August 29, 2021

Dear St. Martin of Tours Family and Friends,

BIBLE STUDY HAS RETURNED!

My Bible Study on THE PSALMS starts up again Wednesday, September 1 at 7 p.m. You may attend in three ways:

1. Come to the rectory where we will meet in my office (which will be very interesting I think, depending on the number who show up)
2. You may watch on our parish website livestream
3. You may watch on ZOOM

It might turn out that my office will be a bit cramped, but probably not. If you are concerned about COVID variants, you will want to remain at home anyway. We’ll see what happens. We will start where we left off with Psalm 34.

LOVE IS OFTEN A MATTER OF PLANNING AHEAD

I was thinking the other day as I was anointing one of our parishioners in one of our local facilities, how wonderful it would be if instead of placing our loved ones in nursing homes we could find a way to keep them in their own homes. Instead of paying the assisted living institution maybe we could use the money for home care? Such is often easier said than done, for example, special showers and handicapped bathrooms are needed. However – and I open this question for all of you reading this bulletin – is there a way this can be done? Are there services available?  If you (yes, you!) can inform me about how to make this possible, I think that would be a great service to so many in our parish who want to spend their final months with their loved ones at home, and most certainly not in an institution separated from family!

Maybe it would be a good idea to make necessary alterations in your home now, before someone falls ill, so that if and when that happens, you’ll be ready.

WE ARE FAMILY

Lasty, I consider how many in our parish are shut-ins or who live alone. What if something happened to them (or you), for example, you slipped and fell and couldn’t get to the phone to dial 911. What if you passed out and hit your head on the tile floor? It could be days before someone found you, and then it could be too late. Here is something else I was thinking about: A program/service/help (whatever you want to call it) that our parish, or a parish organization, could provide that would check up on people living alone every day. For example, a phone call at a certain time; or a visit at a certain time; or maybe we could expect the person living alone to phone here every day at a certain time? You get the picture, right? We need to look out for one another!

So I am throwing this idea out there as well. Many of you have a wealth of life experience and you already know how to help in ways that wouldn’t occur to me. I need your input. We all need each other, do we not? God made us that way, too: So that we may have many opportunities to love.

In Christ,