3rd Sunday of Easter
25 April 2004
Praised be Jesus Christ! Now and forever!
Dear Friends in Christ,
We welcome to St. Mary’s two spiritual daughters of St. Dominic, the great reformer of the 13th century. Sister Mary John, OP and Sister Anna Christi, OP of the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia in Nashville, Tennessee graciously joined us for a long weekend to speak with our children and young adults about religious life in the Church today. We are most grateful to these consecrated women for taking time to visit us.
I also have very good news for St. Mary’s Church and the Diocese of Charleston. As one of the final steps in his preparation for the priesthood, our native son Christopher Smith will be ordained to the transitional diaconate on Saturday 30 October 2004. The ordination will take place in Rome at the historic Basilica of St. John Lateran, the Cathedral Church of the Pope, and we are organizing a pilgrimage for those who want to visit Italy and join in the happy occasion of Chris’ diaconal ordination.
We will depart Greenville on Wednesday 27 October and return on Thursday 4 November. We will spend four days in Rome, two in Florence, and one in Assisi, and the cost for the tour will be approximately $2385 per person. This includes the air fare, all hotel rooms, dinner each night, bus transportation during the whole stay, and all tips of every sort. We are still exploring a couple of options for our airline, and so I cannot yet give the exact cost with assurance. By next weekend, however, we will have that settled.
If you intend to join us on this voyage, we need to know as soon as possible to make sure we have enough space for everyone. Sometime this week, please contact our trip manager, Trisha Biediger, by email at "biediger2481@charter.net":mailto:biediger2481@charter.net or by phone at 240.2749 to let her know how many people will be coming from your household.
Father Newman
Our Lady of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, pray for us.