Monsignor James S. Conlan Council #5329 – February 2020 Activities Summary
2020 Annual Lenten Dinner Meals Series – Our Council once again this year hosted its first Lenten Dinner for the year on Friday, February 28, 2020. This meal was our Annual Lenten Community Pasta Dinner. Meals were provided to all at no cost for those who dined in the Parish Hall and take out meals were $5 per serving. The Parish community gathered in the Church of the Infant Saviour Parish Hall to dine together as a community along with members from the Pine Bush community. The event was well attended– we had the most people stay for the dinner that we can remember! You can read more about this wonderful annual event here. On Friday; March 6, 2020 we hosted our second Lenten Dinner of the year. The menu was Pasta Fagioli (pronounced “fah-zool”) and the soup came in 16 oz. to go cup at $5 per serving. Again, the event was well attended and we thank the Parish for its support. You can read more about the event here. We unfortunately had to cancel the remainder of our take out Lenten Dinners for the 2020 Lenten Season due to the ongoing COVID-19 epidemic. This cancellation was announced here. Despite the short season of meals this year we were, thanks to such good turn out in both meals we served, able to raise $400 from meal purchases. All proceeds will be used to support our various charity works throughout the year. We thank the many Parishioners and community members who did support our two dinner events this year. We also thank Church of the Infant Saviour Pastor Father Niranjan Rodrigo for allowing use of both Parish Hall and kitchen for the events. Finally, we thank the many Brother Knights who volunteered at the events and worked so hard to make them successful. We appreciate all your support and look forward to next year’s Lenten Dinner Series– hope to see you there!
Reminder: New Council Tee Shirts Available for Purchase – Last year we refreshed our formal Council polo design to reflect our then newly adopted name as the Knights of Columbus Monsignor James S. Conlan Council #5329. This past month we selected a new design for our Council tee shirts updated with our new Council name as well. The theme of the new tee shirt is “Stand for the flag, kneel for the cross.” Our Knights polo shirts are worn by Brother Knights during more formal events like Chapter Meetings, Degree Ceremonies, and Masses. Our Knights tee shirts are worn by Brother Knights during our charity events and where ever we are performing more manual labor orientated tasks. Both shirts are open for purchase to any Brother Knight in good standing with the Order. If you wish to purchase a polo the cost is $40 per shirt. A long sleeve version of the polo shirt is $45 per shirt. Tee shirts can be purchased for $15 per shirt. Please contact the Council if you wish to order either one and we arrange payment, as well as, pick up once the first order comes in. We are selling tee shirts to the general public. Parish and community members can also contact us if you are interested in purchasing one. Price is the same whether Brother Knight or community supporter. All proceeds will be used to support our various programs for the needy, the Parish, and faith formation that are offered throughout year by our Council.
2020 Annual Knights College Scholarship Essay Contest – Once again this year we are running an essay scholarship contest open to all High School Seniors within the Pine Bush Central School District. Those interested should write an essay on this year’s chosen topic and submit it accordingly for review by our Scholarship Committee. The Committee will then pick the top three essays by popular vote and those three finalists will be voted on by the larger Council during our regular business meeting. Essays are due by email or US Postal Service on May 22, 2020. This year’s essay topic is:
“When someone states that they are against the Catholic Church or won’t attend Mass because of the scandals involving the clergy, how can I counsel them that the Catholic Church is still the one formed by Jesus Christ who offers his true presence in the Eucharist on a daily basis in the sacrifice of the Mass?”
You can read more about the contest including how to submit your essay here. Good luck to all participants!
Children’s Bibles and Catechisms Donation Program – Due to the overwhelming popularity of our Bible and Catechism donation program, our Council purchased 15 more Children’s Bibles and 20 St. Joseph’s Baltimore Catechisms for distribution to the Church of the Infant Saviour Religious Education students in the fifth grade classes. The children in the program themselves requested these Bibles with overwhelming interest. We previously had given copies of these Bibles to the second grade classes last year. We have additional copies of the Baltimore Catechism for anyone who would like to take one. These Catechism are available in the Church of the Infant Saviour front atrium. The Catechisms are free for any Parish member interested in them, but we request that those families with young children please get first chance at getting a copy as we wish to share our Catholic belief through this program with those individuals as much as possible in hopes of fostering orthodox Catholic belief in families and young children. If you do know a young family with children in our Parish who might be interested in a Catechism you are welcome to take one and share it with them as well. This program is possible because of your continued support through our fundraising events and we thank you for help in making this program happen.
Knights 2019 Coats for Kids Program – Due to unforeseen delays, our shipment of coats for last year looks like it will not be making it to us in time for this winter season. We are disappointed by this, but these issues were unfortunately beyond our direct control with the supplier itself. Regardless, when the coats do arrive we plan on storing them for this upcoming winter season later this year. We plan on using these coats to augment our donations for the 2020 Coats for Kids Program. We will then at that time be reaching out to local community programs and local Councils to see who needs them. We are sure they will go to good use even if it will be a bit longer out than expected for that to happen. More info will be posted on this web site as we get closer to October/November 2020 and as we finalize details of whom these much needed coats will be going to. This is another program made possible through your support via our fundraising events and we thank you yet again for continuing to enable us through donations to make programs like this happen.
