Weekend of June 3-4, 2023

Dear Friends,

I would like to thank everyone who donated to our special second collection for the benefit of our Blessed Trinity Regional Catholic School. Your generosity to this date totaled $3,781.00, which will assist us in upgrading our school electrical system this summer so that we can better use the advanced technology which is such an important component of our present day curriculum. You may still make an online donation using your credit card by simply going to our school website at www.btrcs.org/partners-sponsors. You can also make a donation to our school by cash or check anytime by simply dropping your donation in the collection basket or dropping it off at the rectory. On behalf of our school community, and especially our wonderful students, I thank you sincerely for your generosity.

We celebrated last Sunday the great feast of Pentecost, which commemorates the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the infant Church, as well as the beginning of that same Church. Pentecost reminds us that the Lord is continually pouring forth his Spirit upon us, his Church, and as we open ourselves to the power of that Spirit, and to the gifts which only he can give us, we commit ourselves to sharing those gifts with everyone we meet. God’s mercy certainly does endure for ever!

Pentecost also marks for us the official end of our fifty day long Easter season (the word Pentecost actually means “the fiftieth day”). Our Easter celebration this year was once again a very fruitful one, especially liturgically, as we powerfully began it at the Easter Vigil with the baptism and reception of several new members of the Church, and celebrated, just a few weeks ago, the confirmation of another group of young Catholic Christians. As we begin our summer Ordinary Time, may the Spirit of Easter, which is, of course, the Spirit of Jesus, continue to live in our minds and in our hearts.

We celebrate this weekend the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. This great feast, in which we honor God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, is a reminder to us of the awesome mystery of our God, a mystery which, in many ways, is too mind-boggling for us to understand with our mere human brains. Ultimately, however, this ancient feast is a way for us to remember the first thing we learned about God, which is also the most important thing: the fact that God loves us, with a love that is so great and so profound that God wants nothing more than to share his life with us. The love that the Persons of the Trinity have for one another is a perfect love. The Father loves the Son, the Son loves the Spirit, the Spirit loves the Father, in a perfect communion of love. Their love for one another has existed always and will never end. Our celebration today reminds us that the Persons of the Trinity want to draw us into the love they share with one another, and want to make us a part of the communion of love that they share. Aren’t we blessed to be children of such a loving God?

I remind you that we are once again participating in the archdiocesan Manna food drive. The brown Manna bags are available for pick up in church. We ask every family/household to take a bag and fill it with non-perishable food items for the benefit of our sisters and brothers who are most in need. We ask you to return your filled bag to church as soon as possible. The food collected will be brought to Catholic Social Services’ Northeast Family Service Center to help replenish their food bank. Thank you in advance for your generosity.

  I once again ask you, if you have not already done so, to please make your Catholic Charities and Saint Charles Seminary Appeal donations for 2023.  It would be a wonderful thing if we had 100% participation in these important annual appeals from every wage earner and/or household in the parish. Your sacrificial gifts, no matter how large or small, will make a big difference in the lives of those most needy who are served by Catholic Charities, as well as our seminarians who benefit from the seminary appeal. Thank you, as always, for your generosity.

            Know that you and those you love are daily remembered in my Mass and my prayers.

                                                                                    Love and prayers,
                                                                                    Father Olivere