From Pastor's Desk....
Week of July 7, 2019

Once a year, Archdiocese of New York and most of the dioceses in the United States runs a campaign called Missionary Cooperative Plan. It is precisely to help the Mission Dioceses and Religious orders who work in the missions to preach on their missions and make a second collection.  This year our parish is assigned Xaverian Missionaries to preach at all the masses next weekend and make a second collection. Xaverian Missionaries was founded by Archbishop Guido Maria Conforti in 1895. On March 17, 1996, St. Pope John Paul II at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome proclaimed him Blessed. On World Mission Sunday, October 23, 2011, Pope Benedict XVI proclaimed him a saint.

Today, over 900 Xaverian priests, brothers and sisters bring God’s love to people on four continents in 20 countries around the world including Japan, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Burundi, D.R. Congo, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Cameroon, Chad, Mozambique, Thailand, Taiwan, the Philippines and Sierra Leone. In accomplishing these mission works the generous support of the Church in the United States and Europe is essential.

Wherever the missionaries are able to build a church or a seminary, a school or a health care center, it is due to the generous donations of the people of parishes like ours in the developed world. We are truly co-missionaries with these missionaries who are living and working among these people in poverty and dire economic and political situations. Christ and the Good News is preached and lived by these missionaries courageously in the midst of every kind of danger. Our support and solidarity with the missionaries is our obligation as followers of Christ. I invite all of us to share in the mission efforts of Xaverian Missionaries and all missionaries through our prayers and any financial support you can.  There is no envelope for this collection but there is a second collection at all the masses for the weekend of July 7, 2019. Checks need to be written to St. Kateri and not to the Religious Order. Please be generous.

Week of June 30, 2019

Once a year, Archdiocese of New York and most of the dioceses in the United States runs a campaign called Missionary Cooperative Plan. It is precisely to help the Mission Dioceses and Religious orders who work in the missions to preach on their missions and make a second collection.  This year our parish is assigned Xaverian Missionaries to preach at all the masses next weekend and make a second collection. Xaverian Missionaries was founded by Archbishop Guido Maria Conforti in 1895. On March 17, 1996, St. Pope John Paul II at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome proclaimed him Blessed. On World Mission
Sunday, October 23, 2011, Pope Benedict XVI proclaimed him a saint.
Today, over 900 Xaverian priests, brothers and sisters bring God’s love to people on four continents in 20 countries around the world including Japan, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Burundi, D.R. Congo, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Cameroon, Chad, Mozambique, Thailand, Taiwan, the Philippines and Sierra Leone. In accomplishing these mission works the generous support of the Church in the United States and Europe is essential.
Wherever the missionaries are able to build a church or a seminary, a school or a health care center, it is due to the generous donations of the people of parishes like ours in the developed world. We are truly co-missionaries with these missionaries who are living and working among these people in poverty and dire economic and political situations. Christ and the Good News is preached and lived by these missionaries courageously in the midst of every kind of danger. Our support and solidarity with the missionaries is our obligation as followers of Christ. I invite all of us to share in the mission efforts of Xaverian Missionaries and all missionaries through our prayers and any financial support you can.  There is no envelope for this collection but there is a second collection at all the masses for the weekend of July 7, 2019. Checks need to be written to St. Kateri and not to the Religious Order. Please be generous.
 

Week of June 23, 2019

Week of June 16, 2019
I do not know how many of you are aware that we didn’t have much of spring season this year. I was waiting for three full months of spring flowers and pleasant weather. Instead we moved quickly from winter to summer. Summer never makes Pastors happy because parishioners go on vacation, mass attendance is reduced and collections decrease. But children are thrilled to be done with school for the year and families are happy to travel and enjoy vacation time. As the summer season rolls in, I wish all our families safe travel and restful family time. Let me also take this opportunity to thank you for your presence on Sunday Eucharistic celebrations every week, your involvement in building up our parish faith community and your weekly contributions without which St. Kateri will not be able to thrive as a vibrant faith family in our Archdiocese. Thanks everyone.
Next week we will celebrate the feast of Corpus Christi. It is the celebration of the Body of Christ.  In most parishes, before the summer break this feast is celebrated with a procession carrying the Eucharist where children who received first Holy Communion that year attend in their Communion outfits. We will have the Corpus Christi procession next Sunday after 10:30 Mass. Though we take the Eucharist in procession, it is truly the celebration of each one of us who are the Body of Christ. The question is, are we consciously living as the Body of Christ daily because Christ depends on each of us to continue His saving ministry? This is a prayer we sang daily in the seminary after receiving Holy Communion. Sing it or pray it, if not every time you receive communion, at least on Corpus Christi Sunday after Communion.
SOUL OF MY SAVIOUR, SANCTIFY MY BREAST (HYMN)
Soul of my Saviour, sanctify my breast;
Body of Christ, be thou my saving guest;
Blood of my Saviour, bathe me in thy tide,
wash me with waters flowing from thy side.
Strength and protection may thy passion be;
O Blessed Jesus, hear and answer me;
deep in thy wounds, Lord, hide and shelter me;
so shall I never, never part from thee.
Guard and defend me from the foe malign;
in death’s dread moment make me only thine;
call me and bid me come to thee on high,
where I may praise thee with thy saints for aye.
(Ascribed to John XXII, 13th century)
 


