I pray that everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Years.  I am sure that too many of us ate too much, but that is what gyms and New Year’s Resolutions are for.  Now it is time the face the difficulties of going back to school or work, and the credit card bills that will come due sooner than we would like.  

My niece, Sydney, and her family faced the end of the Christmas break with a particularly cold “slap” in the face.  They had gone to Hawaii to visit Sydney’s mother (my sister), and returned to North Carolina in time for the Arctic cold.  Going from the 90 degrees of Kona, HI to the 20 degrees of Durham, NC was a shock.  But they will survive, as will all of us.

My family has come to realize that as a priest, I am more likely to celebrate “Boxing Day” -- the day after Christmas.  That was particularly the case this year as I said 10 Masses over 3 days; half of them being on December 24.  After the last Mass on Christmas day, I grabbed a turkey flatbread sandwich at Wawa (thanks to a gift card from a parishioner), and then took a long nap.  My family and I got together at Mom’s on December 26 when I was more awake to celebrate the season.

The deacons and many parishioners have suggested that I look at reducing the Mass schedule.  As a priest, I am a bit reluctant to do that, but I also have to be realistic as to what I can do on my own.  Now don’t worry; we are NOT changing our regular weekday and weekend Mass schedule.  While I would like to have a weekend assistant, I can manage what we have.  

However, we are going to have a small change in the Mass schedule for Holy Days which fall during the week.  Our ushers do a great job at keeping a count of just how many people attend each Mass, so looking at that data and consulting with the Parish Council and the deacons, I have decided that for Holy Days that fall during the week (e.g., Ash Wednesday, the Ascension, the Assumption, All Saints, Immaculate Conception) we are just going to have two Masses; 9 AM at St. Casimir and 7 PM at Holy Name, we will no longer have a vigil Mass.  The one modification to this general rule will be the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God (January 1); we will do what we did this year, a 5 PM vigil at St. Casimir, and 10 AM at Holy Name the day of.

I have also looked at the Christmas Mass schedule.  The two vigils, at 5 PM and 10 PM are tremendously popular; about 500 attended the 5 PM at Holy Name this year, and over 225 attended the 10 PM at St. Casimir.  Both vigils will stay as they are.  Christmas Day Masses, however, were sparsely attended:  less than 100 at the 8 AM, and 128 at both the 10 AM and Noon.  So next year on Christmas Day we will have a 9 AM at Holy Name and 11 AM at St. Casimir.

I thank you for your understanding.