Friends:

Peace be with you.

This weekend, we will be “opening up," meaning there will be more than 10 people at Mass at both St. Joe’s and Sts. Peter and Paul. There’s a side to me that screams “Halleluia”! But, there’s another side that is seeing people become rather cavalier in their approach to the coronavirus. And, I know that “familiarity breeds contempt”, as the old saying goes. We are all going to be very excited, at first, to be back in Mass but, if we don’t implement safety protocols well in the first place or if, over time, people become lax in obeying safety protocols, we may see an outbreak caused by people being in church or people walking away from the church altogether because they don’t feel safe to attend. With regard to that, please know that you do not have to come to Mass. If you are immunocompromised or elderly or have a health condition that makes you fearful about attending Mass, please stay home. If you have children who have difficulty sitting in one place, you may want to wait until they are older before bringing them to church. Even if you just don’t feel comfortable yet, please stay home. There is no Sunday Obligation and won’t be until a vaccine is discovered and wide spread. I know some of you are probably tired of me saying that but I don’t believe it can be overemphasized.

If you do choose to come to Mass,we ask that you wear your mask from your car to the church, wear it all during Mass, and wear it from the church back to your car. If you can’t stand wearing a mask or wouldn’t be able to wear it for an hour without passing out, please stay home. We will have some masks in church but not enough for everyone so please bring your own. An usher will be at the door to open it for you and will spray your hands with an alcohol-based hand sanitizer. If you have your own sanitizer, please show it to the usher and they will let you pass. Another usher will be inside the door with gloves on handing out bulletins to people. The bulletin will be your “program”. It will have the readings and prayers that we will use for Mass. To avoid cross contamination, there are no books either in the pews for your use. The bulletin will not have the songs in it because we’re asking that people not sing with the musicians. A person who sings exhales the equivalent number of particulates to someone coughing or sneezing so, to limit the total particulates in the church, I’ve asked the singer to move farther away from people and to be a “soloist”. Please don’t sing with them, even if it’s one of your favorite songs of all time. Listening is participating too. 

As you enter the body of the church, you will notice that some pews have green signs that say “sit here” and some pews have red signs that say “don’t sit here”. Please sit in the pew (or part of the pew) that is marked in green and leave empty the part marked in red. My hope is that, once you get to a pew, Mass will kind of look normal, just with a mask on. Please speak the prayers that you normally would but be mindful of social distancing. With regard to this, there will not be a collection but there will be baskets by the door for people to deposit their envelopes or cash either on the way into church or on the way out. And there will be a sign of peace but we not only shouldn’t shake hands, we should stay in place and say “peace be with you” only to those close by. If I start to notice people moving around church or shaking hands, we will stop exchanging the sign of peace until after the pandemic is over.

Receiving communion will be different than normal. The communion distributor will come to you so that we don’t have to try to maintain social distance during the communion procession. If you do not want to receive communion, please sit down. If you do want to receive communion, stay standing and the minister will go to the pew ahead of you with a mask on and give you the host. Keep your mask on and say “amen” while the minister puts the host in your hand. Then, when the minister moves to the next person, slide your mask down enough to be able to put the host in your mouth before putting your mask back on. Also, if you would like to receive, please be sure to put the kneeler in the pew in front of you up so the minister can walk in front of you to distribute holy communion. And be sure to use your feet to put the kneelers up and down so as to avoid contamination of your hands. 

Lastly, let me include a few details that will by no means be exhaustive but represent some “common sense” things we can do to avoid cross contamination. First, don’t come to church excessively early or stick around after Mass in order to limit the particulates in church. A group of pre-selected people will be cleaning the church after every Mass and they don’t need your help unless they’ve already asked you for it. Not to be rude, but immediately before and after Mass is not the best time for your holy hour. Please let the cleaners get to their work and come at another time to make your holy hour. Also, pardon a bit of vulgarity but please use the restroom before you get to church and try not to use it during. I know this may be impossible but this limits cross traffic to and from the restroom and eliminates cross contamination of a shared space in the bathroom. 

Lastly, please be patient. I suspect these kinds of restrictions will be in place for quite some time but they are being done for everyone’s safety. I know they can be frustrating but some of that frustration can be stopped through a positive attitude. If we approach these restrictions with a positive attitude, we may find that it’s not nearly as bad as if we constantly complain. We may even find an appreciation for the change. I’m reminded of how I view the dentist as an adult versus how I viewed the dentist as a kid. As a kid, I hated going to the dentist because it hurt to have my teeth cleaned. Now, I appreciate knowing that I will have clean teeth and that many things hurt far worse than having plaque scraped off your teeth, a root canal for instance. Let’s be joyful at the ability to receive communion and be together rather than being annoyed at the safety protocols that we have to put in place. Let us give thanks to the Lord our God for it is right and just. 

