Good News from the Knights and Our Youth

The past two weekends there were exciting things going on for many in our collaborative parishes, especially with our youth retreats and several events run by the Knights of Columbus councils in both of our parishes.  

The Faith Formation for Youth program, under the leadership of Brian Sousa, provides annual retreat days for our middle school program and for each year of the Confirmation preparation program. For one of the Confirmation retreats, Brian brought in the NET, a “National Evangelization Team” of young adults who volunteer one academic year to travel the country giving youth retreats.  Their enthusiasm, strong faith, and connection with our Faith Formation teens was amazing! Then we had our “Catholics in Action” (CIA) weekend retreat, in which over 20 teens voluntarily participated, under the leadership
of our Youth Ministry Coordinator, Trish Moore, assisted by Brian and other parish adults. Most of the retreat talks were given by other teens in our CIA, and Fr. Lambert joined them for Saturday evening Mass, Adoration, and Reconciliation. It was a fun and powerful spiritual experience that they were very happy they attended!

Meanwhile, our St. Martha Council of the Knights of Columbus formally dedicated a tree near the flag pole in honor of their founding Grand Knight, Perry Page, who died five years ago. It is fitting that it is an evergreen which we will light up at Christmas, as Perry used to be one of St. Nicholas’ helpers! The Fr. Coffey Council of Knights at St. Mary ran another very successful 5k Run/Walk, which was a wonderful experience for so many
people and will benefit several other charitable causes and their parish as well. Both Knights councils are leading our parishes in a Novena for Life, which began with a communal praying of the Rosary last Monday at St. Mary, and will include this weekend’s Saturday 5:30 Mass offered for the intention of Building a Culture of Life that respects
the gift of every human being at every stage of life.  The novena will close with another Rosary service at St. Martha, this Tuesday, November 19 at 7pm.

As we prepare for our national celebration of Thanksgiving, and every time we celebrate the Eucharist (which means giving thanks), may we thank God for these successes
and the many other blessings in our lives and in our collaborative parishes. May these reminders of God’s love help us to encourage one another in faith through the challenging
times in our lives as well. Amen!