Dear Friends in Christ,
I thank all those who made our Christmas celebrations so beautiful this year. Firstly, we had beautiful opportunities to hear beautiful music and to sing the praises in celebrating the birth of our Savior. I am grateful to our choir under the direction of John Wernega and to Ted Kiefer for his leadership. I express gratitude to Messenger, who pray as they sing and to our cantors and all musicians. We were so blessed to have the Bonasal Blues perform a Christmas concert which was really outstanding. Thank you to Eric Gianforcaro and all who assisted him in making our church absolutely stunning. What great honor to the Lord! To Kathy Lawrence and all who assist in keeping our altar cloths and altar frontals beautiful; we thank you. The sacristans did fantastic work under the direction of Mike Alibrando. While I was offering Mass at Saint Agnes Church, Mass was offered at Saint Jude’s with our children performing a Christmas pageant. Thank you to Mary Jo Dwyer and our Religious Education family. To our ushers, servers, lectors and Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion…thank you. Thank you to Robert Galasso and all my brother Knights of Columbus for the work surrounding the Giving Tree. There were a lot of smiles because of your labor. To our Saint Vincent de Paul Society, what could we accomplish to help the poor without your help? My dear parishioners, it is a blessing to serve you and I know that I join my brother priests in thanking you for your prayers, your kindness and your gifts of cookies, cakes, wine and other delicious things. I am so grateful for your financial generosity to our parish so that we can continue to do the work of Jesus and carry out our desire to make Him known and loved. Finally, thank you for being Catholic; for loving your faith; for being faithful to Mass attendance and for your example. While I see that less and less people feel the need for God, you still love Him. You inspire me every day.
God bless you,
Father Szolack