Weekly Letter from the Pastor

Dear Fellow Parishioners of St. Benedict:

A most blessed Corpus Christi Sunday to everyone. This weekend we observe the solemnity with a Eucharistic procession at the11:00 am Mass. It is also ten years ago this feast day that we inaugurated the Our Lady of Victories Adoration Chapel here at the parish.

Eucharistic adoration is a great gift for our parish community as a whole and certainly to the many individuals who come and go during the course of a week.

Recognizing the physical presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist is a core dogma of the Catholic and Orthodox Christian faiths (along with a few communities of Protestants). We are invited to share in the Eucharist whenever we attend Mass, though we should always do so in a state of grace and be reasonably disposed to receive the Sacrament. Please join us for the procession if you are present at the 11:00 am Mass.

Next Sunday we have a more rare celebration for a Sunday Mass. Each year the church observes June 29th as the Feast of the Martyrdom of Saints Peter and Paul. These two pillars of the Christian tradition were each martyred in Rome in the aftermath of the great fire of Rome (64 AD). The unique feature of this celebration is that, unlike most feasts, whenever it falls on a Sunday it displaces the Ordinary Sunday and, as such, is celebrated instead. Next weekend we will celebrate these great apostles.

Then, on Sunday, July 13th we will celebrate our patronal feast, as we move the celebration of the feast of St. Benedict from July 11th to the Sunday, so that we can draw our focus to the great patron of our parish community.

Of course, the weekend in the middle is the Fourth of July weekend, when many will be away for the long weekend.

Our summer projects here are well underway, and some of them have already been completed. The soffit and fascia work onwings one and two of the school will be completed by the end of the week. With the Religious Education Academy and the Summer Camp-Out sponsored by the school, the bulk of the work on the campus will happen later in July and into August. Due to the normal course of permitting, availability of materials, and related construction issues, the music room and classroom addition to the school will not be completed as early as we had originally planned. We are able to work around with available space, as we have been, and we will occupy the new construction whenever it is complete and the necessary CO has been acquired. All things take time.

I hope everyone is enjoying the beginning of summer and safe travels to all those who plan to travel this summer,
Fr. Garry