December 7, 2025

December 3, 2025

Dear Friends,

 

I still have a handwritten calendar. I have an iPhone that I still could learn about its functions. I still have deadlines that come at me quickly, particularly this time of year from bulletin publishers and others. I never wanted to be a proofreader. As a Staff, everyone is given the opportunity to proofread the communication that is forthcoming from our office, me included. Oh, I cringe at that task.

 

So, I was ahead of myself by a week and didn’t catch it (nor did any proofreaders) that I was ahead of myself with last week’s bulletin, parish email, etc.

 

It’s Advent. I love this liturgical season and I try to slow down, encourage others to do the same in the midst of what these four weeks ( if actually we get a full four weeks) to just “be” and prepare for what is most essential, the celebration and recognition of what it means to have the Son of God come into our midst.

 

With deadlines, and other responsibilities, I said I wasn’t going to be with you the First Sunday of Advent.

Update, I was and I am not with you this Second Sunday of Advent.

 

This weekend we focus on peace. I need it. I’m going to go all out and think you need it as well.

Yes, the Peace of Christ that brings to the world relational peace to all.

 

SO, please bear with me and I will repeat what I shared in the last bulletin.

 

“This very weekend I will be presiding at the funeral of my dear friend, “brother,” Jerry Koen. Friends and family will gather at Saint Mary Star of the Sea in Beverly, Massachusetts. This is where I met Jerry, his beloved wife, Sally, and their five sons in 1981. God blessed us with forty plus years of friendship, being family to one another and all those moments every family experiences. These days and years have all gone by too quickly for me. They are filled with gifts of love that I will be ever grateful for today and for as long as I might live.

 

Many years ago, a very dear friend gifted me with a book I have never forgotten. It is entitled, 
“The Precious Present.” It is a good reminder along with this weekend’s scriptures (Week Two is as relevant as Week One was) to keep ourselves focused and present to the precious present of this day. Jerry and Sally have given me this even having me “live in their home” (me casa, su casa) for decades. They and our faith in Jesus have blessed us to know our eternal home is where one day we shall reside forever. God’s peace to you Jerry as you are now reunited with Sally. Thank you for all your love.”

 

Once in a while some things are worth repeating. I hope those of you who are reading this message understand my repetition.

Love does bear repeating when you have been blessed by unbelievable people in your life. 

 

I am blessed. You are too!

Father Rob

 

You might also like

Father Rob's Weekly Message

June 21, 2026

June 17, 2026
Dear Friends, Already halfway through this wonderful month of June and I am saying, Rob, if you can, slow down and enjoy the present moment. This past Friday we recognized “Juneteenth.” We certainly need to recognize this federal holiday that commemorates the emancipation of enslaved African Americans. This day marks June 19, 1865, when Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation and freed the last enslaved people in the United States. This tragedy of our history of slavery brings me to tears. How human beings can be so cruel to others who are created in the image of God, like ourselves, baffles me. My tears, also bring me grief when I think of the inhumanity of Jesus’s crucifixion and others who were sentenced to such a demeaning death. Guilty or not, the sacredness of human life is before me. I pray we all respect the life of all our sisters and brothers. And the arrival of June 21st! Well, it is Father’s Day and the beginning of our summer solstice! I recall my own father this day. He was a good man and faithful to his Lord. There is no doubt in my mind that dad is in his eternal kingdom with Jesus. That is peace to me, and I hope for many of you this day thinking about your fathers who have experienced the fullness of their baptism. Blessings to all our dads, and those who live as dads with us for our liturgies! AND summer is officially beginning (It’s not Memorial Day). May our summer be good to all and may we be very good to all people in our world. I share this prayer as we begin our summer days with one another. Creator of all, thank you for the warmth of the sun and the long, bright days of summer. As the pace of life slows, grant us the space to refresh our minds and bodies, warm our souls with the awareness of your presence, and teach us how to dwell wholeheartedly in the gift of this season. God bless our coming and going. God bless our love of sunlight and the gentle, cooling breezes. May our days be filled with the joyful laughter of loved ones, and our nights be brightened by the starry sky. May we find wonder in the world around us and rest in the peace of this season! AMEN. My blessings and joy to you, Father Rob

June 14, 2026

June 9, 2026
Dear Friends, June is a month that has many of us involved in several types of celebrations. I shared that last weekend I was blessed to be with my friend, Father Clarence Rumble, to join in mass and celebration of his 40th anniversary to the Ordination of the Priesthood. We have been blessed friends for 49 years and I am so grateful! This past week, on Wednesday, we welcomed our new members to join our Parish Pastoral Council and bid with deep gratitude to those whose term has ended. Joining us in the coming three years are Keith Bock, Christine Spring, Tom Kilian, and Kevin Marren. Their alternates are Bill Hulbert and Dade Kelly. We will be excited to welcome Matteo Smith as our Youth Representative. How blessed we are by all these six individuals willing to be servants for our Parish Pastoral Council. I am also grateful to all those who were willing to be candidates for our council and were not selected this time. I pray they will continue to be present to our parishes serving with their compassion and love. I am also very grateful for the council members completing their terms: Tom Cincebox, Charlene Weeks, Bob Ciccone, Rebecca Hartman, and Michael Musa. Each of these individuals have brought blessings to us in their years of service. God be with them now and forever. The days are blessed with many graduations. I’ve had a preschooler at morning Mass share with me his excitement about graduation! For him, our kindergarteners, grammar school and middle school graduates, our high school graduates, our college and university graduates, and those preparing to take exams for their doctoral dreams, God Bless each and every one of you! I am grateful to know the blessings, from our precious preschoolers, to those who are preparing to make our society and world better with their visions and gifts! God is so good and how fortunate I am to see this goodness in our young people! June is here and gifting us with so much to celebrate and appreciate from our Lord! You are in my joy and celebration of faith! Thank you for being present to me and our sisters and brothers! Blessings to all, Rob

June 7, 2026

June 2, 2026
Dear Friends, This weekend our church celebrates the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. Many of us will recall this day was often referred to as Corpus Christi Sunday for years. We are so fortunate to have the joy of our faith, and celebrating the sacred liturgy of the Mass, to receive in the Eucharist the Body and Blood of our Lord! My very dear friend, Father Clarence Rumble, will be celebrating on Sunday his fortieth anniversary of Ordination. Clarence and I met in 1977 while at the Becket Hall Seminary. We quickly became friends and so did our parents, Kate, Clarence, Betsy and Paul. They had a great bond and the four of them had a great sense of humor, joy, faith in the church, and of course in their sons. Our parents celebrated with one another many joys, some heavy heartaches, and as the years moved ahead, the funerals of one another. Clarence and I were blessed with so many years our parents had time with one another and us. I’ll be forever grateful. Clarence is a priest in the Diocese of Syracuse and is Pastor of Holy Family Church in Endwell and Maine (not the state, but Maine, New York). He is a fabulous man of faith and has led his parishes with great his faith, love, devotion and living the Gospel as a priest. This is a perfect weekend to celebrate Clarence’s priesthood because he faithfully brings the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus to so many people. I am blessed to call him my friend for almost 50 years. He is my brother. I will be with Clarence for this weekend. Please say a prayer for him, for our church, for the future of vocations, and that we might all realize what a gift we have in the Body and Blood of Jesus! Blessings to all, Father Rob