Dear Parishioners, Our wonderful St. Luke Preschool was established in 2009. Fr. Mike with Susan and Mike Keating began this Academic Program centered on our Catholic beliefs. Our profound gratitude to Mike and Susan whose brainchild became a reality and added another beautiful facet to our parish. I am honored and privileged to continue in their footsteps and have truly enjoyed getting to know the children through my bi-weekly classes in church. Our current Director is Mrs. Jeannie Soltes. I appointed her after I became pastor. Mrs. Soltes is a highly motivated, hard-working and dedicated principal who collaborates with a strong and dedicated staff. The result of which is excellence in education. During these pandemic days when many of the public schools closed, our St. Luke Pre-K continued a normal academic schedule. The state mandated slightly smaller numbers to ensure social distancing, but our children came each day happy to learn and to be stimulated. The children participated in activities that promote the development of large motor skills, fine motors skills, cognitive skills, social skills, emotional skills and a growing awareness of their Catholic faith. Our small class sizes enable our children to truly learn in a nurturing Catholic environment. As we prepare for the September academic year, our Pre-K4 is full with 15 children. Our Pre-K3 is also full. We have established a waiting list for both programs at this time. Our sincere thanks to our staff, Jeannie, Evelina, Linda, Allison and Jen. Sadly, Linda will be moving to South Carolina next month. We will miss her greatly and wish her well. Last Thursday, our Pre-K4 graduated at the outdoor chapel. There was great excitement, lots of laughter and some tears as the parents and grandparents watched their little ones complete the first early phase in their lives. We will have photographs in next week’s bulletin. Congratulations to our Pre-K graduates and a big thank you to our staff!
I was thrilled to baptize Josephine Jesse Harmon. Josephine’s mom, Johanna is part of the Burrini family, our devoted parishioners. We had a great Baptism and our Special Needs parishioner, Uncle Michael was a big help. God bless little Josephine and congratulations to her and her family!
We completed our academic 10th grade program last Sunday. Our 10th graders all came to Confession and I was delighted to have the assistance of Fr. Hubert and Fr. Alex to help our young people feel God’s grace in preparation for Confirmation. Please keep our 10th graders in prayer as we await their Confirmation on June 17th. This weekend we completed our 9th grade academic year. We look forward to having our young people return in September and to welcoming new 9th graders into our program. Last Sunday, we completed our Cycle A CCD for the year and this Sunday, we completed Cycle B. As I had mentioned at mass this past weekend, I look forward to having all grades participate at mass from Kindergarten through 10th grade from September on. I look forward to them assisting as readers, altars servers, ushers, gift bearers and to truly help them to enjoy what it means to be a joyful welcoming community. A big thank you to all of our catechists from Kindergarten through 10th grade for the hard work and dedication they give in helping us educating our children and young people. Thanks to Maureen who oversees and runs the entire program.
I look forward to our Women’s Cornerstone Retreat on Friday, June 4th from 6-9:30 pm and Saturday, from 10 am concluding with 5 pm mass. I invite all of our ladies to prayerfully consider coming on this retreat. It is a great way to center our lives on the peace that only Christ can give and to make the friendship of other Catholic women.