DIVINE MERCY PARISH Schuyler, NE

St. Augustine’s Church - 619 Banner

St. Mary’s Church - 1019 Banner

Parish Office - 308 West 10th

May 31st, 2020

Divine Mercy Parish Mission Statement:

Our mission is to be a living sign of God reflecting the Divine Mercy of Jesus Christ.

Pentecost Sunday On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you” JOHN 20:19

Divine Mercy Parish Office

308 west 10th Street Schuyler, Ne 68661

Phone:402-352-3540 Fax:402-352-5971 E-mail: divinemercyschuyler@gmail.com Web: divinemercyschuyler .com Pastor: Fr . Ger ry Gonderinger

Associate Pastor: Fr . Jairo E. Congote

Deacons: Danny Hastings

Paul Doerneman

Bookkeeper Secretary: Patr icia Gonzalez

Secretary: Yenny Delgado

DRE: Renee Blum

CFF Secretary: Adriana Alarcon

Facilities Mgr.: Deacon Danny Hastings

Maintenance: Jim Gonsior

Rosary Crusade: Carol Hastings

Mass No Masses in Church

Mass available for viewing Facebook Live Stream

7:00am / Fr. Gerry 12:00pm / Fr. Jairo

Sacraments

Reconciliation: Contact Pr iest. Baptisms: Contact Par ish Office. Weddings: Please contact The Par ish Office six months in advance. Special arrangements are required for anyone 18 or under.

From Fr. Gerry… Ordination: Deacon Maur icio Tovar will be ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Omaha on June 6th at the Cathedral. Sorry that we cannot extend an open invitation for everyone to attend this event because of the Covid-19. You must have a ticket to enter the Cathedral for this event. (They have limited the ordination to 50 priests as well.) Because of the virus, we will not be able to have the parish celebration of his ordination that we wished, but we will do that later when it is safer. Pentecost: We so wanted to be open this weekend

for the great feast of Pentecost, but safety comes first. Pentecost is the union of the Holy Spirit with the Church. The

Holy Spirit connects us to Jesus. Because of the Holy Spirit, God is present to us in the sacraments. One Eastern Catholic theologian put it well: “Without the Holy Spirit, God is far away. Christ stays in the past; the gospel is a dead letter; the Church is simply an organization; authority is a matter of domination; mission a matter of propaganda; liturgy no more than idle remembering; Christian living only a slave morality. But in the Holy Spirit, the world is resurrected, the risen Christ is here, the gospel is the power of life, the Church shows forth the life of the Trinity, authority is a liberating service, mission is Pentecost, the liturgy makes present the action of the Lord, and human action is alive with the power of God.” Tentative Opening for Public Mass: June 13-14, 2020

We are setting June 13-14 as a tentative opening for public Mass. This will depend on the conditions of the pandemic in Colfax County. We may have to suspend Masses if the pandemic gets worse or people are not observing social distancing etc. At the moment of this writing, we have 599 in Colfax county with Covid-19. 1 out of every 12.5 adults in Colfax county has tested positive. The infection has disproportionately hit the Hispanic community. Even this 599 is a low estimate, because spouses are not often counted in this number. However, a reason for hope is that we have not experienced the proportionate fatalities that New York experienced.

WHO predicted that 3.4% of those with the virus would die which would have meant 20 deaths in Colfax county rather than 2. Our mortality rate is 10 times lower than the WHO prediction. We pray to God that our mortality rate does not increase. (Sorry for the gruesome statistics, but they give us some reason for thankfulness.)

The archbishop has continued the suspension of the obligation to attend Mass until further notice due to the pandemic. Even when we open the following people should not come to church (per advice of Archbishop Lucas):

The elderly or people with underlying medical conditions .

Family members who live with elderly people or those who are at risk.

People who have access to those at risk in nursing institutions.

People who have or live with someone who has upper respiratory or flu like symptoms .

People with COVID-19 or live with someone with COVID-19 or people who have been exposed to someone with COVID-19.

