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August 28, 2022Dear Parishioners,
Another summer is coming to an end, and with that the beginning of another school year. Here at St. Teresa Parish we are blessed to have a Religious Education Program and a Parish School. Lindsey Rutkowski recently took over our Religious Education Program from Susan Levesque. You can find a brief biography about Lindsey in our bulletin this weekend and we have been able to hear firsthand from here at the Masses. I can now say that we have both a rockstar and a television star working at the parish (our new Youth Minister published a music album and Lindsey was an extra in LOST). I look forward to working with her. Both she and Sue have worked tirelessly to prepare for another year. A big thank you to them and the volunteers who will prepare the next generation of Catholic children to become followers of Christ.
Meanwhile, our parish school under the leadership of Susan Mansfield is looking forward to another year. It is remarkable to think that just this time last year our students and teachers were masked and practicing social distancing. This year students and teachers return maskless and eager to learn in a normal environment. The past couple of years have showed us that distance learning and masks harm the education of our young people. Fortunately, our parish school has been able to mitigate those effects. Our teachers and staff over there have worked tirelessly to ensure that our students continue to learn no matter the circumstances. We begin another year forming the next generation of scholars and statesmen, mothers and fathers, and, with God’s help, saints. Please pray for our school that we may have a successful and healthy year.
As a way to prepare teachers and staff for the new year, our parish school went on a day retreat to Ender’s Island. This small 11-acre island off the coast of Mystic, Connecticut is the site of St. Edmund’s Retreat. This complex of several buildings includes a beautiful chapel that overlooks the ocean. Teachers and staff gathered for two talks, Mass, and a meal. It is a wonderful spot to visit even for just a few hours. I hope that this time away helped our teachers and staff prepare for another year.
Here at St. Teresa Parish, we are rightly proud of our school and religious education program, forming many of the next generation of Catholics, of scholars and statesmen, of priests and religious, of mothers and fathers, and please God of saints. They pass on the Good News that Jesus has come. He is the truth that sets free. Friendship with Him changes your life and promises Heaven. Catholic schools teach not simply the truths needed to get a job—although they do that without rival. But, more so, they teach the truth about God and about us, about how to live and how to love. They teach the truth in literature and science, in art and music, in mathematics and everywhere else. Education, wherever it happens, is a Catholic thing because all truth is God’s truth.
God bless,
Fr. Barrow
