A message from your priest, Fr. Patrick

Dear Parishioners,

This is a long one, but I have a number of important items to pass on to you. The first is that I am praying for you, for your patience, for your confidence and fearlessness, for your generosity of spirit, and for your health and safety.
 
The second is that I and the parish pastoral team and staff are fine. The seniors have all gone home to work from a safe place, and most of the staff do as much from home as possible, which is quite a lot. We had some confusion as our first round of responses, limiting exposure, have all been undone by subsequent instructions, eliminating exposure. Sigh.
 
Dominic MacAller and I are working on next week’s liturgy. Be there at 10:00 am on Sunday.
 
Brett Becker, our youth minister, is doing amazing things online in Zoom meetings and the like with the teens. If you have a lonely teenager twiddling her thumbs, suggest she look in on Brett’s online gatherings (brett@padreserra.org). Guys too!
 
Tere Delgado is working with her lovely team to get lessons home to all the children in faith formation, to do with their parents. This will be a team effort, parents. Do your best!
 
Among Teresa’s goals at this time is to keep people in ministry connected to each other. If you belong to a parish ministry that needs to meet, please contact her (teresa@padreserra.org) and ask how we can help set up a Zoom meeting. It’s fairly easy, even for this 60 year old who never attended a Zoom meeting until this last week.
 
Among the parish ministries that deserve particular praise is St. Vincent de Paul and members of the Young Adult Ministry, who are working very creatively to take care of households in financial crisis. Now would be a very good time to consider a donation to St. Vincent de Paul!
 
On that point, the parish collection this last weekend was under 1/5th of what we would normally receive. I know that many people have financial stresses. If you can contribute to your parish, now would be a very good time. Checks can be mailed or online offerings can be made at: www.osvonlinegiving.com/4191
Appointments with me:

• I will be accepting online appointments with Zoom, Skype, or by phone.
• They don’t need to be emergencies. They just need to be important to you.
• Please, contact my assistant, Barbara at (babara@padreserra.org)
• She is working from home, so be patient

Parish Seniors

• If you are homebound with no family or friend support and need help with grocery shopping, please contact Teresa at (805) 482·6417 x322 or by email at teresa@padreserra.org

Moral concerns:

• You may wonder if there are any moral consequences to getting sick. Not in general, but if you get sick because you have been careless, in a time when the disease is deadly…then yes, there can be moral responsibility. This is because
  • your own life is of value (and even the young have gotten very ill or died from this coronavirus);
  • you may infect others;
  • your caregivers are also put at risk;
  • your sickness stresses an already overwhelmed healthcare system, taking sparse medical resources away from others.
    • The moral implications are that we should do our very best to avoid getting sick, and that we are to follow the advice of the experts: stay home, maintain at least 6 feet, wash your hands, don’t touch your face, etc.
• Regarding hording, we are as important as others. However, we aren’t more important. Don’t let irrational fear drive you, especially when it may leave others at a disadvantage.
  • The moral implications are that we should obtain, in as safe a way as possible, what we need, but that we should not horde.
• We have to treat every stranger as someone at risk. You don’t know when the person you see, who looks young and healthy, is actually compromised because of 
  • their smoking,
  • a genetic disability, of which they might not even be aware,
  •  their health history, which you simply cannot know.
    •  The moral implication is that we are maintaining all of the recommendations given by the health community because our faith instructs us to have a general concern for everyone, including those who look healthy, but aren’t.

The sacrament of reconciliation / confession:

• The archbishop has suspended all confessions except for people in extreme danger.
• I cannot hear your confession over the phone or computer; priest and penitent must be physically present to each other. The archbishop told us specifically not to do drive by confessions.
• In the absence of the opportunity to go to the sacrament, please do as Pope Francis has instructed:
  • make your confession directly to God,
  • trust in God’s mercy,
  • and make use of the first opportunity you have when the crisis passes, to make a sacramental confession with a priest.

