My Dear Parishioners,
     Are you ready for Easter?  Yes, this holy day is very near.  Let us prepare ourselves for our risen Jesus with hearts full of love for Him.  Let us put all our trust in Jesus so that we too may rise from our death to eternal life.  He is our resurrection and life.
     As you enter Holy Masses this weekend, Palm Sunday, please be sure to take a palm with you, one per person please.  The palms will be blessed at Holy Masses for you to take them home and hang them.  Also, on Palm Sunday from 3pm-4pm, we will have guest priests available for your personal confession.  Please come and go as you please.  The names of our confessors are Fathers Garett Burns, Michael Brungardt, and Matt Siegman.  Their names will be posted by the confessionals, too.  You are to stand behind a black screen to confess.  Please allow privacy for each person.  When you are waiting in line, please keep six feet away from the person in front of you, unless you are one family.  Of course, wear a mask too.  You are to do your own act of contrition before your confession and your penance after your confession in church.  Again, please always begin your confession with the sign of the cross, then tell when your last confession was, and then your sins.  Please confess only your sins and no one else’s, whether that person is your spouse, children, siblings, parents, coworker, etc.  Be mindful too that there are many people waiting in line for their confession and it is not very comfortable to stand in line for a long time. 
     I am looking forward to celebrating Holy Week with you for we did not have one last year due to the virus.  There will be Holy Thursday Mass at 6:30pm, Good Friday Service at 6:30pm, Holy Saturday Easter Vigil Mass at 8:30pm and Easter Sunday Mass at 9am and 12noon in English, 10:30am in Vietnamese.  We are blessed to have Father Curtis Hecker celebrate the Easter Sunday noon Mass for us because I will have two baptisms at that time in our chapel.  Please pray for me and all priests, especially pastors, for we will have a lot to prepare for the Holy Week and Easter Sunday.  If you are planning to attend our Good Friday service, please do me a favor and bring your favorite rosary with a cross, or your necklace with a cross or crucifix from your home to church.  Due to Covid, no one in church will be kissing/venerating the one common crucifix like we used too. 
     Finally, if you are interested in signing up for adoration, please do so.  We need to know how many people are ready to attend perpetual adoration at this time.  If we do not have enough that are interested (75% of the spots are filled) by March 31, then we will wait for another time down the road to reopen our chapel.  Jesus loves you & I love you too, Fr. Hien

My Dear Parishioners,
     Blessings from our God be with you all.  It was so good to be with so many of you for our Holy Masses last weekend to give thanks, praise, and worship to God.  Of course, we also prayed for one another, including our deceased loved ones.  As you all know, God is good to us all the time.  May we be good to God and one another with our time, talent, and treasure.
      I would like to put in writing a few things I talked about at Mass last weekend.  First, everyone is encouraged to sign up and to spend an hour with Jesus in adoration when our chapel is reopened (we are planning to reopen our chapel for 24/7 adoration at 8pm on Holy Thursday night, unless we cannot fill most of the adoration spots.  This would indicate that many people are not comfortable enough yet to spend extra time in the chapel during this pandemic, in which case, reopening the chapel will be later in the summer.  This is understandable because even Bishop has not lifted the dispensation from Sunday obligation yet).  If you are willing, please pick a day and time that is best for you, your spouse or family to pray together in adoration.  A family that prays together will stay together on earth and in heaven.  For some reason, if you can’t be there for the whole hour, try to spend as much time as you can, even a few minutes; and if you can’t be there at all, please try to get a replacement and if that’s not possible, please don’t worry for God will still love you.  Second, you are welcome to use our hymnals in church.  We will have a musician and a cantor beginning with Holy Thursday night Mass.  Third, although Bishop has allowed the use of Holy Water fonts for people to bless themselves as they enter and exit church, I personally think that it is not safe yet to do so.  I cannot imagine a hundred people putting their fingers in one bowl before and after Masses that will keep themselves safe from the virus.  I think we need to wait a little longer for the use of Holy Water fonts.   Fourth, Easter Sunday Masses for this year due to the pandemic will be at 9am with an extra Mass at 12noon in English, (10:30am in Vietnamese, permanently).  Holy Thursday Mass and Good Friday service are at 6:30pm.  Holy Saturday Mass is at 8:30pm.  Palms will be available for everyone at Palm Sunday Masses.  Parish Penance service is at 3pm on Palm Sunday with Fathers Garett Burns, Michael Brungardt, Matt Siegman and me.  Come and go as you please. 
     Finally, I am so thankful to God and to you all for keeping us safe and healthy during this pandemic.  Let us continue to be smart and safe for our own good and the good of others.  Our lives will be short if we don’t use our common sense that is always within us.  Have you ever heard the saying, “Can’t fix stupid?” I think it’s true because I believe that God made all of us to be smart, plus everyone of us is precious, sacred and holy to God.  Love you all, Fr. Hien

