Saint Brigid 
of Kildare
April 2020
In This Issue
Upcoming Events:

Please note all events through May 3 have been cancelled or postponed. 

We will keep you updated as we have more information.


A Message from Monsignor Hendricks

It is no secret now that our world has changed -- our lives are different now, and what we worry about, why we are anxious is new to us.  Everyone now recognizes the name for Coronavirus as COVID-19.

I want to offer two points of reflection as we struggle to adapt to a new world order. The first was the Extraordinary blessing, prayer, Urbi et Orbi, and adoration or the Blessed Sacrament that took place at the Vatican on March 27, 2020.  The pope's address is on a variety of platforms now and can be easily found on the Vatican web site,  www.vatican.va .  The Holy Father took our most precious gift, the Eucharist, and blessed the world with it, seeking an end to the pandemic.  He offered us grace and the assurance that the mission of the Church is to bring souls back to God and allow people to find forgiveness and reconciliation.  He asked us to right order our lives and see Jesus Christ as our friend and Savior.

The second reflection comes from an article a parishioner sent me on Thursday of last week.  This article was written for the Harvard Business Review on March 23, 2020.  It was written by Scott Berinato.  The title of the article is, That Discomfort You're Feeling Is  Grief.  You can find it here.  I would urge you to read it and see that through all of what we are dealing with now with Corona, and what is yet to come, we find meaning.
The meaning we find is about our life, the future, and finally focusing on the things that really matter, and how we embrace them now that all the petty distractions have been swallowed up in the battle with the virus.

I hope you find these two brief reflections helpful. I know, you know, that we long to get to the Church and the celebration of the Sacraments, building our community in celebration with Jesus Christ, His Mother and all the Saints. However we must be patient, and not put others and ourselves at risk. 

As we prepare for the Easter Mysteries, hold in prayer our parish of St. Brigid, your loved ones, those who are sick now and those who have died.

May God draw near and fill you with His blessings of meaning and hope.

Msgr. Joseph Hendricks

Mass Live Stream Schedule

We hope you have been enjoying our live streams of Mass. The videos are  available at  our  YouTube channel  and our  parish Facebook page.

Daily Masses:
Will be live streamed each day at Noon. 

Weekend Masses:
Will be live streamed at 5 PM on Saturdays and 9:30 AM on Sundays.

Please remember these are strictly live streams only,  no one will be permitted to enter the church.

You can also access these videos after they are recorded by scrolling on these pages to the most recent videos. 

To sign up to be notified when a livestream begins:
On YouTube, click the "Subscribe" button (you will be prompted to login)
On Facebook, click Like and Follow on the page to get notified via Facebook when we are live. The recorded daily Masses will also remain on these pages if you scroll down.
Here are visual instructions for how to be notified.

Stations of the Cross
Stations of the Cross have been pre-recorded and will be posted on our YouTube and Facebook pages soon for viewing anytime.

A Family's Guide to Watching Mass Remotely
Click here for a great visual guide with tips for watching Mass virtually with your family. 
Share Your Mass Photos!

To help us all feel a little more connected during this time, take a photo of your family viewing the Mass live stream and share it on our social media pages! 

You can tag us on Facebook by typing @Saint Brigid of Kildare Catholic Church, or on Instagram by typing @Stbrigidparish. Or if you don't have social media, email your photo to Allie Wing at mrs.wing@stbrigid-school.org for sharing.
Lenten Taize Replayed on Tuesday, April 7

Thankfully, we recorded our Lenten Taize prayer service that was held on  Wednesday, March 11 at 6:30 p.m. in the church. We will be replaying this service for all to view from the comfort of their homes on Tuesday, April 7 at 7 PM. 

Take time to join together as a parish family in this beautiful service of music and reflection by candlelight. This is a wonderful opportunity for your family to dim the lights and come together to experience the powerful prayer, music and reflection that comes from this service.
Offertory Donation Update

We are so blessed to have such faithful and supportive parishioners. During this crisis, St. Brigid of Kildare will continue to support our devoted employees and hard-working vendors. If you are able during this time, please consider continuing your support of our parish so that we can continue supporting our employees and many small business vendors that depend on these payments.

