|
Dear Parishioners and Friends of St. Gertrude,
I wish all of you a blessed Christmas season and New Year. I hope and pray that you and your families will enjoy a Christmas season filled with joy and good health. Now that our lives have returned to a bit of pre-Covid life, I hope and pray that many of our parishioners who have not been able to be with us may come back and share in our Christmas Masses. I am writing to ask you to please remember St. Gertrude’s Parish as you make your plans for year-end giving. Our revenue is down this year. Even though it was great to be able to celebrate our Parish Feast this summer, the Parish is still financially in need, and I hope St. Gertrude’s can count on your support. This past year we have almost finished our Church Restoration and our Restoration Campaign continues with a few projects yet to be completed. Since last Christmas, the handicap parking at the west parking lot was completed and the east driveway was expanded and newly paved. I hope you have seen all the work that has been done to beatify our Church and make it more accessible to people. Thus I ask, that you please consider making an end-of-year donation to help us offset the costs of future projects and our overall deficit in operating expenses. You can make your donation online by clicking here. Thank you for your kind consideration in this matter. As the year ends, I thank God for the call to serve as your pastor in this wonderful parish and village. May God bless you and your families with peace, joy, and health during 2023. Sincerely yours in Christ, Rev. Msgr. Robert O. Morrissey Pastor Dear Parishioners and Friends of St. Gertrude,
A blessed Christmas! I hope and pray that you and your families will enjoy a Christmas season filled with joy and good health. I am filled with hope that we will see our church filled with faithful families this Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. You are most welcome, and your presence helps to build up our community of faith. Please invite friends and family members to join with us at the Eucharist every Sunday. The story of Christmas goes well beyond the birth of the Babe in Bethlehem. It reaches throughout all of history. In speaking of the birth of Christ, the Incarnation, the late Cardinal Avery Dulles, the priest and teacher from Fordham University once put it this way: "The incarnation, the God of the ages taken on our human flesh, our human condition, does not provide us with a ladder by which to escape the ambiguities of life and scale the heights of heaven. Rather it enables us to burrow deep into the heart of life, here on planet earth and find it shimmering with divinity." Once again, this Christmas, God has spoken to us, the Word has become flesh. Let us allow God’s word to sink into our hearts. That’s the promise of Christmas - God’s gift of Himself in Jesus the Savior has filled this world with love, not only on that holy night long ago, but the promise of Christmas is that the gift of Jesus shines forth the presence of God - with - us today, always. Indeed, we can believe, - we can hold tight to the promise, - we can sing – “Joy to the world, the Lord has come.” May I take this opportunity to thank you for your generous support during the year, and your continued generosity at Christmas is most appreciated. As the year ends, may I ask you to consider making an extra gift to St. Gertrude’s. Every effort is appreciated as we face continued rising costs. I thank God for the call to serve as your pastor in this wonderful parish and village. May God bless you and your families with peace, joy, and health during 2024. Yours faithfully in Christ, Rev. Msgr. Robert O. Morrissey Pastor |
AuthorsVarious Archives
December 2023
Categories |
RSS Feed
|
St. Gertrude RC Church
28 School Street, Bayville, NY 11709 Telephone: (516) 628-1113 Fax: (516) 628-9032 |
|
|
Website by Caston.CC