Dear Notre Dame Parishioners, Parents, and Community Members: School is off to a great start! The students' smiles are beaming under their masks, they are adjusting very well to the new routine and precautions, and are simply happy to be back with their friends and teachers. We have had to make many decisions and adjust plans in the past few months and I am very proud and blessed to have such competent team players in this organization. Many questions have arisen about the source and summit of the sacramental life of our school: Thursday K-6 School Mass. This is an extremely important practice of our faith and expression of our community as the Body of Christ and much thought went into how to safely gather the whole school together to celebrate liturgy. Each grade is part of a "pod" and the school day has been carefully choreographed so that these pods do not mix in order to promote health and safety and minimize any spread of COVID-19. Keeping the integrity of these pods and maintaining appropriate social distance has proved a problem for spacing in the Church. Because of this, I am sorry to say that Thursday daily Mass will not be open to the public; parents, siblings, grandparents, and daily mass goers. It is not easy to take this step backwards, but I am putting the physical and spiritual health of my students above all other priorities. We will revisit this on a month to month basis, and so we will see what October brings. For the month of September, I ask two things: 1. If you wish to join our family for prayer and worship, you can watch at home. I will be continuing to live stream every daily and school mass. Live streams can be found on my YouTube Channel: https://tinyurl.com/fatherjacobyoutube 2. Unite your hunger for community and the Eucharist to the thirst of Christ (John 19:28). Pray for a swift end and deliverance from this pandemic. I believe that this time in our lives is a perfect way to unite our desires to The Thirsty One. You are more than welcome to attend any of the other daily and weekend Masses here at Notre Dame: Tuesday 5:15pm Wednesday 8:00am Friday 8:00am Saturday 4:00pm Sunday 8:00am and 10:00am Eucharistic Adoration and the sacrament of Penance will be available before each mass. Thank you for your understanding. Please feel free to reach out to me with questions or concerns by emailing dbqrouse@dbqarch.orgor calling the my office at 563-547-3565 Peace, father jacob rouse