Good Bye Irene and we won’t miss ya!
As all of you know, the hurricane was pretty eventful here in Kensington. The Boiler Room and Church Hall flooded in usual fashion. A new leak in the Church itself appeared near the door going down stairs to the hall. The gym roof leaked and the friary basement flooded. A special thank you to John Simeone. He stayed after the 7:00 am Mass to try and wet-vac everything. Needless to say, it was like bailing the ocean. You never know how much you need electricity until it is gone.
With the Bristles up!!!
On Monday, one of our senior parishioners came into the Sacristy after Mass to tell me that her neighbors had checked on her and her basement and said St. Paul Church sent them. I also received a call from an elderly woman. When I answered, she said, “Sir, I’m not from your church, but a member of St. Paul’s came over with his son and checked on me.” She had only known them from a distance and never talked to them before. She told me he checked on her basement and her sump pump and then he gave her his cell phone number. He also told her to give him a signal if the phone didn’t work. All she had to do was open her curtains and lean the broom bristles up against the window. He promised if he saw that he would be right over. She was very grateful and told me that he checked up on her two more times, once even during the storm. I don’t know who you are and I am sure that many of you did the same thing, but it really warmed my heart to hear these stories. Our Church can have such a powerful presence in this town if we let it. Thank You.
Our School (Filled with Hope)
School started this week and, as some of you saw in the bulletin last week, we have made a number of significant improvements to our program. The one I like the most is that now parents can check their kids’ grades online. I guess I like it because I no longer go to school. I’m not sure how I would have felt about it if my parents were able to do the same. Thank God we didn’t have the internet back then.
I’m happy to report again, in case you missed it, that our Pre-K program is completely filled to the brim with a waiting list and we have 16 new students in Grade 6. I’m writing this on Wednesday, and I just finished meeting with the parents of the children who are coming to school for the first time. There were many beautiful tears this morning and all of them weren’t from the kids. After the kids went to their classrooms, I had the special privilege of praying with the first time parents. It was very moving.