These will be the rules/procedures for public Mass when we open:

The critically important thing is that everyone wears a face mask. From my understanding of the pandemic, this is perhaps even more important than social distancing.

Please do not come to Mass without a face mask. The face mask protects the rest of us. Scientists say we need 1,000 droplets to get the virus. (A cough contains 200,000 droplets.) In just talking, we expel about 100 droplets a minute. (This is why no communion on the tongue at this time.)

It is going to be difficult to observe social distancing in church. In the beginning we will try to put only one family in every other pew. Please do not bring your pre-teenage children to Church at this time, even if only one parent can come (the other parent can go to another mass or weekend). If we have filled up the Church, we will have to close the doors! At St. Mary’s, the overflow can go to the basement to observe social distancing.

We need two hours between Masses to sanitize the church. Therefore we will move Sunday 8:00am Mass to St. Mary's, and move the Spanish 9:30am Sunday Mass to 9:00am at St. Augustine's.

Our Saturday schedule will be the same. Sunday schedule: English at 8:00 and 10am at St. Mary's; Spanish at 9:00 and 11:00 at St. Augustine's. (Not sure yet whether we will have the Sunday 5:00pm Mass at St. Mary's that weekend.)

Father Gerry continue….

All communion must be received in the hand. No communion on the tongue during the pandemic. One line for communion leading to Plexiglas communion

station. We will mark off with tape 6 foot increments on the main aisle, please observe these when coming to communion. We will begin communion from the back of Church.

Every other pew will be taped off to be left vacant. (We may have to do this for a while). We have narrow aisles on the side of the pews, please move in so that a person coming back from communion is 6 feet away from you if you are at the end of the pew.

There will be no missalettes in the pews. (If so we would have to sanitize each one between masses.) We will have to sing our songs in Church from memory.

The Church pews and doorknobs and bathrooms will be sanitized between masses. We will dismiss people after Mass from the back rows first. Please do not gather in front of the church. The priest will not process in or out, but we come out from the sacristy and return there.

There will be no servers during this time. We will see about lectors and EMHC’s later on.

There will be only one person distributing communion. We will begin with the people in the back row of Church. Come towards the altar in a single file, six feet apart. Receive the host in your hand, step two steps to the side, take off your facemask and put the host in your mouth.

I know we haven’t thought of everything, but we do all this for our mutual safety. If you have any suggestions, please let me know. Please wear a mask to protect everyone else.

Odds and Ends Bulletin: To get the English bulletin on the

internet, use this link: https://www.parishesonline.com/find/divine-mercy-parish You can then download the latest bulletin as well as back issues. We have printed copies of the bulletin in St. Mary’s by the elevator on the top floor.

Faith Formation Registration: You can register for this fall’s Faith Formation classes on our web site. Click on “Faith Formation” and then “Registration 2020- 2021” and you can fill in

all the information on the internet.

Faith Formation Classes: I am conver ting my 7th grade class to long distance learning on the internet. The 1-6 classes will be reduced in size if we have to maintain social distancing.

Food: If you need food, please call Patricia at the rectory. They have drive-through, contactless food distribution on Wednesday nights under the overpass. We do have some food in the garage at St. Mary’s and if you need some, Patricia will get it and place the bags outside the garage door and you can come and pick it up.

You can donate to the parish by going to the archdiocesan web site: www.archomaha.org/offertory. We would appreciate it. If you are still getting your full salary, we

would appreciate your regular contribution. If you aren’t, we’ll suffer with you.

Most Holy Trinity “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son…”

JOHN 3:16 Is your love conditional? Is there a price others have to pay to receive your love and forgiveness? Are you generous with your time, skills, money and possessions? If you give someone something, do you

expect something in return? Do you give your time freely or do you “fit it in” when it’s convenient for you? God desires a personal relationship with us so much that He gave us His Son, unconditionally! Pray for a grateful and generous heart.

