This note might seem as if I just dusted off last year’s Thanksgiving bulletin article as sometimes our ongoing thankfulness may seem as if it were recycled, a cliché-like sentiment. But I am truly grateful to God for my family, my health, for living in a great nation where freedoms, opportunities and hope are abundant, and for this parish—where being a priest comes with joy in the vocational call.

When one has health, priorities seem to fall into place; when one has hope in the future, joy follows; when one has family and friends who are supportive, the road traveled is more even and is brightly lit, and when one’s “work” is enjoyable, no task is ever overwhelming.

As I take stock of the past year complete with all its ups-and-downs and as I look forward to the future, expectations are grand: good health, a great mission on which to focus, and the all-important and wonderful support of you builds upon the successes of what all of you have already accomplished.

The people of Saint Catherine of Siena Parish are a joy to serve and are amazing in so many ways. Time and again, they not only step-up-to-the-plate but they raise the plate and go beyond the obligation of faith and create and bring the Spirit of the law to fruition.

Whether we as a parish are feeding the hungry or handing out boxes of blessings, whether we are assisting the ministry of the Knights of Malta or are providing prayer shawls for the grieving or baptismal blankets for our newest Catholics, or whether we are supplying the Veteran’s Home or the Little Sisters of the Poor at Lent, whether we are sending the youth of our parish to Boston or baking pies and bread for the homeless shelters in Hartford, washing away hunger with each car cleaned, or raking lawns for neighbors, creating Christmas hopes and memories for children at Breakfast with Santa, offering praise through worship and song to God at Mass or in Holy Hours, providing hours-upon-hours of education at Faith Formation or drawing-in friends and strangers to Men’s and Women’s Club events, bringing Holy Communion to the nursing homes and the homebound—or whether we are planning for the future of the Church by reaching out to enlist peoples’ needs and answering their concerns and questions in creating new ministries and conduits to live-out the Faith of Jesus Christ, we are a parish that is on the move and moving on—so that the beautiful and rich past of our Church, on which shoulders we now stand, provides us a great vantage point to see the future and launch Forward with Faith, so that we can answer the Call of Christ: Feed My Lambs, Tend My Sheep. In thanksgiving we shall continue to Build up the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ.

I want to say a mighty Thanks to everyone at Saint Catherine of Siena Parish for all that You have been, all that you are, and all that you shall be. May your Thanksgiving Day be blessed and filled not only with turkey and stuffing, but also full with God’s choicest blessings for you and your loved ones. Happy Thanksgiving and Blessed Advent!