I was so moved
Last weekend around 60 of our 9th Grade students went on a Confirmation Class service day. They visited with the elderly, served lunch to the poor, and helped sort out food donations in the Friendship Center food pantry.  A large group also went to the Food-Share Office located in the Hartford Regional Market to sort produce for the poor. They bagged over 1500 lbs. of green beans and learned a lot about hunger in America. These types of experiences are exactly what we should be offering our children and more. We are able to do things like this because our 9th grade catechists have stepped up and doubled their time commitment to our young people. The generous gift of their time is bearing fruit. We are also able to better serve the needs of our young people because we have a full time youth minister who has the experience to organize events like this. Thank you to everyone who makes these kinds of events possible.
 
Monday Staff Meetings
St. Paul Church is a big parish and growing as people move into town. I’m not sure if you know it or not, but every Monday the parish staff gets together and reviews what’s coming up for next two weeks. Then we go around the table and share things pertinent to our area of responsibility. Diane Funk is our Business Manager and pays all of our bills and keeps our records straight. Patty LaVette is our Communications Director and Membership Coordinator. She prepares the bulletin, updates the website, welcomes new members to our parish and maintains membership records.  Flora Sittnick is the gentle voice that answers the phone and greets people in the front office.  Some days the phone never stops ringing. Robin Veronesi is the Religious Education Secretary and temporary Director of our Confirmation Program. Lindsey Volz, who grew up in our parish, is our temporary Director of Religious Education. Sal Biase is our Director of Youth Ministry and Campus Minister to our School. Jeff Batter is our Director of Liturgy and Music. Bill DiCicco is our Director of Maintenance.  Our Principal, Fayne Molloy, Ellen Bertolami, the Director of Admissions and Advancement and the friars also attend the meeting.
Some of you might ask, “Fr. Robert why do we need such a large staff?” We need a staff this large because we are blessed with almost 900 kids in our Religious Education Program, our budget for the School and the Parish is over 2 million dollars a year. That’s a lot of checks to write and books to keep. We have a big physical plant to take care of and the salt doesn’t just appear on the sidewalk or the tables don’t set themselves up for parish meetings. One of the most important things for a community is communication. It’s a big task to keep our website and weekly publications up to date. I could go on and on. There are a lot of people working very hard for our Church and I am most grateful for their hard work and sacrifice.  By the way, it really helps a lot if you get your bulletin articles in on Monday by noon. The publishing company gives us a deadline and if we don’t meet it, we pay a penalty.
 
I’m working on it.
Next week I will be giving the Annual Report to the Parish at all of the Masses. In a couple of minutes I’ll try to give you an accounting of our finances,  a summary of our parish life and where we hope to go in the future. Stay tuned.    
 God Bless,
 Fr. Robert