Finally, we received some good news from the State and County government about the COVID-19 restrictions effective June 15, 2021. Most of California has returned to the lowest yellow tier allowing us to return inside for worship more fully. Consequently, I am delighted to say effective June 15, we will move all daily Masses (6:30am & 8:30am) inside and all Sunday Masses inside but we will keep the Saturday 5pm Mass outside for those still cautious. We will no longer require signup or registration for Mass attendance so just come whenever you can.
We ask everyone to please sanitize your hands before coming into the Church and before reception of communion. We still will require everyone to wear masks inside the Church for Masses but we can sing behind the masks! ☺ Musicians and cantors can now be together in the choir area and cantors can remove their masks as they sing. Presiders and lectors can also remove their masks while proclaiming in the sanctuary space. We will still use only every other pew out of an abundance of caution, but we only require people to keep 3 feet distance from each other (which is the width of our aisles). We will return to full stations of sacred bread ministers on weekends and ask everyone to keep 3 feet apart as they line up for reception of communion. We will not use disinfectant wipes for the pew chairs, but we will continue to regularly sanitize the Church by our staff. We will require all liturgical ministers to be vaccinated to serve.
While we will still livestream the 9:00 am Sunday Mass on YouTube and Facebook, it will be open to in-person attendance again. As a result, there will be no 10:15 am Mass as of June 15, please come to the 9:00 am Mass or 11:15 am as both of those will be indoors.
All of this is great news, and we encourage people to start to attend Mass in person again. Over 70% of Californians are now vaccinated and it is even higher in our community of Los Altos. Thank you for your role in helping us reach herd immunity. Please get vaccinated if you have not already done so. It is amazing that the USA has vaccinated so many people so fast and we should encourage everyone to get vaccinated so we can return to our normal way of life again.
Thank you for your patience over this past year and I look forward to the Fall when we will not be required to wear face masks at all and we can finally see each other face to face and start to know each other better.
Finally, thank you again for your prayers for me in my recovery. I am doing great and almost back to full strength. I hope to begin hiking again this week and back to full fitness level. Thank you again for your support.
God Bless
Fr. Brendan