the hall. It is especially important that the dividers not be moved if one does not know how to move them. Unfortunately, we have had to spend thousands of dollars----your dollars----to repair the dividers. We had them repaired last year and now they are broken again in a couple of different places. So, they will need to be fixed again and it will cost more money. When you sign up to reserve a room or rooms in the hall, it is up to our informed staff and volunteers who know the proper way to arrange the dividers to do so. When a room is not reserved ahead of time and someone tries to move the dividers who does not know how to move them, that’s when the dividers get broken. Thank you in advance for your care and attention to our parish hall. May you have a most blessed week!

In Christ,

Father Berg