My Dear People of St. Patrick,


I am reaching out to you this weekend since we cannot be together for Mass, to assure you of my love and prayers, and to provide a few resources to help you navigate a weekend as faithful Catholics unable to be at Holy Mass.

1.  Most important: please remember that the Lord has not abandoned us!  I am still celebrating Mass daily for you and your intentions, to call down from heaven the grace of God that we all need.  These graces are so real!

2.  For the duration of this situation, the church will be open for two hours daily, Monday through Friday from 5:00 pm until 7:00 pm and Saturday and Sunday from 11:00 am until 1:00 pm.  During these hours each day, there will be Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and confessions available.  I ask that if you choose to come to pray in church, you maintain appropriate Social Distancing and be respectful and mindful of the health of your fellow parishioners at prayer.

3.  I am currently investigating options for live-streaming Mass from St. Patrick's in case this situation persists.  For this weekend, if you would like to watch Mass online, there are many options including several right here at home.  I suggest going to watchmass.com to tune into several Masses from our local diocese, including a Mass celebrated by Bishop Spalding which will be available on Sunday morning at 10:30 am.  

4.  I have posted a video with a short message to you all.  Please watch!  You can access my message at https://youtu.be/GKuxn88AHWs or on the parish website.  I will have a more formal written version uploaded to the parish website by the end of the weekend in the “Homily” section.

5.  The Bishop has reminded us all that keeping the sabbath holy is still important!  Please pray the Holy Rosary, the Stations of the Cross, and/or read the Sunday Mass readings as a worthy substitute for attending Mass.  There are several helpful resources for prayers to say on Sundays when attending Mass is impossible.  A few are: 

https://www.keepthelordsday.com,  

https://adw.org/coronavirus-dispensation-and-prayers/,  and 

https://dioceseofnashville.com/formation.  

6.  Please remember that the parish still needs your prayers and your financial assistance!  The bills continue to come due even at times like this, and we want to be able to hit the ground running when we are all back together again.  If you are able, please continue to support the parish financially, by mailing in your weekly envelope, stopping by and dropping your contribution in the basket when the church is open, or: this would be a wonderful opportunity to begin Online Giving, which is safe and convenient, and can be set up once for recurring weekly donations.  Our direct parish-specific website for Online Giving is https://www.osvonlinegiving.com/4758.  

7.  Please continue to monitor the parish website and dioceseofnashville.com/illness for updates about church life during this unusual time.  

Thank you all for your prayers and expressions of love and support.  We will continue to keep each other in prayer, and I look forward to the day when we worship together in our beautiful church once again!

God bless you all,
Fr Hammond