My Dear Parishioners,
     Are you ready for the Spring season?  Please remember to set your clocks forward this Saturday night so that you will be ready for Holy Mass on time on Sunday, March 14th.  Spring is here and it’s time for many of us who love to be outside to clean our yards, to prepare our gardens and even to take care/to do maintenance on our homes/sheds/mowers, etc...  I love Springtime because bugs are not yet here and of course it is not humid or hot either.  Please enjoy your God-given life each day with Him and with each other.  Yes, being outside can connect you with God our Lord and creator of heaven and earth.
     The best place to be in life is to be with God in church to give thanks, praise, and worship to God with one another.  Please make every effort to attend Holy Mass, because the Eucharist is the taste of heaven.  It is Jesus, God, that we receive.  Love Him for He loves us.  If you cannot love Holy Mass, the Holy Eucharist, then you are lacking so much within you.  Remember, that your soul thirsts for Jesus only. 
     As Catholics, we are Eucharistic people who receive Jesus regularly at Holy Mass.  We must learn to love Holy Mass, to be with Jesus in silence outside of Mass times, as well as to visit Jesus in Holy Adoration.  I hope that we can start adoration soon.  We are waiting for Bishop to relax the pandemic restrictions.  It seems that the pandemic is dying down.  For the meantime during Lent, please try to pray the Stations of the Cross either at home or in church or in our chapel. 
     Besides being in church, one of my favorite places to be with God is outside.  I can see so much of God’s work in His creation and His life-giving source to all living plants, animals, and human beings.  I personally do not like to read books or to spend too much time with electronics.  Mainly because I can’t learn too much from them.  My happiness and my source of life come from God and not from people’s personal ideas, beliefs, and doctrines that are not of God.  I have seen too many smart people who ended up unhappy with themselves and others.  It seems that they are lost without much meaning in life, and lonely in isolation.  Of course, not all book readers and movie lovers are this way for many have become saints; however, all of them centered their readings, writings, and beliefs on God and not on anyone else, including him/herself.  Pride is a serious/deadly sin, versus being humble before God, which is a blessing to one’s soul.  Be like a child before God, and you will always be in good hands.  Believe only in God and trust only the teaching of the church. 
I choose to live simply and happily everyday for God has been so good to me, Fr. Hien      

My Dear Parishioners,
     How are you doing?  Have you received your COVID-19 vaccine yet?  As of last Saturday, many employees and priests of the diocese have received their shots.  I am scheduled for this Saturday, March 6th for my first shot and the second shot three weeks later.  I hope that I will not have any reaction to the vaccine because I need to be able to celebrate Holy Masses.  If I look half-drunk during Mass, please know that I do not drink and if I sound moody, please know that would not be my true self.  So far, many people have taken the vaccine, and many people have not of their own free will, that is the beauty of living in America, people can make their own decision for their health.  As a priest who encounters so many people every day, it is best for me to take my annual flu shot, and now the COVID-19 shot, too.  I don’t mind a small cut, but I hate needles.  I also understand that taking the shots have no guarantee that I will not get sick on my own or from someone who was sick; however, I hope that my sickness will not be too severe or deadly.  Recently, I have been helping with funerals at St. Anthony’s because Father there has been sick with COVID-19.  Thankfully, Father is back home from the hospital.  Let us continue praying for those who are sick, especially with COVID-19.  
     Are you ready for the Spring season?  It is coming, so please remember to forward your clock one hour on Saturday night, March 13th.  Again, please come to church early so that our church’s doors will not lock you out.  This is for the safety of everyone at Holy Mass.  Please turn off or mute your electronic devices in church so that it will not disturb others.  Personally, I can take a crying child over a phone going off in church.  A cry of a child in church can be a reminder to us that a precious human being is with us; therefore, God is with us as much as He is with that child, but a phone going off in church is a disturbance to the holiness and sacredness in church.  PLEASE TURN OFF OR MUTE YOUR PHONE.  Personally, I always have my cell phone on mute/vibrate mode, in this way I will know who is calling me and I can decide to respond or not without disturbing anyone.  This might be a good method for those who tend to forget to turn off or mute their phone before entering church.  God bless you with His joy, peace, happiness and good health, Fr. Hien