Thanks to our generous parishioners much of our offertory support comes from electronic giving, however a large percentage still comes to us through the collection at Saturday/Sunday Mass.  Now that we are forced to attend Mass virtually during this COVID-19 "Stay-at-Home" period, we are not able to pass the collection basket which has caused a significant decline in the support needed to fund the operation of our parish. Therefore the parish has expanded its virtual giving capabilities. Please consider using one of these other options during the COVID-19 "Stay-at-Home" period. These options make processing offertory easier and more secure as the parish staff is working from home. 
  1. Online one-time donation: Just click here to complete the form.
  2. Sign up for Electronic Funds Transfer: You can do this by completing this Offertory Commitment Form and mailing it to PO Box 3130, Dublin, OH 43016. We will continue to check mail once a week.
  3. Mail in a check to our PO Box 3130 Dublin, Ohio 43016.  

If you have any questions about the continuation of your offertory contributions at this time, please contact Jackie Mack via email at   jmack@stbrigidofkildare.org .

We will continue to pray for you and your family's health and safety during this time, and please continue to pray for us. 

Holy Week Mass Schedule

Palm Sunday Masses, April 4-5
St. Brigid of Kildare will live stream Palm Sunday Masses from our parish on Saturday, April 4 at 5:00 PM and Sunday, April 5 at 9:30 AM.

Taize Prayer Service, April 7
St. Brigid of Kildare will replay our previously recorded Lenten Taize prayer service on Tuesday, April 7 at 7 PM. To view, check our YouTube channel or Facebook page.

Diocesan-wide Parish Mission April 6-8
Plans are underway for a Diocesan-wide Parish Mission to take place during the evenings of Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of Holy Week. Father Michael Kelly will lead the Mission. Fr. Kelly serves as the Director of Spiritual Formation at the Pontifical College Josephinum and is a priest of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. These will be streamed in the evening on all our social media platforms and broadcast on St. Gabriel Radio. Final details will be forthcoming. Check here for the full schedule.

Easter Triduum, April 9-11
Easter Triduum services will be live streamed with Bishop Robert J. Brennan presiding at the St. Jospeh's Cathedral April 9-11. Full details are available here.

Easter Sunday Mass, April 12
St. Brigid of Kildare will live stream Easter Sunday Mass from our parish on Sunday, April 12 at 9:30 AM.

Stations of the Cross
Stations of the Cross have been pre-recorded at St. Brigid of Kildare and will be posted on our YouTube and Facebook pages soon for viewing anytime.
From second grade's "Mass Class" last month
Religious Ed Learning Continues

St. Brigid Religious Education teachers have been working to keep the learning and communication alive with their students during this "stay-at-home" time.  

Our book publishers, Ascension Press and Our Sunday Visitor, have offered free online access to materials so that catechesis can continue at home.

In addition, catechists have been able to send home lesson plans via email, worksheets, video links, and online resources for children to continue learning and praying. 


Some middle school students took the time to reflect on the  plenty of opportunities to see God at work in the midst of the storm we are in.  Some positive moments and reminders of hope to show that God is always with us shared during this time included "s pending more time with my brother before he goes to college," and being "truly grateful to have my older brothers home from college. It is a joy to have them around and to have the ability to eat dinner with my entire family. I like to keep this in mind when thinking about the tough times that are now."

Virtual Learning at Saint Brigid of Kildare School

Saint Brigid of Kildare School teachers from preschool to eighth grade have been busy learning new communication tools and technologies to aid their students in the continuation of learning during our "stay at home" period.

In preschool, the chicks have hatched! The teachers have sent out a fun slideshow of videos and photos of the chicks hatching so the students could see them! This was a wonderful sign of hope for our students. There have also been many fun activities and lessons with daily themes sent home, see here for some of those lessons.

E-learning has been a new experience in kindergarten.  Each day, the children receive a video message from their teachers with a greeting.  They pray along with Ms. O'Reilly and even participate in Guided Christian Meditation with their families using a link provided by their teachers. They are given assignments to continue their learning at home, including reading using an online program and writing in their journals.  The teachers also send videos of themselves leading a Heggerty Phonemic Awareness program that the children participated in daily at school.  The children are practicing math facts and problem solving in their math journals.  The parents have been provided with many resources for home learning and the children are even given a "fun challenge" to do each day. 

In first and second grade, teachers are making videos, reading stories, and assigning practice work.  Many of the parents are sending pictures of the children working and teachers are able to share with the class via Class Dojo so the children can see each other. They will also be trying Zoom small group meetings so the students and teachers can get to see each other!

