Weekly Letter from the Pastor

Dear Fellow Parishioners of St. Benedict:

Happy Memorial Day! The summer season has “officially” arrived and I am sure many of you are enjoying the shore at some point this weekend. Let us pray that this is a safe summer for all of us. What we all too easily forget is the reason for Memorial Day in the first place. We remember all those countless men and women who gave their lives in service to our country. Their sacrifices, and the sacrifices of their loved ones, can never be measured. My Grandmother Koch was hardly the “saver” as she held on to virtually nothing, yet when she died we found letters written to her from her brother who was killed in action in the South Pacific in WWII. Let us pause to remember to pray for them and for their families.

The Easter Season is quickly winding down, and this week we celebrate Ascension Thursday. Mass will be offered at 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, at 9:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. on Thursday. The school Mass is at 1:00 p.m. on Thursday. Please remember that it is a holy day of obligation.

Pentecost closes the Easter Season. This year Pentecost is the weekend of June 8 – 9. We will again celebrate the Pentecost Vigil this year as distinct from the usual celebration of the Sunday vigil Mass. We will have a guest speaker – Sister John Paul from the Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal – who will offer reflection at 5:00 p.m. The Mass will be celebrated at 7:00 p.m. instead of 5:00 p.m. The Pentecost Vigil is meant to reflect the imagery of the Easter Vigil that opens the Easter Season.

The school year, too, is in the final throes, and overall this has been a very successful year. We will be graduating 47 students next Friday night. We are proud of their accomplishments and will publish more about them and where they are headed in a subsequent letter.

This week we were all shaken and saddened by the unexpected death of Mrs. Jayne Shalkowski, guidance counselor and cheerleader coach at St. John Vianney High School. Both Mr. Donahue, our principal who is a trained counselor, and Mrs. Potterton, our guidance counselor, were available to students at SJV for grief counseling. It is important for us to stand in solidarity with the SJV community during this difficult time.

This past week we bade adieu to Matt Santucci, and we wish him well on his new adventure. We are in the process of reviewing our options to fill this position in the next few weeks.

Next Saturday my classmates – Father Carlos Aguirre, Father Jorge Bedoya, and Father Juan Gabriel Rojas – will celebrate the sixth anniversary of our ordination. We will gather on Monday, June 3rd in the evening to celebrate Mass at 6:00 p.m. here in St. Benedict’s Church, and invite any of you who wish to attend to join us for Mass that evening.

A blessed Memorial Day and week ahead,
Father Garry