My Dear Friends,

We are now entering the last month of our “temporary exile” in our old church as the repairs and renovations in our beautiful church start winding down. We will celebrate our first Mass in the church on All Saints Day, Saturday, November 1st at 8am with a Mass followed by confessions and Eucharistic Adoration which is our custom on Saturday mornings.

You will notice that the statues of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Mount Carmel and St. Joseph are gone from the old church. They have been touched up and have returned to their usual, totally redone and splendidly repainted side altars in the church. St. Therese and St. Anthony were removed so that they can be retouched before they are hoisted onto their newly renovated and painted bases in the vestibule, but they will probably be returned to the old church before they go back to their regular perches. The statues by the altar that are currently there are the statues of Mary and Joseph that greet our students when they walk into our school. We did not want to spend our last month celebrating Mass in here without the presence of the Holy Family.

This past week was significant because the actual painting of the inside of the church was completed. The decorative painters worked all week until midnight to ensure that they were done as scheduled by the last Friday of September because all the scaffolding used to paint the sanctuary needed to be removed so we can move on to polishing the marble of the altar and the main floor before the pews arrive in a few weeks. Please continue to pray for the work being done in our church.

In other news, this coming Wednesday, October 1st is the Feast Day of the parish as we celebrate St. Therese of the Child Jesus. On that same day, I will be leading a group of parishioners on a pilgrimage to Rome for the Holy Year. I will also be taking two of our Carmelite Sisters as we will be participating in the Jubilee of Consecrated Life with the Holy Father. Please know that we take all of you and your prayers and intentions in our hearts as go to the tomb of Sts. Peter and Paul, plus we will be going to Assisi to visit St. Francis, St. Clare, and the newly canonized St. Carlo Acutis. Please pray for us that we may have a safe journey, and I look forward to sharing with you the good news of the pilgrimage when we return. In the meantime as we wind down so many concurrent projects: St. Therese, pray for us!

God bless you all,