Hi y’all !!!! I just couldn’t resist. Michael and I are back from a three-week trip through the South. I must tell you, we are all y’alled out, and we’ve had our fill of biscuits and gravy, shrimp and grits, pralines, fried green tomatoes, oysters, all types of weird jerky, BBQ, and a variety of other Southern food staples! The first thing we did upon getting home on Sunday was to order a pizza. Please see my P.S. below for a funny story.
Now down to business:
SACRAMENT OF CONFIRMATION: Confirmation for St. Mark is on Friday, September 9, 2022. Schedule is as follows: 5:00 p.m. rising 8th grade; 7:00 p.m. rising 9th grade. Our celebrant this year is Bishop Frank Caggiano. A full package of Confirmation information, registration form, and other data has been mailed hard copy to all on-file religious education students. Rehearsal and retreat are mandatory. Retreat is scheduled for Saturday, September 3rd (rising 8th grade) and September 4th (rising 9th grade) in the Parish Center from 9:30 a.m. till 6 p.m. Lunch will be provided. If you have any questions, please contact Mrs. Patricia Nettleton, Director of Religious Education, at 203-257-8342.
ASSUMPTION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY: Please join us for 8:00 a.m. Mass on Monday, August 15, as we celebrate the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (this is not a holy day of obligation in 2022).
A DAY WITH MARY: A FREE Marian Eucharistic Day Retreat with the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate will take place at St. Jude Catholic Church, 707 Monroe Turnpike, Monroe, CT, on Saturday, September 10, 2022, from 9:00 a.m. till 2:00 p.m. Again, the retreat is free; please feel free to bring a snack. The day will include Saturday daily Mass, confession, exposition and benediction, Marian Procession, recitation of the rosary, conferment of the brown scapular, conferment of the miraculous medal, Fatima video, and preaching by the Friars.
KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS SCHOOL SUPPLY DRIVE: Boxes are at the entrances of the church to help collect school supplies for those in need. Thanks for your generosity.
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE SOCIAL EVENTS COMMITTEE: The word on the street is this was a WONDERFUL concert, with an estimated 160 people in attendance. Cannot wait to see what Social Events Committee has coming next…..pictures will be in next week’s bulletin. I ran out of room this weekend.
YOUTH GROUP: Calling all youth in grades 8-12….come join Youth group and have a blast. For more information contact Jared Forcier, 203-984-6037, or write him at jared@stmarkyouthgroup.org.
EUCHARISTIC MINISTERS AND LECTORS: Beginning June 1, 2022, all Readers and EMHCs who were originally mandated and completed their initial formation are invited by Bishop Caggiano to take one course every six months to maintain your authorization to serve. This is the case no matter when you earned your mandate.When you log into LEAD -https://bridgeport.leadlms.com/login– you can enter your username and password and then click “ACADEMY” on the top of the page. [Side note: Your username is your email. If you forgot your password, just click “Forgot Password.”] When you click Academy, you will see a track for your ministry – or two if you serve as both an EMHC and Reader. Once you click that track, you can add the course(s) you wish to take by clicking the +Add button. You are only required to take ONE course every six months. If you do that, there will be no other requirement, except VIRTUS, of course, and anything your parish may ask of you. If you take more than one course per track, you might run out of courses in the future, so be careful about working ahead. Any questions please reach out to Dan Giasullo at dgiasullo@aol.com.
EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES: Local employment agency phoned looking for loading dock workers part-time that could lead to full-time position. Interested? Please phone AB Temp Service at 203-375-5206.
That’s it for now!
Best,
Paula (and Joan and Janelle too)
P.S. OK, so we’re headed through the South visiting a whole lot of states and specially to see our son Matthew down in Austin TX. Along the way we were stopping in Louisville and Lexington, KY. Naturally, we were headed to the bourbon trails, and we told friends that we would bring them back some nice bottles of bourbon. Well, we did go on the bourbon trail, bought a whole bunch of bottles, which were boxed and loaded into the car. Now, if you’ve been watching the news, you saw that it was triple digit temperatures down South, with 100% humidity. We were parking our car in the hotel parking lots, in the lower levels, out of the sun. But I guess the heat was just too much, because we came down to the car one day, and (except for one bottle) ALL the corks popped out of their seals and were on the floor of the car! So now we feel awful giving our friends the bottles with the popped corks! But what can we do……you cannot make this stuff up.
After we saw the effect of the heat on the bottles, it became apparent that we could not leave any of the New Orleans praline gifts in the car. So for every new hotel we visited, we had to lug extra bags, loaded with pralines, up to the room for air conditioning. After our initial reaction that this was really a pain, it became a joke between us, with Michael saying “you just had to buy the praline, didn’t you?”
I think next year we should just go to a resort and sit by the pool and buy nothing!