Looking Out For the Poor And Needy – Last month (February 2020) our Council donated $500 to help out a local family that lost their home to a pest infestation where the house was ultimately condemned by the local municipality’s building inspector. The wife is sick with heart condition as well to make matters harder. It was a tragic situation for this family and we hope this small donation can help get this family back on its feet. Our understanding is they did find housing and were able to use this money to put a security down on a new rental unit. Please keep this family in your prayers during their time of duress and hardship. Your support helps us to get families like this the help they need when they need it– you made this happen through your support of our fundraising events.
Super Bowl Donation Give Back – One of our 2020 Super Bowl Raffle Fundraiser winners was so grateful for their winnings that they donated $175 back to Council in February 2020. We used this money to support some of the various works we did this past month. This was a simple act of kindness and gratitude that reflects the very essence of Catholic community and belief– because of this we were able to make great things happen for those in need this month and we are truly appreciative of that gesture because of it. In a world were it always seems like there is nothing, but bad news– know there are still many more faithful and kind people out there paying attention to what the Lord wants us to do.
Let us join together in prayer in this time of great need and desperation… We wanted to share with you this message from Church of the Infant Saviour Pastor Fr. Niranjan Rodrigo that he sent out to our Parish Community via email on 3/22/20 as it truly conveys what many of us are feeling and clarifies what we need to be doing right now:
As we are all becoming helpless because of the rapid spread of this new coronavirus disease
around the world, which is officially declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization on March 11, we are constantly called to turn to God in times of fear and uncertainty. Please join us as we pray for God’s heart of love, mercy, and truth to dwell in us and show us how to face the challenges posed by the new coronavirus. The Church is encouraging and asking all of us to join with other Catholics, Christians, other believers across our city, state, and nation to pray in union as one nation to the whole world. As Roman Catholics, let us join with the priests spiritually as they celebrate mass privately. May we make a spiritual communion as we consider the true presence of Christ in our hearts. As the priest in Infant Saviour, I do pray Holy Mass daily in private for the protection of our parishioners and for the nation and the world. We are called to believe with our Blessed Mother that nothing is impossible to God. We are reminded of His constant accompaniment in the gospel of Mark 18:20 “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” Perhaps this simplicity in the practice of our faith, will allow us to reconnect with Christ in our fast-paced and ever more secular society. Further, our brothers and sisters at the Catholic Faith Network and the leadership of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops have gathered resources to enhance the practice of our faith. The Archdiocese of New York website also has extensive materials. My hope is that these resources will help us all grow and deepen our love and knowledge of our faith in the coming days, weeks, and months ahead. — Father Niranjan Rodrigo
If you would like more resources about how we can continue practicing our Catholic faith during these challenging times, please check out our recent post here that is filled with resources including daily online masses and how to perform an Act of Spiritual Communion with the Lord.
Monsignor James S. Conlan Council #5329 – Looking Ahead
Catholic ID Cards – Our Council has been looking into lamented cards identifying you as Catholic and explaining what to do if unable to communicate that you are a Catholic during a medical emergency event such as heart attack or car accident. The cards would be given out to all in Parish interested in them at no charge. Stay tuned for details as we firm up details about the card and when it will be available to the Parish community.
Knights Religious Vocations Formation Support Program – The Knights of Columbus Supreme sponsors a program called RSVP (Refund Support Vocations Programs). For every $500 a Council or Assembly donates to support a seminarian, Supreme will reimburse that Council or Assembly $100 until you hit the $400 refund max (which means the seminarian received $2,000 in support). This program is one way that the Knights help foster the religious vocation and how we continue to support priest, bishops, and the Church in making sure there are future clergy to serve it and its Catholic faith community. Annually our Council participates in this program by supporting a seminarian. The Dean of Seminarians assigned us Seminarian Luis Silva last year as our candidate for the RSVP program. Our Council, again this year, will be making a $500 donation to Luis that he will be able to put towards his tuition fees in Seminary for this year. Please keep Luis in your prayers as he continues formation towards the Priesthood.
2020 Young Parish Catholic of Year Scholarship – Our Council decided that we should be doing more to support young adult Catholics in our Church of the Infant Saviour Parish Community. So in addition to the aforementioned Annual Knights Essay Scholarship, we have decided to give a teenager/young adult in our Parish Community a $500 scholarship to support their college education. We have discussed possible candidates and made a final selection. The final candidate was selected because of their public display of faith, their private devotion to the faith, their volunteer work in our Parish, and their witness to living as a young Catholic in a world that does not often support being such. We are going to be contacting that young person in the coming days– once we do we will make an announcement on this web site about it.
You must be logged in to post a comment.