Dear Parishioners,

I want to take a moment to talk about Church decorating.

First, I am very glad to have our newest mural completed. I will be writing a whole article about it next week. Thank you to all who have expressed their gratitude for this image. The sanctuary feels so much more holy with so many reminders of our faith decorating it.

Second, due to many requests, I have brought the Statue of St. Anthony that was in the School into the Church. He can be found in the back left corner of the Church. St. Anthony is an incredibly popular saint and the statue we have is so large and prominent that I’m very glad to bring it out for public veneration.

Lastly, the right side of the church is now a baptistry, which is a place where children are baptized. I did this because the statues and the image of the Divine Mercy both match the symbolism of baptism. The Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary are welcoming new children into the Church while the image of Divine Mercy is a sign of the blood and water that Christ gave for His Church on the cross. So, my idea is to use this art to present baptism. The two most important sacraments we have are baptism and the Eucharist because it is how we become members of the Church and the Eucharist because that is how our lives are fed. So it makes sense for them to be represented in our Church with the prominent locations of the sanctuary and baptistry. I am not done with this area and I hope in the near future to move the Divine Mercy painting a little lower and make other changes to make it better.

Hope all is well and everyone is having a wonderful, God-filled Sunday.

God bless!

Fr. Carter

P.S. In case anyone is wondering, we did not get rid of the candles. They can be found on the left side of the Church in front of the Holy Innocents Icon.

P.P.S. Thank you to everyone who participated in last week’s listening session. The next one will be in the gym on February 6th at 3:30 pm, for anyone else who would like to participate.