Thanksgiving Mass

Fr. Richard preaching

Last Wednesday, our school community went into the Thanksgiving break with our annual Thanksgiving Mass.  For the past few years, the students from St. Joseph Regional Junior High School have been joining us for the Mass as well and it's always nice to have them with us (we also celebrate our Advent/Christmas Mass and our Holy Thursday prayer service together) Our celebrant was our chaplain Fr. Richard Dion and the con-celebrant was Msgr. Anthony Fronterio, the rector of St. Joseph Cathedral and the chaplain at the junior high.

In his homily, Fr. Richard started off by reminding the students that they are all good people and that they're not told that enough times.  He also relayed a story of how he backpacked through Europe when he was in college and towards the end, began to run out of money.  One night he had just enough for a room in a hostel but not enough for dinner.  The woman who owned the hostel, however, took mercy on him and let him eat all he wanted for free.  He later sent her a thank you note but never heard back from her but she's always in his mind as an example of someone to whom he was so thankful.

"Deep down I know..."

At the end of Mass, we all sang happy birthday to Fr. Richard as his birthday is today.  We thanked him for all he does for us, on top of his busy job as pastor at St. Anthony's Parish and vicar forane.  The final hymn was the perennial favorite "Deep Down I Know" which is one of the few songs our students will actually sing along to!  As always, it was a wonderful way to wrap up the week and enter into the greatest holiday on the calendar.