Dear Parishioners,
Today we celebrate as a parish community the Memorial of the Most Holy Rosary. We are blessed to have one of our three beautiful churches dedicated to the Holy Rosary. The rosary is truly one of the most popular and powerful devotions in the Catholic Church. We see in the mysteries of the rosary of how the Blessed Mother leads us all to Christ, her son. During the month of October, we are asked to pray the rosary, particularly for peace and well-being. Let us pray that through the powerful intercession of Mary, Queen of Peace, that this world will experience the peace that can only come from the savior of the world, Jesus Christ.
St. Martin de Porres Parish School of Faith Formation and RCIA Program
Our parish Faith Formation classes will be held remotely from September 2020 to January 1, 2021. This policy is meant to ensure the safety and health of both students and catechists. Our parish program will be conducted virtually with our catechists using modern technology. Students will be given materials for them to use for online courses. Registration for all grades, including sacramental preparation has now begun. The fee this year is $55 per student. You may register your child via our parish website, www.smdpp.org, or through our parish Give Central portal. We are in need of more catechists! Most especially catechists who are familiar with the modern technology that is available to us. If you should have any questions please feel free to contact myself or Ms. Michelle Joseph.
Livestream Masses
Since the beginning of this pandemic, we began the practice of livestreaming Sunday Masses from Our Lady of Victory Church. Each of our three churches will have livestream cameras set up. We will rotate the masses that will be livestreamed every weekend. We were able to fix the audio problems with the Our Lady of Victory livestream. Thank you for your patience and support.
Annual Catholic Appeal 2020
Last weekend I spoke about the Diocese of Brooklyn Annual Catholic Appeal. As you know, each year the appeal is taken up throughout the Diocese supporting the works and programs that it carries out. Each parish is given a goal to raise for the year. Our goal here at St. Martin de Porres is $65,024. We have pledged to this date $19,249 with 67 parishioners participating. If you have not yet made a pledge for this year’s appeal, please consider making one. No matter what the amount, every gift helps to achieve our goal.
Columbus Day Holiday
This Monday October 12 is Columbus Day. It is a federal holiday. The parish office will be closed and there will not be a 12:00 Noon Mass at St. Peter Claver Church. Only one Mass will be celebrated at 8:00AM at Our Lady of Victory Church.
Wishing you a peaceful and blessed week,
Father Alonzo Q. Cox