Kudos to Lori McCahill and the marriage ministry for a fun and successful family picnic last weekend! We had great weather and a nice turnout. In conjunction with our patronal feast day (July 11th) we are planning on making this an annual event. We wish to thank the Holmdel Fire Department for participating in the day as well. Father JM and I even got a chance to taste some really good home baked pies.
You might have noticed that some of the trees by the baseball field are down. We were advised that bringing them down now would save us a lot of money and possible damage in the near future. The trees were either completely, or mostly diseased and dying. Sadly it is hard to replace trees of their stature quickly. We will be looking into how and what to plant along the ball field. If you have any ideas please let me know.
I am happy to announce that Tim Sullivan has agreed to chair the parish finance council. Recently re-appointed to the council, Tim has lent his advice and expertise to the parish for many years. I am happy to work with him in this role. We are still looking for a new member of the council, so if you are interested please make contact with Fran DeMuria in the business office.
Our new coordinator of faith formation, Matt Santucci, has hit the ground running. It didn’t hurt that he got thrown into the first week of the summer academy of religious education on his first full day on the job, so his learning curve was fast and steep. We will have a meet and greet for him with the parish soon so that everyone has a chance to meet our newest staff member.
This weekend we say adieu to our seminarian intern Frank Flaherty. It seems hard to believe that he is finished here already as it seems like he just arrived. He contributed much to the parish ministries over the past six weeks and we hope that he learned a lot about parish life while he was here. This week he, and the other nineteen seminarians of our diocese, are on retreat together. Please remember them in your prayers. Frank returns to St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in a few weeks to begin his second year of theology. He hopes to be ordained a priest in 2020.
The science lab in the school has been installed and just a few finishing touches are necessary before we can open it up for everyone to see. It is everything we had hoped it would be. It is unbelievable that school opens in just over a month and, while we have made much progress in the classrooms and throughout the building, there is much more to do. Bob Cognat and his crew are to be commended for all that they do and the ease with which they do it.
The last week of the summer academy is this week and then things will really kick up as we prepare for the opening of school. We still have some openings for students, especially in kindergarten, so if you know any eligible children out there, encourage them to give us a look.