Summer at St. Patrick’s

An Update from our Youth Community

Our summer is well underway at St. Pat’s.  The Youth Community continues to provide a variety of options for all ages. Summer Boy’s Hoops, under the direction of John Cooley was a success. More than 60 teams signed-up for the season.  Pete Taurassi has begun the girls season and we have more than 30 teams participating.

Camp is in its fourth week and this year we have added two travel weeks.  Our season ends the 20th of August.  Campers enjoy on-site activities as well as sites on Long Island such as Splish Splash, Holtsville Ecology Center, local beaches and Sailor’s Haven.  Our teen travel has ventured to the City as well as Six Flag’s.  Our wonderful camp staff, counselors and directors continue to work hard so that the attendees have wonderful memories of their camp experience.  Friday Mass is a regular part of our camp schedule and we are grateful for the priests who have assisted us this summer with timely homilies and visits to our program.

Kickline camp had more than 35 participants and our softball and baseball players are doing well, despite the heat.  New this season is our Summer Dek league.  We have more than 250 players and we are already taking sign-ups for the Fall league.  Volleyball will be offered in the early Fall.  Please visit our website www.stpatsyouth.com or call us at 724-1261 or 360-0257 for more information.

Happy, healthy summer,
Cynthia Marsh
Youth Administrator

This week Catholic Charities held its annual review meeting which gives the leadership and Board of Directors the opportunity to report to the Bishop on the many extraordinary projects that our Diocesan Catholic Charities carries on in behalf of the vulnerable and needy in our midst.  The largest social service network outside of the government in all of Long island, this is the face of the Catholic Church to pregnant teens, elderly couples, special needs children and their families and a host of other persons and groups who depend on the Church to help them cope with life and become self-reliant with dignity and meaning in their lives.

In the past three weeks, there were graduations from our three diocesan high schools, McGann Mercy in Riverhead, Holy Trinity in Hicksville and St, John the Baptist in West Islip.  Almost 1,000 seniors received diplomas and are going on to some of the best colleges in the area and in our country, thanks to the dedicated faculty and administration at these three Catholic schools.

In May it was my privilege to ordain ten men to the permanent diaconate and assign them to serve in parishes around our diocese.  On June 12, the cathedral was filled with family and loved ones and parishioners of the three men ordained to the priesthood after completing their years of formation at our seminary in Huntington.  A fourth, whom I ordained last year, has completed his studies in theology at the Gregorian University in Rome last week will join them in parish assignments to St James. Seaford, St Brigid, Westbury, St Joseph Ronkonkoma and St. Patrick, Smithtown.

A month ago, 65 men and women received graduate degrees in theology, divinity and pastoral studies after completing their work at the Immaculate Conception Seminary in Huntington.  With great joy many will gather in the Cathedral of St. Agnes this week for graduations from the Pastoral Formation Institute for all those who will receive their certificates from the PFI in various areas of religious studies.

In the meantime throughout the year, almost every weekend has seen a charismatic retreat which gathered Spanish speaking members of our parishes for prayer, and deepening of their spiritual lives.  On our campuses, adult and peer ministers attuned to the spiritual and special needs of Catholics in the colleges and universities that make Long Island so attractive to the young collegians of our parishes and those from other parts of the country.  I pray we may find vocations to priesthood and religious life among some of them which is why Fr. Brian Barr and his cohort of priests have made themselves available to offer Mass on these campuses and to conduct retreats for college age students throughout the school year.

In the meantime, my colleagues who oversee the needs of the clergy, the coordination of social outreach in our parishes, the efforts at communications in all the media from this newspaper to Telecare to our website, the various organs of diocesan life like the Presbyteral Council and the Diocesan Pastoral Council, in short, all those who assist me in the many activities that help the fifth largest Catholic Church in the United States function, will gather with me next week to review the year’s efforts and to begin preparations for what we will undertake as a diocese when the summer holidays are over.

What do all these have in common?  Many things not the least of which is that they are all aspects of a healthy and vibrant expression of the Spirit who animates this Diocese of Rockville Centre.  They also are the many ways that the office of bishop is carried on in service to the People of God, a service offered in strict union and collaboration with my brother priests, your pastors and their staffs. But, what all these, including the parishes, all have in common is that they all are assisted by the annual Catholic Ministries Appeal.

None of these could continue to function without your support of the Catholic Ministries Appeal (CMA). The Diocese has only two real sources of income. One is the annual assessment, called the Cathedraticum, to which every parish contributes a small percentage of its income so that the Bishop and the Diocese can carry on essential work of the Church, only a portion of which I have mentioned above.  The second source is your generosity to the CMA.

Unfortunately the number giving has decreased and, while the average gift is somewhat greater every year, the overall donations through the CMA have grown little and seem to be flat or a little behind last year.  Our pastors are working hard to make their goals.  Many lay people continue to offer their efforts to encourage parishioners and others to give to the CMA which literally touches the lives of all the Catholics on Long Island and many thousands who are not Catholic.

