The generosity of this parish—from each of you—never ceases to amaze me! We began our Advent season with a handicap—one less week to run the campaign—and yet when combined with our first-ever Grand Annual collection for the much-needed parking lot expansion and re-pair we still raised nearly $40,000. That’s right in line with our past results. And the breakdown is as follows:

Malta Mobile Clinic: $17,342.47
Neighbors In Need; $22,151.47

This response to the needs of our neighbors in Hartford who go without insurance and are served with diagnostics and ongoing medicine and treatment by our Catholic Knights of Malta is heartwarming as you reach into your pockets to care for folks you don’t know and most likely will never meet. The only thing that makes it doubly heartwarming is when you dig even deeper to care for our fellow parishioners or townsfolk who have been devastated by this ongoing economic mess our nations finds itself stuck in. And my thanks is sincere because I know that even if you have a job and your bills are being paid, times are hard for many people and families struggle in allocating their re-sources—time, talent and funds—at home and beyond. Your gen-erosity is much appreciated.

I would like to thank Karen and Bill Carew—and many of their neighbors —who came up with this Advent Giving Tree project idea many years ago and shaped it from gifts and food supplies for a single parish in Hartford into a major funding source for “strangers” in Hartford to our neighbors in the pews. I believe the Irish say that “strangers are just friends you have yet to meet”. Today, we continue to help Sacred Heart Parish in Hartford with our White Christmas Epiphany Party Tree which provides individual presents for children at that parish. That pro-ject is headed up by Sheila Prats with the assistance of Kathleen Mangiafico and was managed for a long time by Shelia Rae Ven-detti and others.

To all who are involved—from the project managers to the donors—my most sincere and heartfelt thanks for all you do to be Christ for others in this world.