53rd Sunday Collection during the remainder of the year!!
As part of our ongoing efforts to raise money for the roof, but also to meet everyday operating expenses, we are asking everyone to donate an extra week’s collection in the second half of October. This is a “53rd” week of the year collection and it would be tremendously helpful for us to provide some money for the ongoing roof repairs, but also for our usual expenses as well. It takes a great deal of money to get us through each month (salaries and pay for hourly employees, insurance, utilities, cost of non-roof repairs, supplies, and other items) and we cannot continue to do this without your help! The truth is, dear friends, that we come up short each month with our operating expenses, requiring us to continually rely on withdrawing from savings. Although this is not an uncommon thing for any of us, it does make future financial planning somewhat difficult.
All of you will also be getting a letter in the mail (that will come in your envelope packet) as well as an email to describe this 53rd week collection. You may place this collection in the regular Sunday offering basket, either in a plain white envelope (write 53rd week on the front) or by taking one of the yellow envelopes that can be found at the entrances of the church that say “Parish Projects.” We will collect this money through the rest of October and into November and December.
We hope that all of you will seriously consider giving another week’s collection to help us as the end of the year draws near. We will do our best to continue to explore other ways in which we can cut our expenses down, but we can only do so much. We are very grateful for what you do give out of the generosity of your hearts, but if you can give a little more, it would be a very significant help to our parish. Thank you for all that you do for Blessed Sacrament!
Important update on the status of the roof repairs!!
Unfortunately, we received some bad news from the company that has agreed to carry out the work on our parish roofs. Because of ongoing supply chain issues (to say nothing of the rising cost of materials) our roofing company is behind their original timelines. Currently, there are 2 other churches that are scheduled for roof repairs before our own. The roofing company is in the middle of making these repairs, yet they themselves are stopped because of delays in the shipment of vital materials. This means that our original timeline of having all of the roofs fixed before the end of the calendar year will not be possible.
The company is able, however, to fix one important section of roof. This is the area of the main church where the chapel and other rooms are attached. The section of the church that includes the Divine Mercy Chapel, the sacristy, the bathrooms, the choir room, and the counting room will thankfully be finished before the end of the year. However, the roof sections of Fr. Cotter Hall, the school, and the Parish Center will have to wait until the spring.
~ Fr. Martin Gallagher