From Our Pastor
Dear Folks,
What’s on my mind? Not much. (No, please don’t say it is that way every day! Haha!)
Easter, really. So many folks worked so hard to make it all come together and we are continually evaluating and trying to improve the experience.
Yes, we are aware of the limitations and challenges of the sound. Making the spoken word of preaching and prayer intelligible in that space requires constant attention and tinkering. Why? Because every body in the room acts to absorb sound waves and changes the acoustic properties of the space. Having to spread speakers throughout the Expo Center means that their sound overlaps and creates interference patterns. Then there are the hard surfaces that compound the echoes and muddle the sound. We have already discussed some additional solutions with the sound engineers from whom we rent equipment and who monitor it throughout the weekend.
Be assured that we are always trying to learn and improve our celebrations of the great mysteries of Our Lord’s suffering, death, and Resurrection. By celebrating the Triduum at the Expo Center, we areprioritizing making sure everyone has a seat and a parking spot, while remaining aware of the limitations of the sound and architecture.
But we keep trying to improve all of this—like adding the Stations of the Cross to the perimeter curtains two years ago!
Also, wow! The 12:30 bilingual Mass was probably 90% parishioners of Hispanic heritage. In years past, that has been a bit more mixed, but it was inspiring to see such a great crowd of our Spanish-speaking brothers and sisters. And this was even with St. Jude offering an Easter Mass in Spanish for the first time, where I heard there were 400 people in attendance!
We had a grace filled Triduum with several thousandcfolks coming to participate in the passion, death and resurrection of our Lord and we welcomed 93 new Catholics into our St. Mary family! So very much to be grateful for – thanks Be to God – our parish family is alive and growing!
pax,
Father John Mosimann
