Holy Week Schedule
April 14—Holy Thursday
April 15—Good Friday
April 16—Holy Saturday
April 17—Easter Sunday
Mozart Orchestral Mass for Easter Sunday:
Just as at Christmas, we will offer a Solemn High Mass at 11 am Easter Sunday morning accompanied by an orchestra assembled by our music director, Paul Thomas May, playing Mozart’s Kliene Credomesse (K192). It promises to be a glorious way to celebrate our most important feast day.
Blessing of Paschal lambs, eggs, bread, and new fruits:
After the 11 am orchestral Mass on Easter Sunday, the priests will give special blessings only given at Easter for any lambs, eggs, bread, or new fruits that parishioners would like to bring to be blessed.
Sunday Socials at the Civic Club to celebrate Easter:
On Easter Sunday, April 17, we will have our coffee and doughnut social after the 11am Mozart Orchestral Mass at the Civic Club on Front Street. We will continue this temporarily during part of the Easter season, on April 24, May 1, and May 8. We will need additional volunteers, including crossing guards. If you can help, please contact socials@ stlawrence.cc
Friday night soup dinner by the Knights of Columbus:
The Knights will be hosting a soup dinner in the St. Lawrence social hall Friday night, April 1, following the 6:30 pm Mass. Various meatless soups will be offered, with bread and salad. There is no cost but donations are welcome. For more information contact Joshua Logan via email in bulletin. Email Grand Knight Joshua Logan at knights@stlawrence.cc with any questions.
Collection for the people of Ukraine next Sunday April 3:
Bishop Gainer invites the faithful to make a donation to ease the suffering in Ukraine. All parishes in the Diocese are invited to show a sign of solidarity and offer assistance to the Ukrainian people, please consider making a donation to this collection.
Confirmation on Saturday, April 9, 10am:
Bishop Gainer will come to confer Confirmation and to celebrate a Pontifical High Mass. A reception at the Civic Club on Front Street will follow. Those interested in helping with refreshments afterwards are encouraged to email socials@stlawrence.cc
Scheduling notes for Lent:
Fridays in Lent: Stations of the Cross will be at 6 pm (replacing Adoration during Lent). Vespers will remain at 5 pm, and Mass will be at 6:30 pm immediately following Stations. Fridays in Lent are days of abstinence, binding gravely.
2nd Annual Allentown Soccer Tournament:
The FSSP priests of our Allentown Apostolate, St. Stephen of Hungary, have invited local parishes to compete in a soccer tournament held in Allentown on Saturday, April 30 from 12pm-5pm, with a pizza dinner to follow. If you are interested in taking part, please email Fr. Killackey at assistant.pastor@stlawrence.cc by Friday, April 8. Please note that depending on the level of interest, we may need to limit the amount of players we can take with us. We will also be organizing some practices and intramural games to prepare our team before competing.
Coffee and Doughnut Socials:
We are very happy to once again have our socials in the basement after the 9 am and 11 am Masses. We invite everyone to come and get to know your fellow parishioners. To get to the basement, please do so by exiting the front of the church and entering through the exterior door on Buttonwood Street.
Calling all Altar Boys and those interested:
Any boy who has received his First Holy Communion is invited to consider being an altar boy at St. Lawrence. The altar boys meet on the second Saturday of the month. Due to the special schedule for Holy Week, the next regularly-scheduled practice will be May 14, but special practices will be held for those serving during Holy Week. The regular meeting begins after the 9 am Mass, and concludes at 12:30 pm, and includes a light breakfast, a meeting with a spiritual talk from one of the priests, practice serving, recreation, pizza for lunch, and clean up. For more information about becoming an altar boy, email Fr. Smith or Mr. Pitman at altarboys@stlawrence.cc.
Openings in the Choir at St. Lawrence:
The choir has openings for additional dedicated volunteers and one qualified section leader. Members are expected to be available for Thursday evening rehearsals, Sunday 11am Masses throughout the year, and for other important Feast Days as notified. Volunteers with previous choral experience are preferred, but those with strong desire may be considered at the discretion of the Music Director. Section Leader position is available for Tenor; all applicants must audition and demonstrate strong vocal musicianship. Inquiries can be directed to Paul Thomas May at music@stlawrence.cc.
Liaison to the City of Harrisburg needed:
Do you like to hobnob with local government officials and defend the constitutional rights of Catholics? Can you be firm, funny and diplomatic all at once? Events in downtown Harrisburg periodically affect our parish, so it would be helpful to have one or two people who could liaise with the city about things like street closures and parking, and anything that would be of interest to us. If you would like to help, please email Fr. Smith, at pastor@stlawrence.cc
Music Lessons:
Would you like to have your children enrolled in music lessons? The State Street Academy (SSA), which is located in the St. Lawrence lower level, accepts students for a semester-length course of lessons in an instrument of choice with a recital at the end of the semester. There are skilled teachers for lessons in piano, violin, and voice among other instruments. In the coming semester the SSA will be able to offer instruction in harp if there is enough interest. For further inquiries on price and/or to reserve a spot for harp lessons, please send an email to Paul Thomas May at music@stlawrence.cc.
