Pastoral Council
Last Monday the Pastoral Council met for the last time until the Fall. The Pastor's report included the following items: We reviewed the status of the Youth Minister Search. There was a brief report on the summer camp. We reviewed the status of the parish improvement projects for this summer, including the new church doors and the friary renovations. A brief summary of our current finances was presented. After the Pastor's Report the council spoke about development issues, the parish registration nights (which are a big success) and reviewed the goals they had set in the beginning of the year. I think they have done a great job and I hope you do too.
Chapter of Mats (Friars Away)
Next week the friars will be away for a gathering of all the Conventual Franciscans in the United States. There will be no weekday Masses from Monday June 27th through July 1st. The church will be unlocked at 8:00 AM and locked after supper by members of the parish staff. The parish staff will coordinate any funerals that are scheduled during the time the friars are away.
GREAT KIDS !!!
Our St. Paul Summer camp has started and the kids seem happy. It is a small camp with around 15 participants each day. What really surprised us is that a significant number of volunteers from our parish have come on board to help with the Camp.I am so impressed with the quantity and caliber of the kids from town volunteering for the Summer Camp... Thank you, thank you thank you!
Hospital visits
Sadly, someone called us because no one from the parish visited their father while he was in New Britain General aka HCC. They were hurt that no one got up there. Let me assure you that we want to visit people in the hospital. Upon further study, we found that the gentleman's name was never on our hospital list and no one from the family called to let us know that he was there and needed a visit. I'm always sad when we miss someone in the hospital, however, if we don't know they are there, we can't visit them. If you have a loved one in HCC, please call the parish office or make sure that the hospital adds them to our Church list. (Easier said than done) The friars visit HCC Tuesdays and Thursdays, and sometime more if there is a special need or time permits.
Special Training for our Extra-Ordinary Ministers of Holy Communion
The Archbishop has asked that all of our EOMHCs get special training to recognize abuse or neglect when they visit the elderly or sick in their homes. Last week we held our first training session to fulfill this Archdiocesan mandate. More training sessions will be held in the future. As people move from Connecticut, sometimes our senior citizens are left here alone. Here at St. Paul we have many many volunteers who visit the sick and the elderly every week and take them communion. This training will be of great use
to them. If you have any questions please contact Gloria Janik or the Parish Office.
Religious Education Registration
After a few bumps, our online registration for 2011-2012 is functioning perfectly. Since Monday, people have even been able to pay the Religious Education Fee on line via paypal. Many have chose to do so. Several people have called and emailed us to thank us for providing the convenience of online registration. The ability to pay right online is also a big plus for many. Already after only one week 215 children have been registered that is roughly 20% of our program. I've noticed that a lot of the registrations happen around 10:00 PM when the kids are asleep and around lunch time when people have a couple of minutes to catch up on their personal email. This online registration is great for everyone. It's as if the Parish Center Office never closes. A special thank you goes out to our Religious Education staff for their cutting edge approach to our Religious Education Registration this year.
On Random Acts of Kindness...
The other day Fr. Michael and I were sitting on the front steps of the friary yakking away solving all the problems of the world, our church and our town. As we sat there, a car drove by, and the driver waved, as many do, and we waved back. The next thing we knew that same car was coming back up Alling St. and the person stopped in front of the friary and called us over. To our surprise, they had been on a Dairy Queen run and stopped to give us ice cream sandwiches. We were both surprised and grateful for the unexpected treat. It certainly brought a smile to our face. To whoever you were Thank You for the treat. As the bumper stickers say... Practice Random Acts of Kindness always. If we all did that, the world would be a very different place.