Week of May 26, 2019
Last Saturday, Cardinal Dolan ordained six men to priesthood in St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Five of them will be ministering in the parishes of the Archdiocese of New York and one will live the Franciscan religious life. We included them in our weekend’s prayer of the faithful. I read the details in Catholic New York and couldn’t help thinking about my own ordination and priestly vocation. Feels like, it was just yesterday. They say that you don’t feel the passing of time when you have fun. It is true in my case. Thirty one years, come and gone just like yesterday.
Would anyone consider becoming a priest or religious in modern times when the whole world is submerged in material comfort and worldly pleasures and the Church is steeped in clergy sex abuse scandal? Would any parent even suggest to their children to consider a call from God to dedicate their lives as a priest or religious? We encourage them to consider the vocations of serving the community as firefighters, police officers and so on but do not sufficiently promote vocations to priesthood and religious life. But history proves that in times of rampant corruption, scandals and struggles in the Church God brings up men and women of extraordinary strength to lead the Church.
My own mother discouraged me when I was nurturing a desire to become a priest in fifth grade because she did not find me particularly virtuous. But, my parents prayed hard daily for me when I joined the seminary. My villagers told me loud and clear that I shouldn’t be thinking of priesthood because I didn’t fall into that pious kid category. After I joined the seminary at age fifteen my superiors many a time doubted that I have a vocation to priestly life. Here I am, after thirty one years living a joyful life by the grace of God embracing people of God wherever I am. God calls us and if we respond he will straighten us and make us useful for him. All I can say is pray always for an increase in vocations to priesthood and religious life. Encourage our children to desire it and be open to it. God will take care of the rest. May God bless our parish with many vocations. Pray for all priests and religious to be faithful to their call.


Week of May19, 2109

Month of May is an amazing month. First and foremost, it is Blessed Mother’s Month. The people, who don’t usually pray the Rosary, try to pray it or even pray at the least a decade of the Rosary to honor her during May. We sing special Marian hymns at our churches during liturgies.  May-crowning to honor Blessed Mother has become a very beloved practice among children as well as adults. In the month of May most parishes celebrate First Holy Communion for children. We celebrated First Holy Communion for 88 children. Over and above all these celebrations we celebrate Mother’s Day in May. Again, it is Blessed Mother who is the model for all mothers, gets honored. These are the reasons I consider month of May as an amazing month.
In my prayer life as a priest I have developed a habit of praying three Rosaries a day.  In fact this is a habit I got from my father and I am truly grateful to him for handing on this good habit. This month, since it is not very cold, I pray my second Rosary every day in our parish prayer garden. As I sit on the wooden bench and pray the rosary, I see the Blessed Mother’s statue and behind it our beautiful Church. I offer the fruit of this rosary to our parish family. In the Catholic Church it is a great tradition that the faithful call their priest as “Father” and I truly enjoy it. But when I think of the whole parish as my family I think of me as its mother.  All mothers dream the best dreams and desire the best for their children. That is what all the Pastors do. It is ten months since I came and all this time I have been dreaming and wishing the best things for our parish family.  In this month of May I have brought all these dreams, wishes and plans to Blessed Mother for her to take to Jesus. Once I receive some guidance through the Holy Spirit we can work on them together and I am sure she will bless and guide us through. I invite all of you to join me in praying to Blessed Mother to bless and guide our parish family.
I want you to know that all the Pastors are requested to submit their parish budgets by May 31st for the next financial year. I am working with our parish book keeper and accountant. Keep praying that we do it with the guidance of the Holy Spirit to build our parish faith community. God bless you all.
 
