Our nation is in crisis and in pain. There are peaceful protests demanding justice; there are lawless looters causing destruction. All during a pandemic, which has revealed many injustices in our society but where the effects on black and brown communities have been felt the strongest. Recent events have caused our parish staff to give thought to how we will respond as a parish. We always begin with prayer. If you were not able to join us for the livestream of the Prayer Service for Racial Healing last week, you can view it HERE. We realize we also need time to examine our consciences, to ask ourselves how we might be contributing to the problem of racism. Please consider reading the article by Fr. Bryan Massingale, "The Assumptions of White Privilege and What We Can Do About It". We hope you will discuss it with your families. We hope you will read it even if you think it doesn’t apply to you. We also realize we need to spend time educating ourselves, so we will provide a growing LIST OF RESOURCES for parishioners to use on their own. We are planning to choose a book for our parish to read together and to have a small group program when we are able to come back together. Racism is a life issue that will not go away on its own; we need to do the work. Pope Francis said, “We cannot tolerate or turn a blind eye to racism and exclusion in any form and yet claim to defend the sacredness of every human life.”