On behalf of the Clergy and Staff at Saint John the Evangelist, it is my sincere pleasure to wish everyone a very blessed and spiritual Easter weekend. I cannot wait to see the sight as thousands are attending Mass this weekend in the church and overflowing into the Parish Life Center. Because Easter arrives very late this year, we are expecting substantial, but manageable crowds at all Masses. It is true that more than a handful of our visitors have departed; however, there are many seasonal residents and visitors remaining in town.
I am sure that most of you have seen the story about the controversy in North Carolina with the “Homeless Jesus” statue that was erected (or laid on a park bench in this instance) on the campus of an Episcopal church. When I first saw the story aired on the “Today Show” http://www.today.com
/video/today/54949611#54949611 I immediately knew that statue. It just so happens that the sculptor of “Homeless Jesus” is the same sculptor who created our “Lest We Forget” statue in the Veterans’ Memorial and the same sculptor who created our crucifix corpus, Blessed Mother statue and Saint John the Evangelist statue. Timothy Schmalz is a very talented sculptor, however, this recent development which is receiving international attention may really put him on the map. Ironically, I was just writing in my column last week about Timothy completing the clay rendering for the corpus for our processional cross. The most high-profile installation of the Homeless Jesus on a park bench will be on the Via della Conciliazione, the avenue leading to St. Peter’s Basilica — if the city of Rome approves it. Schmalz traveled to the Vatican last November to present a miniature to the Pope himself. “He walked over to the sculpture, and it was just chilling because he touched the knee of the Jesus the Homeless sculpture, and closed his eyes and prayed,” Schmalz said. “It was like, that’s what he’s doing throughout the whole world: Pope Francis is reaching out to the marginalized.”
If you were outside at any point in the mid to late afternoon this past week, you must admit that the heat is beginning to return to Southwest Florida. Actually, it was so hot (and humid) this past week that we experienced our first round of convective thunderstorms which are caused by heat and instability aloft. This is always a sad time for me as I know what the next six months have in store. Highs in the mid 90s with lows in the mid 70s and humidity levels in the 90% range with a chance of afternoon thunderstorms. Sound familiar? With that said, although it is beginning to heat up, let us take advantage of what we have left of our spring.
I wasn’t going to mention the Catholic Faith Appeal this week but then I changed my mind. It seems we have such great momentum going that I didn’t want to interrupt our progress. We are currently just shy of 50% of our goal. This is great news as we are only two full months into the appeal. If you are a seasonal resident or visitor, please make your check payable to the Catholic Faith Appeal with St. John the Evangelist in the memo line. This especially applies to all of you who may be attending only on Easter Sunday. Thank you in advance for your extreme generosity.
We currently have the technology and now we have a donor for the equipment which will allow us to stream Masses live directly into your PC, Mac or smartphone. You may remember that I mentioned our intent to provide this service in the near future once we completed the fiber optic connection to the church. There is still much work to be done and even more discussion, however, we are confident that live streaming will be a reality this calendar year. Although there are many benefits of offering this option, one which Fr. John always refers is the opportunity for a parishioner up north to participate in a funeral Mass for which he or she would otherwise not have been able to attend. Obviously, another benefit would be for our homebound parishioners who are unable to attend Mass due to illness or disability. Please stay tuned for further updates.
In His work together,
Scott Schlossberg, MBA
General Manager
Image: “Homeless Jesus” by Timothy Schmalz