Weekly Letter from the Pastor

Dear Fellow Parishioners of St. Benedict:

As you can see the sidewalk replacement project is complete and it looks great! Again, we are grateful to Kevin Shepherd and his company for the donation of the materials, and to Clayton for the installation over the past two weeks. The crew worked through some of the most challenging heat of the summer. We were fortunate to have little rain over the period, so the project was able to be completed on time. The walkways to the Parish Office, Adoration Chapel, and the School will be completed next summer. We are, as I have mentioned previously, including a brick sale into the project in the walkways to the School and Adoration Chapel. More information will be in next week’s bulletin.

We are also now in the midst of the installation of the new boilers for the school and church. The school summer maintenance program is on target, so we will be in good shape for the opening of school. At present we have 526 students enrolled in the school, and we have some space for additional students if anyone is interested.

This Friday, August 15, is the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Mother. A Holy Day of Obligation, the Assumption is also the patron of the Diocese of Trenton. Mass will be offered on Thursday at 7:00 pm, and on Friday at 9:00 am and 5:00 pm. On Friday, after the 5:00 pm Mass, we are hosting a summer gathering for the Altar Servers, Jr. Lectors, Screen and Live Stream Operators. We hope all are able to attend. Please make contact with Anthony Cullen or Eileen Cannarozzo in the Parish Office to rsvp. We are always looking for additional altar servers, so any child in the fourth grade or above is welcome to apply for the position. Please make contact with Eileen if you are interested.

This weekend we bid adieu to the members of our parish community who are leaving for college -- I guess we are a week late as some of them are gone already. We hope that all of our parishioners are attuned to the Catholic Campus Ministry on the college campuses and to the Newman Centers on the public and other private universities. Most colleges have active and vibrant Catholic communities on their campuses.

This, of course, is a reminder that all too soon we will be blessing backpacks for the students heading back to school this fall! Summer is flying along quickly now -- please enjoy the days ahead. Winter cannot be far off!

Blessings,
Fr. Garry