Sometimes I have thoughts in my head and just don’t know what to do with them.
First of all, on a very happy note, there is an incredible woman by the name of Sister Christine Sammons, whom I have been fortunate enough to be able to call a friend for more than a dozen years, since she started Parish Social Ministry at St. Bernard’s. She started the ball rolling so to speak, along with the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, in helping so many of our Levittown neighbors in need, both physically, spiritually and monetarily, whenever the need arose, without judgment or recriminations. For good reasons, she is being honored this year at a gala dinner at the Crest Hollow Country Club in Woodbury. Each year the Sisters of St. Dominic use this venue to raise money for their ministries and honor outstanding women.
Secondly, something recently occurred to reinforce the theory that these are, indeed, troublesome times. At St. Bernard’s, after each of the weekend masses, volunteers help bring food from the box in back of church to our Clairvaux House, where Parish Social Ministry and St. Vincent de Paul, carry out their day to day operation (thank you Sister Christine). This past Saturday night, it was business as usual. Each mass has its regular food carriers. Here’s how it went.
John: “Pat, there was a large red suitcase in the vestibule, behind the food box—wasn’t sure if I should bring it over.”
Marie (SVdP): “It probably belongs to Terence,” (one of our resident homeless).
John: “Yeah, but y’know it was sort of a ‘foreign object’ in a familiar place, and I didn’t want to take a chance, and you shouldn’t either.”
Yes, it turned out to be harmless of course, but it’s very sad to me, that in the comfort of our own church in Levittown, “if you see something, say something” has to uppermost in one’s mind.
-Pat Rosalia
