The Storm - The Call
Sandy came and went and our young people called everyone 76 years old and older to check on them. Most people were very grateful for the call. If you did not get a call, it means either you weren’t home and don’t have an answering machine or the number in our records is incorrect. If you would like a call the next time we have a really bad storm, please call the office at 860-828-0331 and check if the information we have on record is correct. Thanks be to God that our town was spared most of the damage.
The Storm - St. Rose School
As of today we collected over $5,000.00 for St. Rose School. The people in our parish are just so good and compassionate. To give that much money without any notice is so impressive. In some of the envelopes it looks like people just reached in their wallets and took out whatever they had. Some of you made your checks out to St. Rose School. Because their main office is currently under water, we let them know that we were depositing even those checks into our account. When all the donations are in this Monday or Tuesday, we will make a wire transfer directly into their account so that they can start benefiting from your generosity right away. As it stands now, 7 of their classrooms and chapel will have to be completely gutted and rebuilt. Those 7 rooms include all of their science labs. Thank You so much!
The Helping Hands Ministry (HHM)
HHM held its first organizational meeting last week. A number of very generous people are committed to exploring more ways we can help our seniors. Some of the members expressed their willingness to emergency shop for our seniors or pick up their medication should someone need that kind of help. We also discussed just giving some of our seniors a weekly call to check up on them. Right now we are in the dreaming stage and I promise to keep you posted. If you are a senior citizen and can think of any way that the Helping Hands Ministry could be of service to you, especially if you live alone, please let us know. You can call the parish office or drop a note in the collection basket or Parish Center.
Pastoral Council
In this bulletin you will see the minutes of our Pastoral Council meeting. Please read them. Last week we welcomed a couple of new members to our Pastoral Council. They are Richard McCarthy and Bob Fischer. Chris Schneider will also be joining us in the future.
Italian Night
This Italian Night was a huge event. It is easy to see why Italian Night sells out so quickly every year. It is more than a dinner. Italian night is like a family reunion. The food was excellent and way too abundant. I loved it! The company was great and a wide variety of parishioners (young and old) were present. Thank you to Diane Roncaioli and everyone on the committee who worked so hard for so long to make this happen.
A Pastor’s Joy—The Flood, The Freezer
In the Church basement some good soul used the buckets and mops in the janitor’s closet near the lavatories to clean up on Friday and forgot to completely turn off the faucet. Very slowly, but very surely, the bucket filled up, then the closet filled up, then the hallway filled up with water. Some of the food we were collecting for the poor was damaged. Thank you to those Parishioners who finally found the mess and cleaned it up before the 9:00 AM Mass on Sunday. Also, sadly, somehow the freezer in the Faculty Room of our school was unplugged over the weekend and some of the food which the school stored for student lunches was ruined.
Accidents happen, so no hard feelings. However, I would simply ask that everyone be extra vigilant about taking care of our church property. Treat our Church like your home and we’ll be all set. Thanks.
The Temperature
Please be patient. When heating season starts up, so does my blood pressure. One of our kids must have thrown a basketball and knocked the thermostat off the wall in the gym. The thermostats in the classrooms aren’t speaking or lost contact with the boiler in the boiler room. The Parish Center boiler has been sick for a week and a half and the repair people have come out four times to fix it and can’t seem to get it right. The ladies in the counting room are always “complaining” that they are cold, so this time I turned up the thermostat in advance only to find out that they were too hot. (Let me tell you, they were making celibacy easy again last Monday.) The people at the 7:00 AM Mass were cold because it was daylight savings time and all of the thermostats were an hour ahead and had already shut off the heat when they arrived. The sacristy is like an ice box even though that little pump in the basement is pumping like a mad man. The Church Hall was cold last night for the All Souls Reception. When I found the thermostat it was set at 50. Go figure! A wise old priest told me, “Robert, never ask them if they are cold or hot. What do you do when half say yes and half say no? You just can’t win. Just tell them that when they come to church they should bring a sweater in the summer or a parka in the winter.” I promise we’ll get this all straightened out.
All Souls Liturgy / Reception
A special thank you to the Bereavement Committee, Pam Bobrowski, and her committee for helping us with the beautiful All Souls Liturgy and reception. It was a very moving service and a wonderful chance for the friars to visit with those who lost a loved one last year.
The Annual Archbishop’s Appeal
WOW! We really surpassed our Annual Archbishop’s Appeal goal. Our goal was $85,000 and we pledged $101,000. The Annual Archbishop’s Appeal does so much good. Thanks in advance for your generosity.
I Know I Know...
Some of you weren’t happy because when you came out of Church after 12 Noon Mass last week the parking lot was packed with people trying to get out and people trying to get in for the Basketball Tournament and the three large baptisms that we celebrated. I know our parking situation is like trying to fit a size 12 foot into a size 10 parking lot. I assure you we do our best to plan so this doesn’t happen, but sometimes it just can’t be avoided... I’m sorry for any inconvenience. From now on, nothing in our school will be scheduled before 1:30 pm on Sunday in an attempt to avoid the gridlock.
Build Up Faith...
In other words “Build up your faith.” This Advent, Fr. Peter will be holding some adult faith formation evenings for the parish. We all know that Fr. Peter is a really good speaker. Please keep your eyes open for these opportunities to deepen your faith. You won’t be disappointed. I’m really excited about this.