Weekly Letter from the Pastor

Dear Fellow Parishioners of St. Benedict:

A blessed 2019 to everyone!

Today is the great feast – as you know in some areas of the world even bigger than Christmas – Epiphany – the celebration that God is made manifest among us. The great mystery and miracle of the Incarnation is now fully realized for us. As we celebrate this feast – and by an accident of the calendar this year we celebrate it on the traditional date January 6 – let us be aware of the presence of God in our midst, and as we reflect on the gold, frankincense, and myrrh, we are called and challenged to think of the ways in which we offer our gifts to the Lord.

It was a wonderful Christmas Season here, and we are grateful for the generosity and support of so many wonderful people. While many people “stop-in” over Christmas – whether visitors from out of town or locals who do not regularly worship with us – we hope that they had a peaceful and meaningful experience of “church” and that we in some way evangelized and invited them to live our faith more ardently.

Some parishioners have noted that they are hearing bells. Church bells – or these days what are really electronic carillon bells – are a beautiful part of a parish’s life and have been absent from St. Benedict’s for a very long time. The opportunity presented itself to purchase and install a carillon system here and so we took it. Father JM and I decided that we would make it a Christmas gift to the parish, so we kept their purchase and installation of the system close to the vest. Even the office staff only really became aware of the system when we were testing the system a few weeks ago, and even then we denied knowledge of bell ringing! I even suggested to one person that she was probably getting a warning sign from Heaven!

We will ring the Church bells in the following sequence: 10 minutes before each Mass and then at the start of Mass. We will ring the Angelus each day at noon and at 6:00 p.m. We will play a seasonal or liturgical hymn after the Angelus. We will also ring festival bells after Weddings, Confirmations, etc. and we will toll the bells at the end of funeral Masses.

We are gearing up in the school for Catholic School’s week beginning January 26th. We have some exciting news and developments on that front. I am happy to say that SBS is taking a lead in several initiatives and that hopes I have had for our school are beginning to be realized. I hope that those of you with school-age children will give us a look during Open House or by scheduling an appointment.

Thank you to everyone who made the holy days here special. So many people – staff and volunteers – are deeply committed to making St. Benedict’s a beacon in the darkness. May the Lord reward each of you for your goodness, kindness, generosity, and grace.

Fr. Garry