The Great Adventure
Once again we will be hosting our college students for a summer dinner. The purpose of this meal is simple. As this years’ High School graduates prepare for their great adventure, our veteran college students spend some time with them giving them good advice on how to be successful and remain a faithful Catholic in college. It’s a great program. There is always lots of good food, funny stories and great advice. While they usually show a lot of bravado, it can be quite intimidating for our soon to be college freshmen as they journey off. The counsel of other great kids from the parish always helps. If you are in college or going into college please join us at the Summer College Send Off this Thursday, July 31st, at 6PM in our church hall.
The life of our parish is like the life of a large family
Every couple of weeks, good families bring their beautiful babies to be Baptized at St. Paul’s. Check out the pictures of our July Baptisms in this bulletin. On the same days, there are often other transitions. Last week two of our parishioners went into nursing homes. A couple closed their eyes on earth and opened them in heaven. A couple from our parish went into the Hospital or learned that they were facing some pretty challenging health problems. One of our parishioners had a stroke out of the blue. A beautiful woman in our parish mourned the loss of her home as her health needs required her to go to move to an assisted living complex. It was hard for her to leave her things and all the memories she had enjoyed for forty years. She said walking out of that door was one of the hardest things she had ever done. One of the Dads in our parish lost his job due to a company wide organization. Every day there are people who need our prayers, and while we publish the prayer list in the bulletin, I feel we have to find a more immediate way to let you know that people in your spiritual family (your parish) need your prayers. We need to pray for each other more. If we don’t believe in the power of prayer, what are we doing in Church? I know I have to do something now. I just have to figure out how to fix it… I’ll keep you posted.
Summer Camp
Our summer camp is bursting at the seams this week. Maybe a lot of families just got back from vacation, or maybe the other summer activities are coming to a close. Whatever the case may be, there are lots and lots of kids running around supervised by a great group of camp counselors. I am a firm believer in programming for young people. At first glance, you might think that the summer camp is a program for our little ones and indeed it is. But it is also a program for our bigger ones because it gives them a chance to do something meaningful over the summer and earn a couple of bucks in the process. Our summer camp is a win for the kids. a win for the counselors and a win for the parish. Thank you to Mrs. Julie Scalora who has been running our camp since the beginning. I heard a rumor that Fr. Tim is going to take some of the big ones fishing at Paper Goods Pond this week… Good luck Fr. Tim, Good Luck.
KGS
Soon we will have a large flat field. The work is progressing well and the site continues to be a place where people gather and reminisce. I’ve met so many people from town at the worksite. It is my hope that as the project progresses, people will continue to meet on our Parish Green.
Berlin Fair
It’s not too early to start talking about the Berlin Fair. It takes over 100 volunteers and coordinators to maintain our presence at the Fair. This year we will be signing up both online and with a bulletin insert. Please consider helping out at this important town and parish tradition.
Wow…
While I was away, a group of parishioners volunteered to help out and plant the gardens, and let me tell you, there are several of them scattered around our property. As the summer progresses all of them are becoming more and more beautiful. The one by St. Paul and the one between the Church and the garages are particularly nice this year. Thanks again for your hard work on your parish.
Fr. Robert