Dear Parishioners, How time flies when you are enjoying yourself! I hope you all had a wonderful summer and that you found time to rest, relax and hopefully, enjoy a nice vacation. This is the weekend when traditionally things return to normal. School reopens, kids have gone back to college and our lives begin to get busy again. As you are aware, I am very close to my family both in Ireland and Australia. I normally visit my Irish family every year but have not been able to visit since 2018 when I was Pastor of St. Rose. I was appointed your Pastor in 2019 and was busy moving into Carl Lane, purchasing the house, moving again and I decided that a Spring visit to Ireland might work. Well, we all know that scenario and COIVD put a stop to everything. I have been watching travel restrictions to Ireland for the last several months and was pleased to see that in August, Ireland’s restriction was lifted as safe to travel to and the necessary quarantine was not required. While it is possible to travel, I flew out last Sunday, the 29th and will return Saturday, the 11th in the early afternoon. It is so important to catch up with my siblings, nephews and nieces and some of my elderly aunts with whom I am very close. As I write this article before I leave, I look forward to seeing how my nephews and nieces have grown. Three years is a long time and, in these years, so much has changed in their lives. My Special Needs nephew Conor who is now 25, thank God has survived COVID and is finally back in his day care program. He is very interactive and found the lockdown due to COVID to be very difficult. Maeve has graduated college and is about to enter medical school. Ellen has graduated high school and will be starting college in a week or so. Owen and Sarah are now in their fourth year of high school and are now young adults. It will be wonderful to just sit with my siblings, spend time together catching up and to spend time with my three beloved aunties and celebrate my Auntie Maura’s 90th birthday as a family. I look forward to sharing news on this special time upon my return. As we celebrate Labor Day, it is important to remember that every human being must work. Children and young people expend energy in preparing for adulthood. They learn to use their gifts and are challenged rightly so by parents and school alike. We, the adult community who follow in the way of St. Joseph the worker must use our gifts to provide for others. The parent provides a home and the means for their children to live a dignified life. They work hard for their own retirement and enrich God’s world with the gift of children. The non-married adults too, share their gifts with generosity and give back to their community and the world as best they can. As a priest, I have always worked hard and believe that God calls me to share my gifts with generosity. To be a hard worker, we are all called to die a little to ourselves; to sometimes do things that we don’t particularly like and to strive for levels of perfection beyond our limits. As we remember the dignity of work, we realize the blessings of education and trade and how fortunate we are to love what we do. We keep in our hearts and our minds the unskilled worker, or the worker down on their luck, that God will continue to gift them with the courage and joy accorded to every human being. Happy Labor Day!