So as we start to look ahead in anticipation of some summer days on this most beautiful part of God’s earth, I would like to ask each and everyone of you to help me.  This week or next or any day before you go on vacation, stop and ask yourself if you can give a little more to the CMA before you and your family go off on your holidays.  If you have stopped giving, for whatever reason, think about this fact: no money from the CMA enriches anyone or adds to anyone’s salaries or benefits who work in this Diocese beginning with your bishop on down to every other person who serves you.  The CMA contributions go exclusively to the five areas of the Diocese that are so much more in need because today’s needs are greater than yesterdays.  So, even if it is only a small amount, that doesn’t matter.  What matters is the generous heart that makes a sacrifice to help others.  And that sacrifice, however large or small, will multiply itself because of your goodness and your care.

So please let’s make an end of the year, beginning of summer effort to give a little more, give a little extra, give something from your heart to the CMA before you go off on vacation.  And may the God who watches over us watch over, protect you and your family during these summer months wherever you may be relaxing and being refreshed by the beauty of God’s creation and the joyful fun of family and friends together.

If you can help, please do so.  Contributions can be made using this form and sending it to:

Catholic Ministries Appeal
Diocese of Rockville Centre
P.O. Box 4000
Rockville Centre, NY 11571-4000

Gifts to the Catholic Ministries Appeal may also be made via your credit card.  Make your donation online by visiting www.drvc.org/make-a-donation.html .

St. Patrick’s currently has received $85,339.09.00
in pledges from 388 families toward our goal of $130,000.00.

Bishop William Murphy  

We have all heard the expression, “You can’t take it with you.”  As  much as we know that is true, over the years we accumulate a lot of things.  In fact one of the more recent businesses that is very obvious is “Self-storage.”  We amass so many material possessions that we simply do not have  enough room where we live to store them all.  Conveniently and practically these buildings have been erected, some of which even advertise “climate controlled” so our stuff does not get too cold or too hot.  Sometimes we store so many things we do not even remember what we actually have.  Every once in a while we might make a physical move from one house to another and that affords us the opportunity to free ourselves of some of our possessions.  In today’s gospel Jesus challenges us to look at our attitude toward  our possessions.  Do we possess them and use them for the good of ourselves  and others, or do they possess us?  Prudently we need to save our money for  a “rainy day” and for the time when we retire.  It is also necessary to budget what we have to make sure we can meet our everyday expenses.  Taking the words of Jesus to heart we look at the attitude we have toward material possessions.  As bad as the economy is, we still have much more than we need and can use everyday or even in the near future.  There is a  distinction between what we really need and what we want.  Advertisements from so many places continually bombard us with promises of satisfaction and happiness if we only purchase their product.  But the things we want and really do not need are not true sources of happiness, security and peace.  They please us for a while, then we put them aside for something better or different.

The goal of this gospel passage is to take us beyond our concern for  our possessions and money to what is really important in life.  To focus  solely on things like money, power, pleasure, sex, compliments, acceptance by  others, etc. only leaves us longing for more and more of these things.  We put ourselves into a trap and get wrapped up in what could be good but becomes an extreme that closes our hearts to what is truly good, loving and important.  The greatest treasure we have does not exist in material things, but in our hearts - the love we have for God and one another and the love God and others have for us.  There is no way to stockpile love, mercy and humility.  Failure to use them for the good of others and ourselves leaves us empty and searching in places that do not bring what only these gifts can bring.  Loving, forgiving and humbling putting others first does not exhaust us or wear us out, but energizes us and makes us more fully alive.  The challenge is to stay focused on the power of our love, mercy and humility.  We do not always get a desired result from the good that we do, people do not always express gratitude, and sometimes it seems to make no difference.  When those feelings start to weigh us down all we need do is look at Jesus on the cross.  Was there any other place in the history of the human race where the gesture to love seemed more foolish and fruitless?  To the very end Jesus loved, forgave and humbly put the needs of us all before his own.  Injustice and falsehood could not quench his desire to love the Father and to do His will -- to die so that our sins would be forgiven and we would be brought into the life of God.

A little more than a week ago we sadly lost the principal of our parish school, Eileen Sadicario, in death.  For many years she had a medical problem that she kept to herself.  But she did not let this cross keep her from being a woman of love, mercy, compassion and humility.  In her love for the students of our school she waited until the academic year was over to go for a very serious operation.  Sadly it did not work out.  But she  has left behind a legacy of love and goodness and a simple and beautiful  example of how to carry a heavy cross and go outside of ourselves and love.  As much as she was burdened by her physical condition, her desire to give herself to our school prevailed.  We thank God for her beautiful example of  humble faith and compassionate love.  Her leadership highlighted what was  important in life: love, mercy and humility.  In her yearbook letter to the  graduating class of 2010, Eileen in many ways summed up who she was and how she lived:  “Remember that real happiness is not found outside of you.  True happiness comes from within you.  Be patient with yourself and with  others.  Want what you have and not what you think you need.  Above all else remember that you are a child of God.  He has called you by name and is  always there for you.  You will always be in my heart.”  Those are words to treasure from a woman who knew what is truly important in life and now surely knows the joy of eternal life in God’s presence.

Father Walden