• June 17, 2021 XI Week in Ordinary Time   Rosary for Life The Pro-Life Committee of St. Cornelius is sponsoring an outside recitation of the Rosary to pray for the unborn and an end to abortion tomorrow evening, Thursday, the 17th at 7PM. Please join us as we gather in front of the church for the rosary. There will be chairs available.   Parish Pastoral Council     St. Cornelius Parish Council is soliciting nominations for the upcoming election in September. Available positions will be filled through election with one additional position filled by appointment. A nominee must be a Catholic in good standing, registered and an active parish participant. Newly elected members serve a three-year term. Nominees will be contacted for confirmation. Each nominee is required to submit a brief biography which articulates his/her reasons for being willing to take on this unique and significant role within the parish.     Parish councils serve an increasing role in our parish life. If you would like to nominate yourself or someone else, please use the nomination ballots that will be placed in the pews on a weekend in July. Place this form in the nomination ballot box located in the vestibule of the church on those weekends. You will also be able to submit nominations electronically via the address on this weekly email. Final voting will take place in late August. (*Please note: If you previously submitted a nomination in March 2020, resubmit your nomination.)   Pig Roast - Tuesday evening, July 27th New!            Way back when.../ When we used to get together for things like this, the Pig Roast was becoming what I had hoped would be an annual event. Well, we’re back! I am so very much looking forward to this event. Check the bulletin for details. However, just as important as your attendance is your assistance. Iif you are interested in helping there’s loads to do that evening. You can respond through this email and let me know if you are interested.  Pig Roast 2021   Fr. James Locke            Fr. Locke, our Pastor Emeritus, will celebrate the 11:00 Mass on Sunday June 27th to mark his 60th anniversary as a priest. There will be light refreshments served afterwards on the Holy Family Portico.    St. Cornelius Early Learning Center                 St. Cornelius Early Learning Center invites you to come meet our teachers and tour our beautiful school. We offer full and half day Pre-K3 and Pre-K4 programs as well as full day Kindergarten. We also offer before and after school care program and many fun after school activities. We are now accepting registration for the 2021-2022 school year.  We are so excited to welcome you to our school family!   Camp Cornelius – Think Summer! Registration is now open! A summer camp experience for children ages 3-11 with volunteer opportunities available for middle school and high school students. Half Day Camp (9am-12pm) - $185 per week Full Day Camp (9am-4pm)- $300 per week Before/After care is available.   Week of June 28 - July 2nd Arts & Crafts Week of July 12th-16th STEM/Robotics - Nature - Cooking Week of July 19th-23rd Cooking STEM/Robotics Week of July 26th-30th Arts & Crafts Nature   Contact Abigail Kohlbrenner at akohlbrenner@scornelius.org / (610) 459-8663 with any questions. Camp Cornelius Registration   Summer PREP                 We are excited to welcome our students back to campus this coming week for our first PREP session of the Summer. There are still limited spots for rising 3rd and 5th graders in our 2nd second session, which begins August 2nd.                  If the Summer program does not work for your family, there is still time to register your child for our traditional programs this fall.                  Please contact Mrs. Julie Sullivan for information and registration  at   stcornprep@scornelius.org.   Loaves and Fishes – New!                 At our last drop off (June 11th) we collected ~ 400 lunches, diapers, and baby supplies. The lunches were delivered to St. John’s Hospice. The diapers and baby supplies were delivered to YoungMoms.  Our schedule is as follows: June 25th we will collect lunches. July 9th we will collect casseroles and lunches. July 23rd we will collect lunches. August 6th we will collect casseroles and lunches.   Reminders: A lunch consists of a PBJ sandwich, a granola or protein bar, a juice box or water bottle and a small piece of fruit if you can add it, the fruit is optional. Another reminder - to help keep the sandwiches from getting soggy spread the peanut butter on both pieces of bread and then spread the jelly in between.    We can store casseroles in the deep freeze in the PLC kitchen so you can drop off at other times to fit your schedule.   We meet at the PLC between 10 and 10:30 on the morning of the drop off.   If you have a high school student who is helping and needs their volunteer hours validated, JoEllen Muntz is happy to help. Simply email her the form and she will sign and scan the form back to you.    If anyone needs help with drop off, feel free to call or text JoEllen Muntz at 484-832-0202. She may not see an email the morning of the drop off.   Please know all you do is greatly appreciated.    The St. Cornelius Literary Society – Coit Tower by Bill Issel            It is the first time we are taking on a murder mystery. Think about joining us in a few weeks. Fired by my never-ending efforts to educate, evangelize and entertain, I can assure you that the discussions are always lively. We will discuss this month’s selection on June 27th at 2:00 (NB The change of date.) The Zoom meeting information is on our web site.   San Francisco, 1942. Four months after Pearl Harbor. No one knows if the Japanese will invade California and occupy San Francisco. Harlan Winthrop, a high society banker who heads the city's war bonds campaign is stabbed to death. The pro-Axis greeting "RoBerTo" is painted on the wall next to the body in Coit Tower. Is this killing part of a plot to weaken morale by creating even more anxiety among San Franciscans? Police Chief Gerald O'Reilly keeps the murder from the press and the public. He's afraid the dramatic circumstances of the crime could aggravate the deep divisions in the city.    The Matthew XXV Garden - New!            A big thank you to all the help who staked the tomatoes and worked the Matthew XXV Garden last week. They are actually booming. The beans were tossed in the ground and covered lightly with a thin layer of soil a few weeks ago. I am looking around the campus for Jack and his cow because I think those beans are actually magical.                 Catholic Philly.com is featuring an article on the parish garden and the Catholic Relief Services. Check out the article and click on this hyperlink. Parish garden spreads roots, fruits far and wide – Catholic Philly            This is the link to the signup genius, which you can use to let us know what and when you are interested in doing. https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0C4AA4AC2DA0F8C16-stcornelius   Religious Freedom Week – New!                 “Solidarity means much more than engaging in sporadic acts of generosity. It means thinking and acting in terms of community” (Fratelli tutti, 116).                 Religious freedom allows the Church, and all religious communities, to live out their faith in public and to serve the good of all. Beginning June 22, the feast of SS. Thomas More and John Fisher, the USCCB invites Catholics to pray, reflect, and act to promote religious freedom. More at https://www.usccb.org/committees/religious-liberty/religious-freedom-week  and in our parish Bulletin   New Members of the Team – New!            With the advent of summer, the parish takes on additional help and this year we have three lads who will be on campus painting, cleaning, groundskeeping and whatever else our crackerjack Maintenance Staff can think up. Welcome to Matthew Cooray, Liam O’Rourke and Brendan O’Rourke.    The Big Finish            This is a big week! The Summer Solstice. The Feasts of Thomas More and John Fisher – both beheaded by the king of England in the 16th century. Of Fisher, who was elevated to the College of Cardinals while in the Tower awaiting execution, Henry VIII said savagely: “The head was off before the hat was on.”            We also mark John the Baptist’s birthday on the 24th. This is a big, big celebration in Puerto Rico con fiestas en la playa toda la noche.            And lastly this Sunday is Father’s Day. We all have one. I hope you like yours. I loved mine. His name was Rudyard, named for the poet Kipling. Please keep all the fathers in our parish in your prayers this Sunday as you remember your own. Faithfully, Msgr. Diamond  Visit the parish website for more information:  www.saintcornelius.org