St. Gertrude Catholic Parish

There are so many things to be thankful for around here that I just can’t let it go until November 25th (Thanksgiving Day). So here goes:

• How about Frank Bornhofer over at Bornhofer’s meat market for providing the luscious food at the parish block party this summer? Thanks, Frank.
• And Joe Glueckert and so many more who provided the block party. Thanks Joe and more.
• Don’t forget our principal Debbie Sullivan and our school secretary Leigh Holzman who didn’t miss a beat all summer, keeping their minds on school and running a heckuva hectic Fee Day. Thanks Debbie and Leigh.
• And the Pax Christi bunch, John, Cheri, George, Sandy, Jim, Roy, and all the others who had a beautiful Mass for the service men and women who are in the military. We prayed for their safety and for a swift, just end to the conflict.
• Thanks to Gail Smith for putting together all the components for a great picnic: perfect weather, a beautiful setting (the grounds behind St. Scholastica), kids games, a desert table to live for, and the finest group of people you would want to be with as you sprained your ankle running out a feeble ground ball in an inexcusably long and boring softball game. I made up that stuff about the ankle, but it was a great picnic and as Rich Goode said “there is nothing like picking up a baseball bat again.”
• Thanks to the Graffiti Busters who came out Tuesday morning after we had been “tagged”over the weekend. It really makes you wonder about Presbyterians. Why do they go out and do that to Catholic rectories? Then again, it may have been Methodists.
• Thanks to the SPRED people, Diane Miller, Julie Hess and their gang. The 10:00 Mass was very beautiful last week. There will be a call for more help from the parish as we try to find the outlet for our friends with special needs in worship.
• Thank you, William Coble who is so talented and flexible so that we move from funeral to wedding to SPRED Mass to whatever with the ease and grace of the angelic choir. And thanks to our own angelic choir. You’re heavenly.
• Thanks to the Parish Council and for the new members Janine Denomme, and Silvio Anichini, who has served in previous years, and our two high-school voices, Max Lisy and Elaine Rojas Castillo. Peter Buttitta cracks the whip and they all respond in a very responsible way.
• Thanks to our vicar bishop, Frank Kane who is doing his darndest to keep the priests of the consolidated parish together in the NCA consolidation. He is very interested in seeing to it that Northside Catholic Academy remains a viable regional school in the Catholic system. Thanks also to the archdiocese for the $2,500,00 they have given to the school over the last ten years.
• And finally thanks to Our Almighty God for the beautiful summer we have been having. It has been so delightful that half of Phoenix has moved back here, most of Florida has packed, the Californians are showing their passports at the city limits but are being denied entry and we have already told the Hoosiers from Indiana to forget about it. Thank God.

Hope all is well with you and thanks,

WK

Filed under: Dear Saint Gertrude