In Today’s Gospel
Christmas is over, the trees and decorations have been put away.  We are now in Ordinary Time.  Often, we think of the word ordinary as meaning plain, nothing special, the usual, but there is nothing ordinary about Ordinary Time.  The season is called Ordinary Time because it is ordered, directed towards something.  Ordinary Time is ordered towards our growth in the life of Christ.  That is why we use the color green during this season.  Green is a sign of growth and life. 

Christ calls us to himself, and we must respond.  In today’s gospel, we hear the last words of the Blessed Virgin Mary that are recorded in Scripture:  “Do whatever he tells you.” (Jn 1:5b) This is sound advice for us to follow today.

It should come as no surprise that the arrival of Jesus would cause disruption, whether it is a wedding in Cana 2,000 years ago or in our lives today.  I do not think it is a coincidence that they ran out of wine after Jesus and his disciples arrived (remember, several of Jesus’ disciples were fishermen).  When Jesus calls us out of our sin, out of our comfort, he disrupts our lives, but he does not disrupt us only to abandon us.  He is there to help us if we follow the advice of Mary and “Do whatever he tells you.”

Pardon Our Dust
If you think back to the days before the pandemic, you may recall that at St. Mary, we were planning to replace the carpet in the church.  We had set aside more than $100,000 for that project.  The pandemic, and some unforeseen maintenance issues, forced us to put that project on hold.  The money we had set aside helped to keep us going during the worst of the pandemic. 

Thanks to your generosity, our financial situation has stabilized, but still we are careful with our spending.  While we must be frugal, we must continue to improve our facilities.  Recently, we have had a generous benefactor donate the money to get our floor project back on track. 

As we reevaluated the project based on our current finances, we realized we had to cut back some of what we originally planned.  The original plan called for ceramic tile throughout most of the church, with carpet under the chairs.  The tile has been eliminated.  Carpet has worked just fine for decades; it will continue to work in the future.

Two important parts of the project are reinforcing the floor under the central aisle and making our altar more accessible.  To make the altar more accessible, we are building a bridge between the main altar and the old altar, with a ramp to provide access to the altar.  The lumber for this project should be delivered this week and the construction will begin the following week.

Reinforcing the central aisle is a bigger project.  This project will begin in February and will involve cutting holes in the floor and digging holes in the ground to pour concrete footings.  These footings will support a steel beam that will extend the length of the central aisle.  This project is expected to take several weeks.

While this construction is ongoing, there will be some disruption to the church, especially on weekdays.  We hope to keep all weekend masses in the church during construction; however, there may be a weekend or two when we need to move masses to the Activity Center.  In February, we will be moving all weekday masses at St. Mary, from the church, to the Holy Family Meeting Room or the Activity Center.  Funerals during this time will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis; however, they will most likely be moved to St. Richard.  These changes will allow a minimum of disruption during construction.

I thank you for your patience during this time of disruption.  A short-term inconvenience will result in an improved worship space for years.