-Fr. Dennis MIller

March 17, 2020

Dear Parishioners of St. Joseph and Sts. Peter and Paul,

Following the provisions of the Archdiocese of Dubuque, all parish events and public celebrations of Holy Mass in our parishes are cancelled to help slow the spread of COVID-19 and ‘flatten the curve’ so as to not overburden our healthcare system. (Read the statement from the Archdiocese here.) In these unusual times, we would like to make you aware of how our parish community will be taking steps to continue living our lives yoked to Christ while following the recommendation of the IDPH to practice social distancing.

Fr. Dennis will continue offering private Masses which will be livestreamed on our local Catholic channel on Tuesdays-Fridays at 8:25 a.m. Father will continue offering private Masses at 4:15 p.m. on Saturday and 10:15 a.m. on Sunday which will be livestreamed onto the Catholic channel, as well. The scheduled Mass intentions will be offered and honored at each of these Masses. We are also working to try to livestream each of these Masses on YouTube and Facebook live, so please check our pages on each of those sites if you wish to access live streaming of these Masses from those outlets. Our YouTube page also contains recordings of all of our Sunday Masses.

We highly recommend that members of our parish community set aside a ‘Family Holy Hour’ (at least) weekly at home, perhaps watching the livestream (or recordings) of Mass together, or praying through the Mass readings together to keep faith as a central part of all of our lives. The readings for each day can be found at http://www.usccb.org/bible/index.cfm . Members of our parish families are also invited to make an ‘Act of Spiritual Communion’ as often as they wish. The prayer to receive a Spiritual Communion is as follows: 

My Jesus, I believe that you are present in the Most Holy Sacrament. I love You above all things, and I desire to receive You into my soul. Since I cannot at this moment receive You sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart. I embrace You as if You were already there and unite myself wholly to You. Never permit me to be separated from You.  Amen.

During this extra time at home for many families, don’t forget about our parish’s subscription to https://formed.org/! More than simply a ‘Catholic Netflix’, you can gain free access to THOUSANDS of Catholic content--from video series to e-books, audio clips, and more--by choosing ‘St. Joseph Bellevue’ from the drop-down box when you are signing up for an account. There is content on FORMED.org that is not only for adults, but for young children and teens!

If you would like to receive the sacraments of reconciliation, anointing of the sick,  or Holy Communion during this time, please call or email Fr. Dennis at the number and email listed below to make a private appointment. 

Our churches will be unlocked each day for private prayer from 9:00 a.m.-7:00 p.m. Please use the utmost discretion and practice the measures prescribed for social distancing if you choose to enter these buildings. To help stop the spread of the many infectious diseases going around, if you are exhibiting any unfavorable symptoms, please withhold from entering the churches.

To continue supporting our parish financially during this time, please use our new online giving (a link is soon to come--please check our webpage, https://www.sjandspp.com/ frequently for updates) or use the donation box at the back of Sts. Peter and Paul Church or the votive box at St. Joseph Church.

Our bulletin will still be available online by visiting https://www.sjandspp.com/bulletins or you are welcome to retrieve one at the entrances of both churches. 

We also highly encourage all parishioners who are able to join in all the faithful of the Archdiocese of Dubuque to participate in the day of fasting, abstinence, and prayer on Wednesday, March 25, 2020. On that day, people ordinarily bound on Ash Wednesday to fast and abstain from meat are invited to make those same sacrifices. The Rosary is recommended as a powerful prayer, prayer alone or with others. 

We want to express that in the midst of these changing circumstances, we are a community of hope built upon our faith in Jesus Christ. May we use this period of time to strengthen our relationship with Jesus, to heal divisions within our families,  and to increase our desire to receive Him in the sacraments.

We join our Archdiocese in praying: God, come to our assistance. Lord, make haste to help us. Mary, health of the sick, pray for us. St. Raphael, patron of the Archdiocese of Dubuque and patron of healing, pray for us. 

If you have any further questions or concerns, please feel free to contact any of us during this time at the numbers and emails below.

 In Christ,

Fr. Dennis Miller, Deacon Robert Wood, Deacon Loras Weber, Kelsey Kaiser, and Denise Michel

563-872-3234 (St. Joseph)
563-872-3875 (Sts. Peter & Paul)