Week of May 12, 2019

Week of May 5, 2019

Week of April 28, 2019

My brothers and sisters in the Risen Lord,

Wish you all a very Blessed Easter Season. May the Risen Jesus bless each and every member of our parish family with his gifts of unity, peace, forgiveness and Holy Spirit!

It is now nine months since I am with you. You may be surprised to know that with my appointment as Pastor, there was an attachment saying St. Kateri has a huge debt in building the new Church. I gracefully accepted it as good debt for building a new church and relied on God and your generosity to find ways to solve it. I spent all this time learning the details of it and meeting with all relevant people to resolve it. Finally, on 7thof March, I met with Finance Board of the Arch-diocese and the Parish Assistance Corporation that loaned the money and requested for an agreement in writing that would help us. On 27thof March, the proposal was sent to me for my approval and signature.

Here below, I am bringing to your attention some important points of the proposal:

Saint Kateri Tekakwitha Parish PAC (Parish Assistance Corporation) loan balance of $17.2 mil-lion is comprised of three loans.....

1. The three PAC loans will be consolidated into one loan, with a 20-year term and an interest rate of 4%

2. The Archdiocese will contribute $5 million to pay down the loan principal, reducing the balance to $12.2 million.

3. The Archdiocese will pay the interest expense on the PAC loan for a period of five years beginning April 2019 and ending March 2024. At a balance of 12.2 million, the loan will incur interest of $488,931 initially, declining as the principal is paid down.

4. While the Archdiocese absorbs the interest expense, the parish will undertake an extra ordinary campaign to raise $5 million, which will be applied to the loan principal. As such, the $5 million from the Archdiocese would be a dollar-for dollar matching contribution.

5. To assist the parish further, and to ensure that all fundraising efforts are attributed to the repayment of the loan principal, Cardinal Dolan has approved for the parish to be excluded from the Cardinal’s annual Stewardship Appeal for the next 5 years.

These proposals were discussed in detail at the Finance Council Meeting on April 10thand accepted. I signed it on April 11thand returned it to the Archdiocese. At present we are trying to explore the resources from the Archdiocese and from our parish community to run this major campaign and side by side, build up our community. Four months of planning time and we will come up with a concrete short term and long term plans to achieve our vision. My vision is in fifteen years’ time when we gather to celebrate Church’s Silver Jubilee, we must be debt free and become a vibrant faith community. Be generous with your time, talent and treasure and good stewards of your church. Approach me any time to share ideas and help in planning and execution. Above all, pray every day with faith. God will make it happen for us. Our Parish

Trustees: Mr. Thomas Beresford and Mr. Robert Herberger.Finance Council Members: Mr. Dave Borges, Mrs. Lorraine Travia, Mrs. Rosealice D'Avanzo, Mr. Dave Anderson and Mr. John Reale,and Mr. John Sullivan

Forty days ago we began our Lenten journey on Ash Wednesday and now we are in Holy Week and Easter. We received ashes on our forehead to remind us of our mortality and decided to repent and turn away from sin. We resolved to live a life of prayer, fasting and alms giving. Some of us followed all our resolutions. Others left them half way through. As a parish family we did many things to make Lent a season of grace.  Participation at the weekday and Sunday Masses increased. Many parishioners received the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Good number of people attended the fish fry, Lenten reflections and prayed the Stations of the Cross on Fridays. Our children were in the forefront. They all went to confession, through Passport to Easter program participated in various activities to get ready for Easter. Whether we are ready or not, Easter is greeting us. The Lord is Risen!

Resurrection is powerful. No one has ever risen from the dead. Our Lord Jesus conquers death by rising to life. But what happened on Good Friday? Was it weakness that Jesus was crucified and killed as a common criminal? I never gave a thought until recently. Five years ago I was visiting one of my Hindu friends in India. His son was in second grade and his Hindu Religion teacher had taught him that the Hindu gods are powerful whereas the Christian God Jesus allowed himself to be crucified and killed. The little boy asked me, Father Uncle, If Jesus is God why did he allow himself to be killed. How could he claim to be God if he is killed by people? I thought it was a good question and answered him. When I came to visit my friend this boy was wrestling with his Dad and I heard him say, “I win, Dad I win.” So I asked him, “When you wrestled with your Dad, he let you win, Right? Does it mean your Dad is weaker than you or he lost to you to show his love for you?” They all understood. Jesus’ death on the cross is not weakness or failure. It is the revelation of God’s true love for us. Happy Easter