Upcoming Events:

COVID-19 and The Church

Bishop Taylor has reopened churches as part of our early phasing in response to the spread of COVID-19.  You can find his full promulgation HERE.  You are also encouraged to read the entirety of Fr. John Connell's Instructions in response HERE  updates are HERE. As a result of these WE WILL BE HAVING MASS ONCE AGAIN STARTING MAY 16TH!!  It is important to recognise that the obligation to attend a Sunday Mass is still dispensed and if any Catholics are considered to be at risk from COVID-19, namely if you are immune suprressed (diabetic, have or have had cancer, have COPD, MS, rheumatoid arthritis, chronic bronchitits, asthma, obesity or heart disease) or are over the age of 65, you are encouraged to reamain at home at this time.  Masses will still be streamed from St. Raphael at 10:30 AM in English and 12:30 PM in Spanish each Sunday.  There are also quite a few restrictions upon our participation at the Mass at this time.  We will implement these restrictions here at St. Joseph in the following ways:

1)  Mass occupancy will be limited to a maximum of 125 people at a time.

2) All participants over the age of 10 must wear a mask or other covering over their mouth and nose.

3) We will make every attempt to have hand sanitizer at the doors of the Church, however, do to supply issues participants are encouraged to bring their own sanitizer or wash their hands before coming into the church.

4) All participants will need to keep a minimum of 6 feet between them and other participants who do not live in their home.  As such, parents of young children are asked to keep their children close at all times to ensure that they do not violate the distance standard with others due to a limitted understanding of Social Distancing.

5) There will be no Precious Blood for anyone except the Celebrant.

6) There will be no handshake or other sign of peace that involves physical contact.

7) There will be no reception of Communion on the tongue.  If you are unwilling to receive on the hand, you may make a Spiritual Communion instead.

8) There will be no Holy Water in Water Fonts.

9) There will be no holding of hands at the Lord's Prayer.

10) There will be no choir or other music at Mass for the time being.

11) There will be no hymnals, music books or envelopes in the pews.  People are advised to download a Missal Program on their phone or tablet to bring to Mass or to purchase a personal Missal on-line.

12) There will be no offeratory or procession in or out of the church by the celebrant.

13) There will be no collection nor children's collection at the Mass.  There will be a basket on the tables at the exits for you to drop your donation into.  If there is a second collection scheduled that weekend, we will have a separate basket clearly labeled for that collection.

14) There will be no physical bulletins, hand outs, or other paper documents in the vestibules.  If you would like to see our weekly bulletin we ask that you view it online via this website, via the Grapevine email (sign up here), or by following the link on Facebook.

15) Until further notice there will be none of the following ministers serving at Mass:

*Altar Servers

*Deacons

*Sacristans

*Gift-bearers

*Ushers

16) We will have Confessions before the 4:00 PM Saturday Masses starting June 6th, however, it will end at 3:30 PM to allow time for the Priest to set up for the Mass.

17) We will resume our Thursday 7:30 AM weekday Mass.

We ask that you come to mass with an open mind and an understanding that even though we are restarting public Masses again, our Masses will be different and with lots of restrictions.  Please look for the blessings in these changes rather than the easy path to criticize what the bishop and pastors are doing.  Please remember that if one of our priests gets sick, all three of them will be in quarantine for 2-3 weeks and there will not be any sacraments available at all, not even the live stream masses and emergency sacraments they have been able to provide thus far.  Please do your best to keep our priests and the vulnerable in our community safe by maintaining social distancing, proper hand hygiene and wearing face coverings.  For more information and a loose timeline of events please read Fr. John's Full Letter HERE. and his update HERE.

May God bless us all during this time with his Spirit and his presence.  Please pray also for those affected by COVID-19, especially those who have died.

2020 Grape Festival Cancelled

After a lengthy discussion with the Grape Festival Committee during our May 19th Parish Advisory Council meeting, it was determined that the Grape Festival would not be able to continue this year in the same way that it has in previous years.  Whereas we as a parish would love nothing more than to get on with our daily lives, we did not think that it was the right move for the safety of our parishioners and greater Tontitown Community for us to risk lives.  For more information read Fr. John's letter HERE or see the Grape Festival's Facebook Page.

 REGULAR MASS SCHEDULE:

Saturday Vigil Mass: 4:00 pm

Sunday Masses:     

(Eng) 9:00 am (Nursery available for ages 1-4)

(Latin) 4:30 pm        

Daily Mass:  These are general and subject to change as needs arise.

• Tuesday                       5:30 pm
• Wednesday - Friday     7:30 am

Confessions:

• Tuesday:    5:00 pm   -  5:20 pm
• Saturday:   3:00 pm   -  3:50 pm
• Sunday:     3:30 pm   -  4:20 pm

Offerings:

• Pre K-Adult Religious Education
• Youth Ministry
• Mother's Day Out Program

         Tues & Thurs   9:15 AM-2:00 PM

• St. Joseph Food Pantry

   Monday            6:00-7:00 PM
   Wednesday      8:30-9:30 AM

•  Gift Shop (open after weekend masses or by calling the parish office)
• All standard ministries and services

Click here to register free for Formed.org!

(Our account is combined with St. Raphael)