From our Pastors

Live Stream Mass – Easy Access

• Go to the SHS Calendar and find the date and time for Mass. Then, at that date and time, click on it and it will take you to the Live Stream Mass.

• Follow St Vincent de Paul on Facebook and the Masses will be live-streamed there at the scheduled time.

• Within a few minutes after the live stream Mass, it is posted to the Parish Website under the tab, “Mass Links.”

• Having trouble finding the Live Stream Mass? Call the parish office. 660-827-2311

St. Vincent de Paul Parish Disaster Response Team

Bishop McKnight decreed that parishes are “Centers of Mercy and Charity” and with a pandemic upon us, each parish was instructed to create a Disaster Response Team (DRT.) Here at St. Vincent de Paul parishioner Joy Simon, Social Concerns Commission Chair, took on the responsibility with clerical assistance from Dee Snurr to make our DRT team a reality!

The first step from DRT was to recruit phone callers so that every registered household in the parish would receive a phone call. DRT’s first phone call was made on March 26. There are 44 wonderful phone callers.  Some of these volunteers have called over forty families! They have been in the process of reaching 966 families and 403 have indeed been contacted! DRT learned that 71 of the numbers they called are no longer working.

This information helps us update our parish database.  Phone callers reach out to ensure everyone has access to groceries, medications, the ability to view mass in their homes and to check if they are symptomatic in any way of the virus. When DRT phone callers learn of people’s unmet needs, there is a group of 20 volunteers who have agreed to pick up and drop off items such as groceries in a safe protective manner.

DRT has heard how wonderfully families are coming together helping each other. Older children are attending to their parents’ needs by shopping and delivering groceries, medications, and comforting them. So many individuals commented on how much they appreciated the call from the church. Several parishioners hadn’t attended in a long time or felt isolated from the church. These names have been given to us priests who are making contact and will continue to reach out to them. So, this effort will be vital in helping us re-engage our parishioners.

So what can you do if you are not part of the DRT and feel called to assist?  There are two ways:

1. Phone caller: Our goal is to reach all 1100 registered households. Many of the remaining parishioners who have yet to be assigned to phone callers speak Spanish. If you are bilingual and have computer skills, you could be a vital part of our team to help reach the remaining 300 households.

2. Deliverer: Volunteer to deliver items to/from people’s homes. Please call Joy Simon 660 473-1803 to volunteer for either or both of these roles!

As Bishop McKnight likes to say, “We are better, together!” Thank you for your giving hearts! Credit goes to Joy Simon and Dee Snurr for their great assistance in writing this article. A special thank you to all who help in any way during this pandemic.