Expectant Mothers:
If you are expecting a child and registered in the Community, please let us know so we can put your expected date in our date book and rejoice with your family! Please send photos of your new baby’s baptism to include on our new Website! Please notify us at contact@stlawrence.cc
Sunday Socials: Help still needed:
Please consider helping with our Sunday Socials after the 9am and 11am Mass. The goal is to have many volunteers so that volunteers only have to do their duty once every month or two. If you can help please email socials@stlawrence.cc.
From your Pastor: Purchase of St. Lawrence Church:
In the midst of Lent, the liturgy gives us Lætare Sunday so that by rejoicing, we will be encouraged to complete Lent in a good way, faithful to the holy resolutions we made before it began. To increase your joy, I would like to share with you the details of the purchase of St. Lawrence church, which we were able to complete on January 27, thanks to a loan from the diocese.
My predecessor, Fr. Eichman, and Fr. Brommer, the rector of the Cathedral parish which owned St. Lawrence since the 1990s when the old St. Lawrence parish was merged with the Cathedral parish, had arrived at a price of $1.5 million, but that took a lot of discussions, and by then, Fr. Eichman had been given a new assignment, departed in July, and I joined you in August. When we try to discover a fair price for a thing, there are different ways to look at it. One is to say that since few people are buying churches, there is not much of a market for them, so the price should be low. From this perspective, you could argue that the church should cost something around $500,000, as one recent market valuation had it.
Another way to look at it, however, is to consider what the building is worth in terms of the materials, craftmanship, art, and everything else that it contains. This is what insurance companies look at when they guarantee to replace the building if it were to be destroyed by fire or other disaster. An insurance valuation for St. Lawrence from 2010 placed that at $6.2 million, with the stained-glass windows alone valued at $1.5 million, and the organ at $630,000.
As I’ve told you before, St. Lawrence is one of the best-situated, and most beautiful churches in all the Fraternity of St. Peter. Many other parishes would love to pay far more than we are paying for such a place. We are very blessed indeed.
Once the price had been agreed upon, it was left to me when I arrived to do the due diligence required before finalizing such an important decision. That included asking the parishioners your opinions—and 90 percent of you said you would like to buy the church rather than to continue renting, as we had been doing since 2005.
We also needed an engineer to do a thorough inspection of the building so that we would know what problems (and costs) to anticipate. Overall, the engineer said that the building is very sound. Though generally well taken care of for many years—the organ and slate roof are in very good condition, for example—there are many items of deferred maintenance. Our inspection gave us a list of more than 50 issues to correct. Some of these will cost significant money, such as replacing the roof of the schoolhouse, which will cost more than $100,000, and cleaning the stained-glass windows, and replacing their plexiglass protective covers, which over the years have yellowed, cracked, and broken, and now sometimes allow water to leak in. This will be a significant project. Other items are quite small, like updating the exit signs, and repairing some walls. Overall, though, we will be working on those items for at least a couple of years.
All these things considered, as well as compared to any alternative building that we might have bought or built, I am very confident that we made the right decision and agreed to a price worthy of this grand building, full of so much art, beauty, and love.
As for the parish’s financial position and the loan we have taken on, we are in a strong place. Our income for the fiscal years 2019 to 2021 was $407,010; $478,014; and $645,100, respectively. This year is looking stronger than last year as well. The loan is for 20 years at six percent interest, and we can pay it off early without any penalty, something we should consider doing in the next few years.
Fortunately, we have about $600,000 in the bank, and we will use a lot of that for various projects around the church as noted in the inspection report, as well as other projects to support our parish. I will provide a more detailed financial report later, and annually from now on.
In the survey that you completed last fall, not only did you overwhelmingly vote to buy this building, but you also told me you would like more and better social space, as well as better offices, meeting rooms, and classrooms. We are working on some exciting projects to address these vital needs of the parish, and I would be grateful for your continued prayers on these matters. I hope to have more good news to report to you soon.
Please note that to provide for all these needs, we will need to raise money from the parish. A large percentage of you said in the survey that you would be willing to increase your contributions and even to volunteer on a committee to raise money. If you would like to get started on that soon, you could email development@stlawrence.cc, otherwise, I will be reaching out to you later if you provided your email address in the survey.
We have much to be grateful for on this Lætare Sunday, and I urge you to use it as an opportunity to rejoice, to fulfill the mandate of today’s liturgy. Please continue to pray for your parish, and for your priests.
Rev. James M. Smith, Pastor
Lætare Sunday, 2022