In third and fourth grade, teachers are holding reading groups. Students have a leveled book and a packet, in which they have been pacing the books and comprehension questions either by posting on Google Classroom or videos.   In Math, students are sent a mini video lesson each day along with a practice page to try alone. Answers are reviewed via a video or Google Classroom the next day. 

In fifth and sixth gradeGoogle Classroom has been used for teachers to post assignments and students to turn things in. Students are also completing worksheets and screen recordings to teach new concepts and explain assignments in detail, as well as Google Forms to create short quizzes and check ins for students to get instant feedback. 

In seventh and eighth grade, teachers  have been utilizing many online resources to record and post mini-lessons that include both voice and a slide show. Virtual field trips are being setup for a biome unit that will help students feel transported and immersed in the content all through the power of a YouTube video. Keeping the faith community strong is of the utmost importance, so eighth grade students are doing a shared novel study on The Forgotten Door. Seventh graders are taking part in common prayer experiences and participating in discussions that allow them to respond to their classmates in written form.

In specials, students have been given PE challenges, slideshows for technology, and suggestions on where to get more books and resources since the libraries are closed. 

Just as the students are learning this new normal, the teachers are also learning new skills and ideas on how to provide the same level of education and communication with our students. 
Online Mass Resources

There are many daily and weekend Masses available via online sources, including:
A Request from OhioHealth: How to Help

Looking for ways to help out during the pandemic? We have received the following request from OhioHealth on ways that faith communities can support them and their workers during this time.

  1. Prayers.  This might be obvious, but if you would surround our hospital staff (and all medical staff in our community) with prayers, that would make the largest impact for us.  While you are praying for our health workers, we'd like to let them know that!  So if your congregation is including healthcare workers in its prayers, please send us an email at FaithCommunityRelations@OhioHealth.com.  We will put a scroll on one of our associate pages, so that they can see that they are being prayed for in the challenging days ahead. 
     
  2. Supply Donations. There are several different material donations that would be invaluable for us in caring for patients.  We have posted suggested donations and site information on our website at https://www.ohiohealth.com/covid-19/medical-supply-donations/
     
  3. Cloth Masks. We know that some of you have already begun making cloth masks.  With personal preferences varying so widely, we are not providing specific patterns or instructions for how to do this -- there are many patterns online.  We will accept any pattern/style as long as the masks are made from cotton. We prefer 70/30 cotton/polyester blend but will accept all masks made of cotton. We prefer masks made with fabric ties for wearer comfort but will accept those with elastic.  When using the above donation link, please scroll down past the donation locations for specifics on homemade masks. 
 
These have been challenging days.  We know that you have not been able to gather together physically for worship and community time, but that your ministries of care, service, and prayer continue.  We are grateful for all of the ways that we can work together to care for our community.  Thanks for being with us in this battle.

Corks for a Cause 2020: Thank You!

THANK YOU for your support of our SPiCE program at Corks for a Cause!

We had another successful fundraiser for our parish SPiCE program, raising over $110,000 for children in our parish and school with special learning needs!

This year, we introduced our next big goal for our SPiCE program -- launching a SPiCE scholarship program to help pay for tuition for children who are in our SPiCE program. But this scholarship program will not be for those children alone. We also realize that since the beginning of the SPiCE program 15 years ago there have been thousands of volunteers that have given of their time and talent to raise the money that we have used to create the SPiCE program we have today. We also are aware that there has been the support of students in our school and religious education program that have gone out of their way to reach out and aid children in our SPiCE program. So we also hope to offer a SPiCE supporter scholarship for the families and the children that have lived the philosophy that the inclusion of all children in our parish community adds richness to all our lives and promotes understanding, compassion, and respect for all children of God.


Thank You to our speaker at the event, former Saint Brigid of Kildare School student Olivia Assaf for sharing her heartfelt SPiCE story.


Make Your Own St. Brigid's Cross
 
Here's a fun activity for the kids while you're at home -- click here for a video tutorial on how to make your own St. Brigid's cross.
That Man Is You! is Now Virtual
 
Men of St Brigid NOW MORE THAN EVER TMIY can help you stay connected to your faith and your families.

