Posted on September 1, 2022 View all Pastor's Letter
Dear parishioners,
Last weekend has been of great joy and enthusiasm for the entire parish, because we were able to celebrate our patronal feast again with countless joyfulness in honor of our Lady, Queen of the Apostles, Father Agustín Mateo, who presided over the Eucharist and encouraged us in his homily to love and trust our mother Mary more. The Holy Mass was the main celebration, but together with the spiritual celebration we also had the second Family Festival, which, thanks to God and everyone’s work, was a complete success; we have rediscovered the talent and gifts we have in the parish. Many thanks to all the volunteers for the effort, dedication and above all the unity to organize this celebration of faith and friendship. It gave me great joy and pride to work with you, all our living forces work in harmony to carry this out. We have shown that unity makes us strong: Staff, the Filipino community, Knights of Columbus, young adults, women’s group, the Grill-Fathers (men’s group), Missionaries of Jesus, Prayer Group, Legion of Mary, Conjugal Encounters, Emmaus, Cursillistas, and all the parish ministries and volunteers, we were happy and tired together so that everything would be a success. I THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR EFFORT AND YOUR LOVE FOR THE PARISH.
I still don’t have the exact profit numbers for the entire festival, because we are still processing everything, I hope to be able to share it with you next week, but I anticipate that it has been very good. I am very grateful to all those who participated in the raffle by selling tickets and also those who bought them, your collaboration is well received and appreciated; I also congratulate the winners, Kenneth Kirwan for $1,000, Marta Cervantes Miguel for $1000, Lola Gomez for $1000, Marguerite M. Cunningham for $2,000, and the grand prize winner was Allison Tatiana Fernandez for $4,000, thank you very much for your participation. Thank you all very much for the effort put into the festival, we did it together and we will continue to make better events thanks to the unity and love towards our Queen of the Apostles parish.
Changing the subject, on behalf of everyone and myself, I want to thank Roger Williams, who for many years has collaborated in our parish, and in the last two years he was our Capital Projects Manager. He and his family have moved to live in South Carolina. We will miss Roger and all his effort and dedication to the development of our parish, both as part of the Staff and as a volunteer working with great energy with the Knights of Columbus, a group that collaborates a lot in the parish. Thanks to Roger’s support, all the improvements to the parish building, Hannan Hall, school, parking lot lighting and many other projects have been made possible. Thank you very much Roger and your family for your friendship, respect and affection, we are really going to miss you.
Finally, I officially welcome all the children of our school! Welcome also to new and old teachers. Last Wednesday, August 24th, they started their new school year- I was happy to receive them and bless each one with holy water. When I see their joy and enthusiasm it gives me hope because I see the future of the church reflected in them; this year we will have 210 children, 170 who will receive face-to-face classes and 40 in virtual classes (as you know, our school runs the Saint Isidore of Seville Virtual Academy). Blessed be God we’ve upped our numbers this year. I ask that we all continue to pray for our parish school.
I have you in my prayers,
Fr. Alex
