MESSAGE FROM THE PASTOR
Dear Friends in Christ,
The week before last I was on retreat in Hawthorne, New York. It is
the Motherhouse of the Sisters who staff Sacred Heart Home on Hunting
Park Avenue in the Logan area of the city. These sisters have cared
for patients with terminal cancer for over a hundred years. Their foundress
Rose Hawthorne (daughter of the author Nathaniel Hawthorne) had the
faith that if the sisters gave care completely free of charge that God
would provide. To this day, the sisters do not accept one dime from
their patients or their patients’ families. It was a good week,
and I came back refreshed in the spirit.
I want to thank those of you who have supported our Heritage of Faith
~ Vision of Hope campaign. Because of you, special things will be done
both in our Archdiocese and in our parish. If you have not yet made
a pledge for the program, I respectfully request that you consider doing
so. Please call our parish office during regular hours for more information.
We have reached over 85% of our parish goal. If little more than two
hundred additional families would pledge a thousand dollars over a three
year period (which is less than one dollar a day), we would make our
goal. Thanks to those who have made pledges; thanks also for considering
doing that if you have not done so already. The parish share of this
program will go into two funds: a fund for a new parish center and a
fund for a new narthex and other improvements in our Church.
We are not far from the opening day of school. It will be an exciting
time with our new principal Mrs. Mary Tremper. Currently we have openings
in most grades of our school. Remember that we are now taking children
of all faiths on a space-available basis. Encourage your neighbors and
friends of other faiths to send their children to St. Christopher’s.
School families who refer a non-Catholic family to our school will get
a discount on their stewardship rate of tuition. St. Chris is a great
school. We want to share that good with the community.
Our Parish Religious Education Program (PREP) under Jim Malinowski’s
direction will be a renewed program of education in the faith for our
children. Those of you who have children in public or charter school
need to register your kids in the CCD (soon to be re-christened PREP)
program. Jim will be looking for teachers and aides for the program.
It would be great if you could volunteer to teach in the program. If
you are not comfortable teaching an entire class, perhaps you could
do one-on-one religious instruction with children of special needs or
with those who are older and do not yet have their sacraments. Also,
Jim is looking for people who might be thinking about becoming a Catholic.
If you know someone that might just need to be asked, why not suggest
it to the person? Expect good things from Jim’s leadership. I
know I do.
In a previous letter, I told you that our friend and former assistant
Father Phil Florio has been assigned as director of campus ministry
at Fordham University. He begins on August 2, but he will be with us
on Sunday, August 1 to celebrate the 10:30 Mass. Starting on August
8, Father Mario Farrugia will be with us regularly on weekends. He will
be joining the staff of St. Joseph’s University. We have been
blessed with the presence of Jesuit Fathers here at St. Christopher’s.
I am so happy that Father Mario will be calling Philadelphia home in
just a few weeks.
Asking the Lord’s continued blessings on all of you and your families,
I leave you
In the peace of Christ,
.
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Updated July 24, 2010 for Sunday, July25th