Weekly Letter from the Pastor

Dear Fellow Parishioners of St. Benedict:

As we enter the so-called “Dog Days of August” we are ramping up for the beginning of a new school year here at SBS. We have received approval from Holmdel Township to install modular classrooms to house two classes of PreK-3 students. This will be located between the first and second wings of the school. We still have spots available in all of the grades 1 – 8 if you, or anyone you know, is still considering Catholic education. Please make contact with the school office to schedule a tour.

This weekend we begin our “good-byes” to the students from our parish who have recently been graduated from high school. We will offer a blessing to recent high school and college graduates at all of the Masses this weekend. We will have an end of semester gathering after Christmas for all of our college students.

With all of the protocols and restrictions over the past eighteen months I have had very limited time away, focusing just on the holidays. As things are better now, and with August looking slower, I am going to be away from mid-week through the following week. A little break to relax and rejuvenate is always a blessing.

Here in the parish we have had some internet issues, and this came to a head following the wicked thunderstorm activity on July 6th. This left us without internet access for almost eight full days. Obviously this hampers productivity and, as I explained in an earlier missive, it is why we were unable to publish a bulletin the weekend of July 11th. This week – Wednesday through Friday – we will have a planned shutdown of the internet so that the problem can be fixed and some new hardware installed. Due to this there will be limited office availability, so ordinary business will be conducted by many staff from their homes, to the best that they are able. Fortunately our ordinary state technology disbursements are available to cover the cost of the changes necessary to the systems.

This week – August 4th – we observe the feast of Saint John Vianney, patron saint of diocesan priests. This is a good time for us to think about vocations to the priesthood. This fall our diocese has twelve seminarians in formation, ranging from sophomore in college to third year of theology. We hope that we will ordain one transitional deacon next May, though lacking a transitional deacon this year we will have no priesthood ordinations in 2022. Please pray not only for vocations, but also actively talk about and encourage young (or maybe even not so young) men to consider priesthood. As you will see in the bulletin there is a Pilgrimage from our diocese next Saturday (August 7th) for those who are discerning priesthood.

If you are interested, please respond. If you are thinking, or even pondering about the question, please respond. One of my assignments in the diocese is as the Ocean Side (Monmouth and Ocean Counties) Director of Vocations. Please have anyone interested in opening the conversation reach out to me, so that I can assist in the process. The church needs priests – good, holy, faithful – and there are more than a few men here in this parish, and in our local high schools, who fit that bill. There is a Mass for Vocations on Wednesday evening at St. Michael Church in West End at 5:00 p.m. Please consider attending.

Have a blessed and relaxing week,
Fr. Garry