Dear Our Lady of Ransom Family:
There are so many things going on at our parish that I want to make sure all of you stay updated. So consider this what would normally be in the "pastors column" of the former bulletin:
- The Feast of Our Lady of Ransom is September 24. In honor of Mary and in special commemoration of our 60th anniversary, we will have a special Mass on Thursday, September 24 at 7pm. The sign-up for this will be separate from our normal Mass sign-up email. Look for that email on September 18 at 12pm.
- As our anniversary year continues, our leadership is planning special events and experiences to honor where our parish has been and where it is going (all pandemic friendly - we promise!). This upcoming Sunday at 9a, you will receive an email with a unique opportunity that we are very excited about. Keep an eye out for it - and act fast if you're interested!
- Plenty of space is still available for Mass next week. If you haven't had a chance to register and would like to, please click here.
- Thanks to a dedicated group of greeters that have volunteered to be "on-call," we are able to celebrate funeral Masses on Fridays and Saturdays. Historically, 90% of our funerals have been on one of those days, so we believe by focusing on Friday & Saturday we can provide proper pastoral care even with our pandemic limited resources. There are certain restrictions on funeral Masses both in comparison to the past and to other celebrations of Mass. If you're interested in learning more, you can find information on our website by clicking here.
- Our leadership is pleased with the overwhelmingly positive response to our first episode of Ransomed. In this video, we set forth both the vision and mission of Our Lady of Ransom, and began to lay out the path forward for our community. One of the key leaders in the Archdiocese of Chicago's Renew My Church initiative even reached out to offer his congratulations and encouragement. If you haven't seen it yet, it's on the front page of our website here.
- The situation with COVID has prompted our parish leadership to reevaluate our means of communication. Our Flocknote system (that's how you're receiving this email or text) and our website have been able to engage far more people then our bulletin ever did. That's why we are working on a complete redesign of both our website and bulletin. We hope to launch the new website in mid-October. It will be directed towards spiritual seekers, those that have little to no knowledge of our community or the Catholic faith. We hope it will become a virtual open door to welcome them home to our parish. And while the Archdiocese of Chicago still has a prohibition on handing out items like the bulletin, we promise that once we are able to restart it, our parish will have a unique communications tool that strives to help us encounter Jesus Christ. The new bulletin will be about far more than advertisements, and we believe this will serve our community well.
- At the risk of overdoing my praise of them, I would again like to offer my heartfelt thanks to our greeters. The generosity and hospitality of these men and women - many of whom are assisting at multiple celebrations each week - is the only thing that allows us to continue to receive permission from the Archdiocese to celebrate sacraments. Thank you - you are helping to make the culture of our parish one of radical hospitality!
He is Risen!
Fr. Matt