Weekly Letter from the Pastor

Dear Fellow Parishioners of St. Benedict:

Happy New Year! Here’s to a blessed and healthy 2023 for everyone.

Of course, while the secular world celebrates the first day of the year today, the church celebrates the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God. This is one of the oldest and certainly most important of all of the titles and honorifics that the church has used to identify Mary. This feast is observed today -- the octave day of Christmas -- as a completion of the observance of Christmas Day. Like some other feasts in the life of the church, they are so important that we observe them for a full eight days.

It is a social custom to make a series of new year’s resolutions -- most of which are never realized -- but it is a good reminder to us always of the areas of our lives that are in need of some improvement. May your resolutions be realistic, honest, and attainable!

I hope everyone had a nice and relaxing Christmas week but with all of the stress that the holiday brings, I am sure that it was difficult to achieve. Either way, now we are back to work and to school -- except for some of our collegians -- and are in full swing.

January gets off to a quick start, and there is much to think about and do as we begin the new year. Any new year date is purely arbitrary as we all work off multiple calendars each year which have their own beginnings. We are quickly approaching the midpoint of the school year, so Catholic Schools Week looms at the end of the month. Shortly we will be announcing our new summer camp program, so those of you with young children can keep an eye for summer opportunities. Of course, we will also be announcing dates for the Summer Religious Education Academy soon as well.

In the liturgical life of the church, we will end the Christmas Season on Monday, January 9th as we celebrate the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. Then begins a brief period of Ordinary Time, which is interrupted for the Lenten Season, which begins Ash Wednesday, February 22nd. So in a sense we are already preparing for Lent. We are planning a full roster of Lent opportunities this year.

The winter season has hit us hard -- at least with the devastating cold weather -- so it is a good time to be mindful of our self-care and care for others. If we learned nothing over the last almost three years (wow -- three years already) that we have been enduring the COVID-19 pandemic protocols, it is that we need to exercise greater care for those around us as we are experiencing respiratory infections. Please continue to exercise caution, and stay home when you are not feeling well. The risks for everyone are too high.

The deadline for writing this letter is early. I am not able to report any news about the Christmas celebrations here due to the early submission date for the bulletin. I will be able to say more in another week or so.

Overall, however, the set-up and preparations for Christmas went well, The Advent activities were well-done and I know everyone was happy that we were able to do many things this year that we were not able to do over the prior two Advent Seasons.

Allow me to again send best wishes for the New Year from Father AL, Mr. Donahue, and the entire staff of St. Benedict’s Parish and School Communities.

All the best,
Fr. Garry