Butler Area Catholic Parishes

More Updates!

     Bishop Zubik informed us last Friday that in addition to the continued 75% of church capacity Mass attendance that we are permitted (wearing masks), we are now permitted to have altar servers under the age of 18. We also are allowed to have more than one instrumentalist and cantor during liturgies.

     For altar servers, this means we will have refresher sessions for current servers and training sessions for new altar servers. Please stay tuned for further bulletin, website, and Mass announcements as to when and where we will have these training sessions.

     Additionally, our music director, Catie Brown, soon will begin adding our folk group, The Spiritans, and our contemporary group, Grateful, back on the weekend Mass schedule. She will reach out to those of you interested in resuming or joining our adult choir –  we will have one adult choir for our grouping, which soon will be one parish, and one children's choir. Once she has these choirs in place, they will begin singing at weekend Masses in the fall.

     I am really excited about the music possibilities here in Butler.  I am confident in Catie's desire and ability to gather musicians and cantors of different ages and skill sets to add even more vibrance and beauty to our liturgical celebrations.

Newly Merged Parish Celebrations in the Early Planning Stages

     We are beginning to build positive spiritual and communal momentum as we continue to emerge from the isolation of the pandemic.  Getting “caught up” in the presence, the flow, the movement of the Holy Spirit that we celebrate liturgically on Pentecost is exciting and life changing!

     If we get our COVID vaccination shots, continue to wear masks when necessary, practice proper hygiene, etc. we will further be able to gather in greater numbers for Eucharistic celebrations, and many other parish-related gatherings throughout the year.

     Since we still are limited in gathering at full capacity, yet want to acknowledge the July 1 merger of our five parishes into one parish, we are going to do the following:

Friday, July 2, at 7pm at St. Conrad Church (Meridian)

• Evening Prayer with exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. Evening Prayer is part of the Liturgy of the Hours, the official “prayer of the church” that clergy and religious pray regularly, and that anyone can pray. This kind of prayer will be new to most of you, which is good and healthy. It signifies a newness in our lives of faith.
• 75% of church capacity attendance permitted; masks required
• Livestreamed on Facebook 
• Light reception to follow outside, weather permitting, or in social hall
   

Light receptions after the following Masses the weekend of July 3-4:

• 4pm July 3 at St. Michael the Archangel Church
• 8am July 4 at St. Peter Church 
• 8:30am July 4 at St. Conrad Church
• 10am July 4 at St. Paul Church
• 11am July 4 at St. Andrew Church

     Until we are able to erect new, permanent signage at each location, we will have banners with the new parish name hung at all five of our churches to welcome everyone to our new parish. We expect to know the new parish name by the end of May.
    We will plan for July of 2022 to host our first annual parish picnic at Armco Park, and to host our first 5K Fun Run/Walk in Meridian.  Stay tuned for details as our first year of a merged parish comes to fruition.

Mother’s Day

     We wish all of our mothers a very Happy Mother’s Day!

     I pray for all of you daily.

Yours in Christ,

Rev. Kevin C. Fazio

For other bulletin messages from Father Kevin, click here.