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Our Religious Education Program opens today! We welcome back our students and catechists as we look forward to a new year filled with God’s blessing. I am happy to inform you that we have (as of today) 487 students in our Program! Please pray for our new DRE, Ms. Mercedes Blanco Lopez, as she takes on this important ministry in our parish.

Today is our annual Ministry Fair! We encourage all of our parishioners to get involved by joining one of our parish ministries or organizations. I thank all the members of our parish ministries / organizations for their presence at this year’s fair and for getting involved in the life of our parish .

Finally, I am happy to inform you that starting on Saturday, October 19th, we will begin praying a beautiful novena to Our Lady Of Knock at 9:30am. We will pray this novena every 2nd Saturday of the Month at 9:30am. I encourage all of you to attend.

Thanks for your support!

Rev. Kevin Abels,
Pastor

I finally received words this week from the Diocese that every parish will receive two tickets for the mass at Madison Square garden on Friday, September 25th at 6:30 PM. I have decided that the only fair way to distribute the 2 tickets is by conducting a parish Lottery. There are cards available in the back of the Church in which I ask you to fill out and place in the Box that is labeled “tickets for the Papal Mass.” Please only fill your name (1 name per card). Please do not put down Mr. & Mrs. And your family name. One name should be placed on each card. I will pick the two people on Monday afternoon and they will meet with me to go over future information regarding the Mass. Thanks for your cooperation and good luck!

Next Saturday is our annual Ministry Fair after all of our Masses. It’s an opportunity for you to seriously consider joining one of our many parish ministries and societies in this upcoming pastoral year! I really hope you will consider joining a ministry in our Parish.

Also next Sunday is Catechetical Sunday! At. The 10:30AM Mass we will bless and pray for all of our parishioners who are involved in sharing the Catholic Faith to our brothers and sisters.

Our Catholic School of excellence is off to a great start. We welcomed our students and faculty back this week and prayed at our opening Mass that the Holy Spirit will guide us all during this year so that we might accomplish all God is asking us to do.

Thanks for your support!

I’m preparing for the start of our new pastoral year in the fall I wanted to share with you some of the events and activities we are planning for this New Year. Please keep in mind this is not the final schedule for the year. Our parish staff is working very hard on other events as well but I wanted to share some of the things I was working on and wanted to bring to your attention.

1. Sunday Evening Vespers: Ever Sunday at 5PM in the Church on the following dates: September 27^th , October 25^th, November 22^nd, all the Sundays of Advent, January 24^th, all the Sundays of lent, April 24^th, May 22^nd, and June 26^th.
2. Hospitality Sunday following the 10:30AM Mass on: September 13^th, October 18^th, November 22^nd, March 6^th, April 24^th, and June 5^th.
3. Children’s sharing of the Word at the 10:30 AM Mass on the 1^st & 3^rd Sundays of the month from October – May.
4. Special Blessing:
   1. September 13^th – Blessing of Grandparents at all Masses
      1. 10:30AM Blessing of Back Packs, all children attending Mass are asked to bring their school back packs and supplies they put in them.
   2. September 20^th – 10:30AM: Catechetical Sunday. Blessing of all Catechetical leaders in Parish & Heads of all our parish ministries.
   3. October 4^th – Blessing of Engaged Couples
   4. November 8^th – Blessing of Veterans at all Masses
   5. May 1^st Blessing of Expecting Moms at all Masses
5. Parish Missions:
   1. Mission with Al Barbarino October 5^th & 6^th at 7:30AM
   2. Easter Mission – May 9^th, 10^th, 11^th at 9:30AM & 7:30AM
6. 40 Hours Devotion
   1. Beginning with the 7:00pm Mass in the Chapel October 19^th – October 21^st with the closing Mass at 12 noon in Chapel
   2. The Chapel will open with the Blessed Sacrament exposed for 40 hours straight.

Some other events to keep in mind:

1. Our ministry Fair will be held on the weekend of September 19^th – 20^th.

Also, we need some volunteers for our Evangelization, Hospitality and 125^th Parish Anniversary Committee. Call me at the rectory if interested.