Pastoral care of the sick
(Please read even if no one in the household is sick yet)

• Apart from emergencies, the situation does not permit me to make communion or confession visits, though I will certainly speak to the sick over the phone. Please, arrange this by emailing my assistant, Barbara (barbara@padreserra.org), who is working from home.
• If the sick have a severe case of the coronavirus, you need to tell me that before I come. I will not be able to touch them or stand close to their head. This means, to give them the sacrament of the sick, I will need:
  • to wear a mask, goggles and gloves (I will bring them);
  • to stand at their feet, one of which will need to be uncovered;
  • to anoint them with a Q-tip or some other distancing mechanism.
• If there is a realistic fear of death from any disease or age related weakness, please call the parish emergency number, (805) 512·3208, and I will do my best to come.
  • Please don’t wait to the very last moment, as it’s always better to care for the conscious, who may well desire to go to confession if they can.
  • If you can call in daylight hours, please do so. In an emergency do what you need to do.
  • Please hear this: In my experience, the dying most often know that they are dying (dementia aside), and though they may not want to make you uncomfortable by talking about it, they often will be very free to have a comforting conversation with me, discussing their fears and hopes – because they often have both. Don’t deny them that chance by waiting till they are unconscious.

Sunday and weekday Mass

• The current restrictions against saying Mass with a community present extend through April 18, the Sunday after Easter. This is following the request of the governor of California and the archbishop of Los Angeles.
• My guess is, having observed the crisis in other places, that this shut down will probably be extended, rather than shortened. Whatever the governor says, I believe the archbishop will follow.
• We will continue to livestream Mass. We will always maintain a link on the home page of the parish. So you will be able to find our livestream at
  • www.padreserra.org
  • The actual page will be www.padreserra.org/mass
  • The best streaming experience can be found at www.youtube.com/psptv/live
  • We will try to have a worship aid, if possible. I received some pictures in which people watched the Mass on their TV, while following the worship aid on their iPad. If you have to choose one or the other, I recommend the Mass livestream.

Stations of the Cross

• The Stations of the Cross Garden is available for those who agree to maintain a 6 foot distance from others. If you come as a family, please respect the 6 foot distance others need and allow them to pass.
• Please do not use the plastic sheets containing the text of the stations. We have no one to sterilize them at this point and they could become a source of contagion.
• Instead, use the online versions, found at www.padreserra.org/stations. They work really well with your smartphone.

Holy Week and Easter

• We will be trying to observe a simplified, yet prayerful Holy Week / Triduum. This will include:
  • the Chrism Mass, where the oils used in anointing the sick, baptism, confirmation and ordination are blessed;
    • this will be streamed by the archdiocese, not the parish, and probably at lacatholics.org/tag/liturgy -- the actual URL has not been released yet.
  • the Mass of the Lord’s Supper,
  • the Good Friday service,
  • ​the 10:00 am Easter morning Mass.
    • The parish will stream them on the same channels as the Sunday Mass, above.

Baptisms, weddings and funerals

• Baptisms, apart from danger of death, and baptismal classes are postponed indefinitely.
• Weddings are permitted with restrictions.
  • The couple must have obtained a marriage license.
  • With priest or deacon presiding, the couple may only have 7 guests, who must observe the 6 foot distancing.
  • Only the brief wedding ceremony may be done, without the Mass and without instrumentalists or cantor, unless they are included among the 7 guests.
• Funeral Masses are replaced by the simple rites at the grave with a maximum of 10 attending, including the priest or deacon.

If you have general questions, email the parish (parish@padreserra.org) or call the parish number (805) 482·6417 and Jane will direct your question to the right person.
 
In everything, we have to keep seeking those ways in which we can experience Jesus, even in a more constrained environment, and be His disciples in these troubled times.
 
Love from your priest,
Fr. Patrick

Padre Serra/COVID-19 Updates