Anniversary of Ordination: Last week, I celebrated the 46th anniversary of my ordination. I am so grateful to God for all the wonderful experiences I have had as a priest. If I had it to do over again, I would be ordained with less fear and worry than I had before I experienced the kindness of a parish. My retirement celebration will have to be postponed to a later time when it is safe for us to be together. I’ll still be around, so a retirement celebration is sort of anti-climatic.

Readings for June 1st – 6th

Monday: GN 3:9-15, 20 / JN 19:25-34

Tuesday: 2 PT 3:12-15A, 17-18 / MK 12:13-17 Wednesday: 2 TM 1:1-3, 6-12 / MK 12:18-27

Thursday: 2 TM 2:8-15 / MK 12:28-34 Friday: 2 TM 3:10-17 / MK 12:35-37 Saturday: 2 TM 4:1-8 / MK 12:38-44

Sunday, June 7th

1st: EX 34:4B-6, 8-9 2nd: 2 COR 13:11-13 Gospel: JN 3:16-18

Usccb.org/bible/readings/today

Fr. Gerry: Saturday May 30th - 7:00am / FB † Deceased members of the Pelan & Codr Families.

Fr. Gerry: Sunday May 31st- 7:00am / FB People of the Parish.

Fr. Gerry: Monday June 1st -7:00am / FB † Living & Deceased Members of the Vodehnal & Wachal Families.

Fr. Gerry: Tuesday June 2nd - 7:00am / FB †Lillian Matulka & Debbie Jo Huismann .

Fr. Gerry: Wednesday June 3rd - 7:00am / FB † Dave Krula.

Fr. Gerry: Thursday June 4th - 7:00am / FB † Terrie Wigington.

Fr. Gerry: Friday June 5th - 7:00am / FB † Herbert Vogel.

Divine Mercy Parish Contributions Our weekly budgeted income is: $ 7,425.00 Received : $ 4,751.41 Envelopes: $ 4,558.41 Loose cash $ 13.00 Easter: $ 20.00 Maintenance: $ 10.00 Ascension: $ 65.00 Catholic Communication Campaign: $ 85.00

Background on the Gospel Reading

The Season of Easter concludes with today’s celebration, the Feast of Pentecost. On Pentecost we celebrate the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles gathered in the upper room in Jerusalem; this event marks the beginning of the Church. The story of Pentecost is found in the Acts of the Apostles, today’s first reading. The account in today’s Gospel, John 20:19-23, also recounts how Jesus gave the gift of the Holy Spirit to his disciples. Yet the event in John’s Gospel takes place on Easter Sunday. There is no need to try to reconcile these two accounts. It is enough that we know that after his death, Jesus fulfilled his promise to send to his disciples a helper, an advocate, who would enable them to be his witnesses throughout the world.

We already heard today’s Gospel proclaimed on the Second Sunday of Easter this year (Lectionary Cycle A). That Gospel passage, however, also included the description of Jesus’ appearance to Thomas. In that context, we were led to reflect on belief and unbelief.

In the context of the Feast of Pentecost, John 20:19-23 reminds us about the integral connection between the gifts of peace and forgiveness and the action of the Holy Spirit. Jesus greets his disciples with the gift of peace. Jesus then commissions his disciples to continue the work that he has begun, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” He breathes the Holy Spirit upon the disciples and sends them to continue his work of reconciliation through the forgiveness of sins. Jesus’ act of breathing the Holy Spirit mirrors God’s act of breathing life into Adam at the time of Creation. In fact, both the Greek and Hebrew words for “spirit” can also be translated as “breath.”

This Gospel reminds us that the Church is called to be a reconciling presence in the world. The reconciling presence of Christ is celebrated in the Church’s sacramental life. In the Sacrament of Baptism, we are cleansed of sin and become a new creation in Christ. In the Sacrament of Penance, the Church celebrates the mercy of God through the forgiving of sins. This reconciling presence is also to be a way of life for Christians. In situations of conflict, we are to be agents of peace and harmony among people.