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PASTOR’S COLUMN
Parish Mass and Picnic - For those who read the bulletin
online on Friday mornings when it gets posted, I hope to see
you at the Parish Mass and Picnic on Saturday. Bring a lawn
chair for Mass if you are able.
June 29 - Parish Feast Day - A reminder and an invite to join
in the celebration of the feast day of the parish this Thursday,
June 29 when the Church celebrates the Feast of Saints
Peter and Paul. This is an important day each year in the life
of the parish. So I invite you to come to the evening Mass that
day which will be held at 6:15 pm with the hope that this time
will allow more people to attend. So as to add a bit of festivity
to the celebration, the Parish Council will have some food and
an Ice Cream Social on the Parish Green to which everyone
is invited. Bring the kids and grand kids too! Hopefully it will
be a pleasant summer’s evening, it was perfect last year, and
we will be able to enjoy each other’s company and a nice
summer treat! If you are an early bird, the 7 am morning Mass
will be held as usual. The “1
st
Friday Breakfast Crew” will
provide breakfast in the church hall following the Mass. So
come for Jesus in the Eucharist and pray for our parish and
enjoy either breakfast or ice cream with your fellow parishion-
ers. Of course, nothing says you could not come for both!!
Where to go to Mass while on vacation? - There is a good
website to find a Catholic Church and their Mass times while
on vacation. Just go to masstimes.org and put in the zip
code or City and State and a list of parishes and their Mass
times will come up. It is probably a good idea to double check
with a call to the parish to make sure that a change has not
been made. How very important it is for us and our families
that we keep our priorities in place and teach our children to
do the same, especially when it might not be convenient. Our
actions speak so much louder than our words.
Independence Day Schedule - The parish offices will be
closed on both Monday and Tuesday July 3
rd
and 4
th
in
celebration of Independence Day. The Mass schedule for July
3
rd
will be as normal. On July 4
th
there will be just one Mass
on at 9 am and there will be no Holy Hour at 4 pm.
Archbishop’s Annual Appeal (AAA) - The AAA recently
sent out a letter signed by me asking those who have not yet
given to this year’s AAA, His Sacrifice, and Ours, to make a
gift if you can. I encourage all who have not yet made their
gift this year to please do so. If you have never participated in
the AAA before, I especially invite you to make a gift this year.
Remember all gifts, no matter the amount, will help provide
for the needs of our less fortunate sisters and brothers in
Christ. As you are making payments on your Forward With
Faith capital campaign gift, please also do what you can for
the people served through the AAA. With your help we can
reach our parish goal of $108,000 and hopefully surpass our
total last year of over $122,000. Thanks to the hundreds of
parishioners who have already made a gift. Thank you and
God bless you for your generosity.
Forward With Faith - Last summer and fall, the parish partic-
ipated in the Forward With Faith capital campaign that was
conducted by the Hartford Bishops Foundation (HBF). You
may recall that we had a parish goal of $975,000 set by the
Archdiocese and our total donations and pledges was
$1,094,668! The HBF covered all of the costs related to the
campaign and we were to receive 50% of all donations up to
the goal and then 80% of every dollar after the goal. The HBF
pays to the parish its portion of the pledges paid twice a year
in June and December. We received our first payment this
month in the amount of $128,332.68 which is 50% of the
amount paid by parishioners up until December 2022. These
funds will be used to pay for all of the items in the parish case
statement beginning with the new sound system. We are
actively planning an updating of our live streaming. A full
account of these expenditures will be provided to you. Thank
you to everyone who participated in the FWF campaign!
Parish Raffle - Thank you to those who have already
returned the raffle tickets. If for some reason you did not
receive them in the mail, you can give a call to the office and
we can send them to you or you can go on line to our parish
website and purchase the tickets. You can also pay for the
tickets that were sent to you on the parish website. All
checks should be made out to St. Paul’s and tickets
should be returned to St. Paul’s. You can return tickets
using the return envelope by mail, or you can drop them off at
the office, or in the collection basket. More tickets are
available in the office for purchase or if you would like to sell
some to family and friends. In addition to the $30,000 first
prize, there are another 22 prizes totaling an additional
$38,000 for a total of $68,000. The initial returns are positive
with 787 tickets sold as of June 20
th
which is 35% of last
year’s total when 2,229 tickets were bought. Good luck to all
and thanks to the 197 parishioners who have already pur-
chased tickets.
Final Thoughts - At about this time last year, I wrote this: “As
I write this the Yankees are 50-18 .... If they just play .500
baseball they win 97.” After such a hot start they actually only
went 49-45 the rest of the way and won 99, 20 less than the
119 that they were on the pace to win. The Rays are currently
51-25 on a pace to win 109. Where will they end up in
October? Only the Rangers are scoring more
runs than the Rays. No team has a wider
disparity in their home and away records though
(31-8 at home and 20-17 on the road) than the
Rays. Have a great and blessed week every-
one! - Fr. Joe