This is a copy of a letter mailed to all parishioners around April 24, 2020
My Dear Sisters and Brothers,
Happy Easter!
I was so looking forward to celebrating my first Easter with you. I guess I’ll have to wait for another year. I miss you all and have wondered how you are doing. I do hope you are keeping well and safe.
Fr. Harry and I have been trying to keep well even as we continue to visit our shut-ins and the sick in the hospital. It is necessary at this time for Fr. Harry to minimize his outings. I have asked him to allow me to do the shopping but he doesn’t seem to listen to me. Every now and then, I see him early in the morning coming back with groceries. Oh well, he is wise enough to go before the rush hours.
Since we were asked to close the churches, I have thought of how to stay connected with every parishioner and all our families. We have been making phone calls to ensure everyone is keeping well. So far, everyone is good. However, the scourge of loneliness and isolation is still a burden that many are dealing with.
Apart from telephone calls, and in order to continue offering the necessary spiritual and pastoral support needed, these are the things we have been doing: Daily Live-stream Mass at 9am, Drive-thru Confession, Easter Parking Lot Eucharistic Adoration, Divine Mercy Novena at 3pm. This week, we started praying a live stream Rosary at 3pm daily. Parking Lot Eucharistic Adoration will be repeated on the first Sunday of May (May 3). We have done all this being mindful of social distancing. So, join us for Mass everyday and plan to come for May 3 Adoration if you can. Details will follow in the coming days.
Our Lenten and Holy Week journey this year was surely unique. I think many of us wondered how we would approach Easter if we could not be together physically in our churches to be fed by the Word of God and the Holy Eucharist. We are grateful for the gift of technology. We are also immensely grateful to God for our technical crew: Vince and Bernadette Parrott and Nolan Adam. We are also thankful to our readers and musicians: Tug and Sylvia McGraw, Bernadette Parrott, David Hansen, Rachel Donegan and Malcolm Rodrigues.
We would not have been able to do these spiritual activities without them. Please join me in asking God to bless them. Truly, these spiritual activities have brought special blessings to me and to so many in our community. Permit me to share with you one testimony I received:
I have really been enjoying following mass services online. This is great for people, such as myself, that have social anxiety from being in large groups. I hope that this is continued into the future. Streaming the Novena to the Divine Mercy has also been amazing!! I now cannot wait to return to church when the Pandemic health concerns are finished. I felt that it was important to share with you that at the end of the “Divine Mercy Finally,” when you were blessing us with the Sacred Host, my senses were overcome with the powerful aroma of Roses that lasted for several minutes. I also experienced an overwhelming sense of peace and calm. Thank you for sharing this beautiful gift with me and my family! God Bless you! ❤
Liturgy Participation
Generally, we live stream the following liturgies or events:
- Daily Mass at 9:00am Monday-Friday
- Sunday Mass at 9:00am
- Adoration for 30 minutes after Mass on Wednesday & Friday
- Saturday morning Mass or devotion at 9:00am
- Special devotions and prayers, like Novenas
At this time, we cannot receive our Lord in person at Communion. The Church encourages us to make an act of “spiritual communion “. You can receive great blessings and graces by expressing your desire to do so. At Communion pray the following Act of Spiritual Communion:
My Jesus,
I believe that You are present in the Most Blessed Sacrament.
I love You above all things, and I desire to receive You into my soul.
Since I cannot now receive You sacramentally,
come at least spiritually into my heart.
I embrace You as if You have already come and unite myself wholly to You.
Never permit me to be separated from You.
Amen.
To participate in any of these events through live streaming over the Internet you need the following:
- A computer (Windows or Apple), tablet, or smartphone with Internet connection
- Web browser (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari, etc.) and go to https://catholicpenticton.org
- Your web browser should now display our website. On the menu bar at the top of the web page, click on Events
- Select the event you want to participate in
- The live stream video should start at the scheduled time or thereabouts.
For those who do not make use of the technology outlined above, you can watch Mass on EWTN or Salt and Light.
Staying in Touch: Choices
I just want to remind everyone of the choices you have for receiving information from us, especially since many of you are used to getting most of your news on a weekly basis through the bulletin which we cannot produce for now or the foreseeable future.
Our Website (https://catholicpenticton.org): This is the primary place to find information. If you’re wondering when Mass, or another event, is being streamed and how to connect, go into the Events section of the website. On the main page of the website you’ll find news, posts, and other information. So, if we have something to say, it goes on the website first. After it’s posted there, then we consider other avenues of communication to support or promote it.
Email Communication List: We now have an email communication list that you can subscribe or unsubscribe from as you wish. This is the easiest, quickest, and most cost-effective way for us to send information to large numbers of parishioners. If you are not on this list, please consider signing up. There are several places on our website where you can subscribe, but the easiest way to find it is right on the main page. When you get to our website just scroll down until you get just past the pictures of the Pope, the Bishop, and me. There you will find a simple form that you can fill out with your name and email address – do not forget to press the Subscribe button after filling it out. After hitting Subscribe it will send an email to the address you provided to confirm your request – be sure to click the button in that email to confirm it!
