Oremus pro invicem

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

As you know, I close my pastoral letters to you with the words Oremus pro invicem – “Let us pray for one another.” For me, it is more than a sign-off. Praying for one another is one of the ways we live our life together as a parish. Every week, people ask me, one of our associate pastors, or a member of our staff to pray for someone they love: a parent facing surgery, a child beginning college, a marriage going through a difficult time, someone who has died. Sometimes the request is simply, “Please pray for me.” It is a privilege to be entrusted with those prayers.

Whenever we gather for Mass, we bring all our prayers and intentions with us to the table of the Eucharist and offer them to God through Jesus Christ. At most of our Masses, however, we also name one particular intention—for someone living or deceased—and hold that person especially in our prayer.

Increasingly, however, we have more requests for Mass intentions than we have Masses available. Before the pandemic, we celebrated two daily Masses at St. Ignatius Monday through Saturday. Today we celebrate one. That means six fewer Masses each week at which an intention can be offered, even as our parish has grown and the number of requests has increased.

We want to be the kind of parish that says yes whenever we can.

So, as we open our 2027 Mass Intention Book this month, we are making a few changes that will give us more opportunities to pray for the people and intentions entrusted to us.

Beginning in 2027:

We will continue to offer Mass intentions throughout the year. Our Sunday 10:00 a.m. Mass will remain the Mass offered for the intentions of the entire parish community. On Fridays, we will also begin offering shared Mass intentions, with as many as four intentions at a single Mass.

At the Sunday 10:00 a.m. Mass, we will continue to remember in the Prayer of the Faithful members of our parish community who have recently died.

Anyone may also place the name of someone for whom they would like prayers in the Prayer Book at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe near the Parker Avenue doors. Those intentions are remembered in the prayers of our parish community. If you are unable to come to the church yourself, a member of our staff will be happy to enter a name for you.

If you would like to request a Mass intention, have someone remembered in the Prayer of the Faithful, or add a name to our Guadalupe Prayer Book, please contact the parish front desk at 415.422.2188. Our staff will be happy to assist you. One of the gifts of belonging to a parish community is knowing that we do not bring our joys, our worries, our hopes, or our grief to God alone. We bring them with and for one another.

Oremus pro invicem,