Weekly Letter from the Pastor

Dear Fellow Parishioners of St. Benedict:

There weren’t too many tears this week as school opened, and it certainly feels and sounds good to have the students back on campus. We opened with 432 students in grades PreK-3 through 8. Our mobile classroom was delivered and installed this past week, so the PreK-3 students now have their own home. Congratulations and blessings to Mr. Donahue, Mrs. Keeling and all of our teachers, aides, and staff members of SBS.

Next weekend is our Family Welcome Back Weekend. I hope that you will be able to join us for the fun and festivities of the weekend. This is a good way to meet up with old friends and to make news ones. Of course, the parish will benefit along the way as well. Make sure to get those tickets in for the 50/50 Raffle. The drawing is Saturday.

Due to my work on the Diocesan Vocations team I will be a bit scarce the next few weekends. I am speaking in different parishes to develop an awareness of vocations for the priesthood in our diocese. Father AL will be ably assisted while I am on the road. The diocese will sponsor a Called By Name initiative in November; more on that later.

This week Father AL and I will be attending the annual Priest’s Convocation, Tuesday through Thursday. This is an opportunity for the priest’s to gather, share in some fellowship, and to attend some workshops and presentations. As we were unable to hold this event last year, this proves to be a great opportunity to get together and see everyone. We are grateful to Father Tony and Monsignor Jack Carroll who will cover daily Mass while we are gone.

This week the parish youth ministry program begins their programs for the year. This is an important ministry for our parish and really for the church at large. We are grateful to Ciro Saverino for his enthusiastic leadership in this area. He has assembled a solid team of volunteers to work with him. Let us pray for the success of this ministry.

This past Wednesday Father AL and I paid an extended visit to Bay Shore Health Care Center where we anointed almost all of the Catholic residents of the facility. Anointing of the Sick is such an important sacrament and two years ago the pandemic hit us so quickly that we were unable to enter the nursing homes to anoint those who were sick and dying. With the uncertainty as to the spread of the variants this year we felt it prudent to anoint as many people as we could. We will do the same at The Willows as soon as we are able to schedule that.

We are still cautiously optimistic that we will be able to open up more as the year goes along. I have been asked about the return of both the 9:00 a.m. Mass on Saturday and the 12:30 p.m. Mass on Sunday. Likewise some have asked about the opening of the Adoration Chapel to its intended 24/7 schedule. All of this is still on the table, and once we are confident that people will attend, we will bring those back.

Also please remember the Ministry Fair on the weekend of September 25-26. We need lectors, altar servers, ministers of Holy Communion, and screen operators to name but a few.

Next weekend is Catechist Sunday. We are grateful to the many teachers both on the professional staff and the many volunteers who enrich our parish with their faith and example.

Have a blessed week,
Fr. Garry