Or to make it simpler for you: give us a call or email us at penticton@nelsondiocese.org We will be happy to include you on our email list. I DO HOPE THAT YOU WILL HELP US TO BE CONNECTED WITH YOU BY BEING PART OF OUR EMAIL LIST.
We generally send emails out to highlight important messages and events and point people to places on the website where they can get more details.
Facebook: If you’re a Facebook user then you may want to consider joining our Facebook group. We have almost 250 members now! The group is intended to help Parishioners, past, present or potential, to connect with each other and share. It is a more informal, conversational way to connect with others in our community. If you request membership, Facebook will ask you to answer a few questions. We review every membership request to see if the person answered them and use that to evaluate the request to join. If you are interested, search Facebook groups for “Catholic Parishes Penticton” (or click here).
So, what if you want to contact the Parish? Melinda Edis is back in office! (from 9am – 2.30pm)! I am mostly in the office, too.
Email: If you have questions or comments that you feel comfortable putting in an email then send it to me at sajpastor@telus.net or to Melinda at penticton@nelsondiocese.org
Telephone: I can be reached in my office at (250) 492-3162 or Melinda Edis at (250) 492-3169.
Facebook: Connect with me on Facebook! Then we can chat over Messenger, too. Just search for “Obiora Ibekwe Sylvester”.
Ongoing Support of Parish Operating Costs
These are difficult times. Know that we are praying for you every day at Mass. We are also praying for those in our community who are suffering through job loss, closure of a business, or even the impacts of physical isolation. If you are one of those struggling to make ends meet, our sincere prayer is that Jesus may make a way for you. We are thinking about you.
We have continued to receive messages from our parishioners wanting to know how to continue to make the weekly offering so as to help in keeping up the life of the parish, payment of bills and other things. Many of our parishioners have taken the time to drop off donations in our secure mailbox located in front of the parish office. Others have mailed their donations. It is amazing to see the generosity of our people and your concern to ensure that our parish life continues. One parishioner said to me: “I sure want to see the doors of our Church still open when this whole thing is over.” We are deeply grateful. Thank you. Thank you.
In addition to the mailbox, we have another alternative. We have completed the setup and testing of our new online donation system. We are happy to share with you that we have partnered with CanadaHelps.org to facilitate the donations to our Parishes over the Internet. CanadaHelps is:
- Trusted by Canadians and charities for over 19 years.
- Helping more than 20,000 charities.
- Supporting almost 2 million Canadians donate to charities.
- Proud to have raised over $1 billion in donations.
- Self-funded, using just 1.8% of donation revenues to fulfill our mission.
For details on options for your offerings, go to our website and on the Menu bar select Living Our Faith and then select Giving to Our Parish.
This is a summary of our financial standing from March 15 to April 19 at St. John Vianney (6 weeks)
| St. John Vianney | Actual | Budget | Variance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weekly Offering Budget for the past 6 weeks | 7,233.14 | 12,000.00 | -4,766.86 |
| Year-to-date | 29,558.79 | 34,000.00 | -4,441.21 |
| Other Donations: | |||
| – Easter | 210.00 | 2,000.00 | -1,790.00 |
| – Holy Land/ Good Friday | 70.00 | ||
| – Development & Peace | 67.00 |
| St. Ann’s | Actual | Budget | Variance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weekly Offering Budget for the past 6 weeks | 11,049.30 | 31,092.00 | -20,042.70 |
| Year-to-date | 59,604.26 | 88,094.00 | -28,489.74 |
| Other Donations: | |||
| – Easter | 2,105.00 | 5,182.00 | -3,077.00 |
| – Holy Land/ Good Friday | 575.00 | ||
| – Development & Peace | 275.00 | ||
| – Youth Ministry | 170.00 |
Outreach
Do you know others that are struggling to stay informed about our Parish activities? Perhaps reach out by phone and, if they need it, help them understand how to use the methods we are using mentioned above so they too can stay connected to our community. This is also the perfect opportunity to ask them how they’re doing. Do they need anything, like groceries? I invite anyone in need to call me and ask how I can help.
St. Vincent de Paul: Many parishioners also support our parish community outreaches, like St. Vincent de Paul, with their time and/or their finances. We are grateful to the members of St. Vincent de Paul and all who support in various ways to see that those in need in our community are taken care of. If you are wondering how to support financially, online donation can be made by going to CanadaHelps.org
Easter Gift (included in mail out)
Please find enclosed an Easter card/prayer for your family, as well as some pictures from Holy Week and Easter Celebrations (Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday).
I ask for you continued support, prayers and patience as we move forward with various endeavours during this difficult time. Fr. Harry and I are grateful for your love, prayers and good wishes. Pray that Fr. Harry listens to me and not go out as much for shopping. He enjoys his walk daily, so that’s good.
We miss you. God bless you.
Your brother,
Fr. Obi