Dear Brothers and Sisters of Our Lady of Mount Carmel,
I have been very mindful of late that our parish has been in existence since 1873 and staffed by Carmelite priests from the beginning.
Today, I would like to remind you of a few of our current facts. At this moment, we have 1,045 registered families. We have between 700 and 800 persons who attend Sunday Mass most weekends.
Our elementary school was founded in 1878 and has about 265 children and 190 families enrolled.
Our religious education program instructs about another 300 children from nearly 200 families in the basics of our faith.
Everything we undertake here is done in the name of Our Lord Jesus Christ whom we have come to know and love as Catholic Christians. We endeavor to be witnesses to our Christian faith each day. Many members of our Church family carry out our ministries. We also undertake many additional ministries and services to the larger community from the Office of Concern in Englewood to our Medical Mission in Peru.
I also gratefully acknowledge that we are blessed with a generous and capable staff who do much of the work day after day and year after year.
Those persons are: Sr. Regina, Elliot Guerra, Fr. Emmett, Mary Ann Nelson, Roxanne Kougasian, Andrea Covais, June Marano-Murray, Deacon Anthony, Deacon Lex, Deacon Michael, Deacon David, Ed McElroy, Colby Marksman, Barbara Tamborini and Silva Rrjolli.
All of the above persons are our parish staff. In addition, there are another 35 persons who carry out the work of our school under the leadership of Kelly Koval.
I write all this today as my four years as your pastor draws to a close. I hope you get my drift. We are a community of faith blessed with many good people, generous with their time, their talents and their treasure. And, we have an able staff backing us up.
It has been my privilege to be among you since 2015. Next Carmelite up. . .Fr. Mark Schaffner, O. Carm.
Onward, OLMC! Onward!
Sincerely yours in Christ and Our Lady of Mount Carmel,
fr. Dan