Weekly Letter from the Pastor

Dear Fellow Parishioners of St. Benedict:

This is the last week of preparation for the opening of school. I am sure the students are feeling it; I know the teachers are anticipating it, and I am certain that the parents are ready for it. We have been able to accomplish much here, though we did have fewer projects this summer than in some previous years. Through the generosity of several donors, and the commitment of girl scouts working on their Gold Award, we have been able to install a dedicated playground at the Dr. Robert H. Harris Pre-K-3 Early Learning Center. We will dedicate the playground on September 16th. We are also in the process of constructing a security station for the school. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, we have hired a full-time security guard for the school. With the assistance of state security money we have installed forty cameras around the property, and have other alert and lockdown technology in place. Security is certainly of paramount concern for parents and our teachers these days. We cannot be too careful.

Unfortunately our middle school religion teacher resigned this past week as he took a high school teaching position. We do have some leads, but if you know of anyone who might be interested, please make contact with the school office.

The encroaching school year hit me as on Wednesday I celebrated Mass for the in-coming students and their families at St. John Vianney High School. There were over 500 people in
attendance, which felt really good.

We did fairly well -- $1,934 -- in the special collection for retired priests. Thank you to all who have contributed to that fund, if you would like to make a donation, please remit to the parish office and we will forward to the diocese. We are still short of the goal for the Annual Catholic Appeal. Please consider a gift if you haven’t already.

While the majority of our religious education students participated in the Summer Academy, there are still about 120 students we expect to register for the traditional sessions. If you have not yet registered, please do so soon. We are changing the model from Wednesday afternoons to one Sunday per month, along with participation in family days. This covers grades one through seven. The eighth grade Confirmation preparation program remains on Sunday evenings throughout the school year. We are still in need of a few volunteers to assist, but it is hard to know how many until we have complete registration.

We are also always looking for volunteers for the Food Pantry and St. Vincent de Paul Society. Fortunately, we have been able to expand the hours of operation at the food pantry, enabling us to respond to the growing needs of the community. We are also grateful that the food contributions continue to meet the demands at the pantry. They are also experimenting now with home delivery for those who are housebound or lack the means to get to the pantry during designated hours. It has been working well, and we are looking for ways to expand this service.

Last Saturday the Knights of Columbus from our parish assembled for a votive Mass to celebrate the feast of the founder of the Knights, Blessed Michael McGivney. This was the first year that this memorial has been extended to our diocese, and even with the short notice from the diocese enabling us to celebrate the votive, we were able to gather them together. There is a photo of the group further on in the bulletin. We are grateful for the work of the Knights in our parish. They contribute much to the life of our parish; both the church and the school. Please consider joining their ranks, or at least in supporting their efforts by participating in the monthly breakfast (which happens to be this weekend) when you can. They offer a good breakfast, and at $7 per adult, $6 per child and $20 per family the price can’t be beat!

Enjoy the closing weeks of summer -- stay safe!
Fr. Garry