TMIY is now virtual and continuing Saturday Mornings at 7AM. If you are not registered for TMIY go to the parish website and search TMIY and register. Once you have registered you will receive emails on how to register for these virtual sessions. View the video as a total group and then be split into small groups to discuss the issues we are facing as Catholic Men. If you are already registered with TMIY watch for the weekly email on how to register and connect.
This is the time for us to step up as Catholic Men !

Disturbing the Peace - The Vaclav Havel Library Foundation


. . . [T]he kind of hope I often think about (especially in situations that are particularly hopeless, such as prison) I understand above all as a state of mind, not a state of the world. Either we have hope within us, or we don't. . . . Hope is not prognostication. It is an orientation of the spirit, an orientation of the heart. It transcends the world that is immediately experienced, and is anchored somewhere beyond its horizons. . . . I feel that its deepest roots are in the transcendental, just as the roots of human responsibility are, though of course I can't - unlike Christians, for instance - say anything about the transcendental. . . .

"Hope, in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously headed for early success, but rather an ability to work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed. The more unpromising the situation in which we demonstrate hope, the deeper that hope is. Hope is not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out. In short, I think that the deepest and most important form of hope, the only one that can keep us above water and urge us to good works, and the only true source of the breathtaking dimension of the human spirit and its efforts, is something we get, as it were, from 'elsewhere.' It is also this hope, above all, that gives us the strength to live and continually to try new things, even in conditions that seem as hopeless as ours do, here and now."
Buildings Closed through April 30

Please note that all Masses and events at our parish are currently cancelled through April 30, 2020. The doors to all parish and school buildings will remain locked during this time.  We have also closed the playgrounds, basketball courts and Brigid's Green/ball diamonds. We will await direction and send updates once we have them on events beyond those dates. 

Our parish has also cancelled the Volunteer Social scheduled for April 25, and hope to reschedule another community event at a later date this year. The senior celebration scheduled for May 3 has also been cancelled. 

Palm Sunday Ideas

Here are some ideas for celebrating Palm Sunday or to pray with any day.

You don't need palms to have a Palm Sunday Procession, go clip a piece of an evergreen or a branch from any tree and wave it as you sing out "Hosanna!"  "Save us, Lord!"  

As part of your family prayer name the "colts" who are carrying heavy burdens for others today and pray for them.

Songs you might want to use (I found them all on YouTube):
  • Hosanna Praise Is Rising - Paul Baloche
  • Come Bring Your Burdens to God sung - John Bell
  • Pour Out - Matthew Baute 

Watch YouTube: Thank You, Health Care Workers.  Make and post your own YouTube to thank the "colts" in your life.

Cute children's book: The Donkey Who Carried a King by RC Sproul. Available on Amazon.
High School Youth Ministry

The Acts of the Apostles Virtual Bible Study, April 16 - May 16

When the Book of Acts opens, Jesus commands his followers to tell everyone, everywhere in the world, what they have seen and heard him do. Before he ascends to Heaven, Jesus promises that the Holy Spirit will come & give them power to carry out this command.

Join us on our 30-day reading journey of the Acts of the Apostles to experience how the explosive power of the Holy Spirit changed lives and swept through cities, bringing people of other cultures, who were previously excluded, into the family of God.

Sign up to receive daily reading along with a brief question for self-reflection each morning by texting @actsstudy to 81010 or by visiting remind.com/join/actsstudy. The reminder texts will be sent April 17 - May 16.

To support you in this journey:
  1. High School Youth Ministry will meet in Zoom on Thursdays, April 16, April 23, April 30, May 7, and May 14 at 7 PM to catch up, play a game, and watch a brief 3-5 minute video to give you visual context for your upcoming reading! The Zoom code will be sent in a Remind text on the day of our gathering.
  2. High School Youth Ministry will be publishing daily videos to encourage and equip you as you read. These videos will feature some of our parish clergy and ministry staff, ministry teen leaders, and ministry adult volunteers. Follow us on Instagram (@brigid_youthmin) to see those daily videos beginning April 16!

Deaths of Parishioners

The following parishioners funerals were celebrated at St. Brigid of Kildare in the past month. Please remember them and their families in prayer.



Thomas "Michael" Hilliard
Norma Jean McGovern

Paul Newell


Submit Materials for Common Threads

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To view past issues of Common Threads, find them archived on our website here.