This past Thursday I celebrated a Funeral Mass of Resurrection for Paul Gargano, who was husband to Sheila (our virtual online parishioner) and father to our parishioner, Alison DaPonte. I travelled to Our Lady of Victories in Centerville to remember the life of a man, who from an early life wanted to be an attorney. As he told the story, initially he wanted to be a priest, but his immigrant mother persuaded him to ‘make a respectable living, have a family and build a savings account.’ The saying “mother is always right” comes to mind. He was a wildly successful attorney and businessman in Cambridge, and a leader in his community. He loved the Church and was generous with every parish he resided in. I thank God for folks like him and those of his generation who became good examples for others in matters of faith and philanthropy. May he rest in peace.
We continue to weed and trim the bushes and planted rose bushes (they’ll have orange roses) on the side of the church. I want to thank Joe Thompson who has spent days on the property undertaking the weeding…necessary work but hard on the knees! We are cutting many of the hydrangeas for the altar and have a nice running supply through the summer. In April, we took the Easter Lilies and replanted them for a second bloom….take a look at them located right by the garage. The orange lilies located by the parish sign, which have already bloomed, are ‘Asiatic Lilies’ planted several years ago. We reuse the Easter flowers by planting, and some of our large hydrangeas surrounding the church are from a dozen Easters past. If you’d like to help with the landscaping just let me know. I do a lot of the work along with Catherine, Joe Cochrane, Joe and Arlene Thompson. Thanks to Roger Wells who has let me borrow his gas hedge clipper, and this week I’m using it for the side evergreens. He was kind enough to donate a gas-powered blower for the leaves and boy, has that come in handy! Thanks to everyone who contributes to our offertory collection as it is from this source that we are able to purchase these beautiful flowers!
You may have noticed that we have had a delay in the restoration project on the front of the Church. Some of this is due to material shortages (with the custom manufacture of the doors) plus the rainy weather has kept us from finishing the scraping and painting to the exterior.We are waiting on the icons of St. Joachim and St Anne, as well as Elizabeth Ann Seton (1st Canonized United States Saint) which will be located in the foyer. I am also looking around for the right tables and lamps for this space. Everything will come together, please be patient. I know when it is complete you will be very pleased and proud of your Church. When completed the outside will look amazing!
We’ll be sending the 2nd mailing for the Grand Annual next week, we ask everyone with means to participate in this important annual fundraiser. When we finish the Church work, we will start work on the Parish Hall improvements.
The MEMORIAL BRICK FORM and LOBSTER ROLL FORM are on the last page. Hurry quick and order!
See you at the beach!
Father Carmichael
