Thursday, April 16, 2026

Thursday of the Second Week of Easter

Loaves & Fishes

Our next drop offs are April 17th, and May 1st.

We meet from 0930 to 1000 at the PLC.

For Saint John’s Hospice our normal collection is for lunches, casseroles, and other items. 

• 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 times that fit your schedule. A casserole should be of your choice, cooked, then frozen. Casserole recipes are available on the saintjohnshospice.org website. Also, the recipes have been loaded on the St. Cornelius website, look under ministries, catholic relief services, loaves & fishes and you should see casserole recipes. Remember we have casserole pans in the office at the PLC. If anyone needs help with recipes feel free to email joburns66@gmail.com.

• Other items that St. John’s could use are bags of apples and oranges, boxes of protein or granola bars, water, and chapstick.

For YoungMoms are preferred Diapers sizes are 5,6,7.

If you have a student who is helping and need their volunteer hours validated, simply email joburns66@gmail.com for assistance.

Please note that we are beginning our Matthew XXV garden preparations. Our next date is for irrigation and weed cover on April 25th. Look for info from Monsignor in his weekly email or send me a note and I will include you on our garden group email. (joburns66@gmail.com)

Crab Cakes

We still have several boxes of Crabs Cakes and other crab items in the freezer that someone has purchased. Be sure to pick them up soon, otherwise they could "crab walk" out the door.

Matthew XXV Garden

Our season is already underway as we had a successful seedling planting with the PREP children, so many seedlings are growing as you read this.

Our upcoming schedule is as follows;

• By April 19th rototilling each row will have taken place (Steve Muntz will coordinate)
• April 25th - we will place irrigation hosing and weed control plastic tarps, also plant seeds that can be planted directly into the ground.
• May 2nd - plant hundreds of seedlings.

Steve will be developing a mowing / trimming schedule for the summer. So please send him a text if interested. (610-454-8937).

Harvesting usually starts mid-summer. We will update this group with dates and times. 

Please feel free to share this information with others. We will have a corner of the bulletin for updates so be on the lookout for that. If anyone needs service hours approved for volunteer work let me, Regina, or Laurie know and we can help with that.

AMPS - Protecting Places of Worship

Recent national tragedies such as the tragic incident at a school Mass at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis remind us that the risk is real and reflects a troubling trend of violence targeting places of worship.

Parishioner John Guest is scheduled to give a presentation, May 6, on “What We Can Do” to protect Saint Cornelius Church against potential threats of targeted violence in a manner that maintains an open and welcoming environment.

John is a Certified Protection Professional with more than 40 years of combined public safety experience with the Philadelphia Fire Department, Secret Service and Department of Homeland Security.

Protecting Places of Worship

Knights of Columbus

UPCOMING ACTIVITIES!

The Knights presented a Rosary, a guidebook on how to pray the Rosary, and a prayer card honoring St. Carlo Acutis to the young people who received the Sacrament of Confirmation on April 11. Congratulations to our the newly Confirmed! The Knights will also present Sacramental Gifts to the young people making their First Holy Communion. Your support of our Council makes these gifts possible.

The Knights volunteered at the Matthew 25 Garden this past Saturday for garden clean-up. The Knights will volunteer again on April 25 (irrigation/seed planting) and May 2 (planting). All interested parishioners are welcome to join us.

The Knights will also be distributing carnations to the women of the parish in honor of Mother’s Day at all Masses during the weekend of May 9 and May 10. Motherhood takes many forms, and all adult women are welcome to receive a carnation from the Knights. Happy Mother’s Day from the Knights!

The Knights continue to serve as Greeters at all Masses. The men of Saint Cornelius are welcome to join the Knights and help us serve in this important ministry.

If you are a Catholic man 18 years or older, you may join the Knights of Columbus. The St. Cornelius Council invites you to become part of this vibrant fraternity. You may join online at kofc.org/join and use our council number, [12391], to connect with us.  New members may join for free using the promo code BLESSEDMCGIVNEY in honor of Blessed Michael J. McGivney, the Founder of the Knights.

Come grow in faith, build lasting friendships, and serve our community as a Knight!

God bless you!

First Sunday Coffee

The St. Cornelius Council of the Knights of Columbus will be hosting a coffee reception in the Holy Family Portico after the 11:00 Mass on Sunday, May 3.

Nick Cappelli of Suburban Food Service is again supplying us with the caffeine, cocoa and tea. Our Thursday Bible study group will be providing the treats for this monthly Sunday event. Please join us after Mass with your fellow parishioners.

See you there!!

Blood Drive - Mark Your Calendar!

American Red Cross

Blood Drive

St. Cornelius Church

Thursday – May 14, 2026

1PM to 6PM

Registration after ALL Masses on April 25 & 26

OR….Register at redcrossblood.org using Zip Code 19317 and Refine Search or call 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767) Call Marilyn at 484-947-7295 leaving your name and phone number with any questions.

The need for blood is constant and only volunteer donors can fulfill that need. Nationwide, someone needs a unit of blood every 2 to 3 seconds. Blood cannot be manufactured. It can only come from generous donors like YOU.

Be that Good Samaritan!

Be a donor on May 14th !!!

Eligibility questions?

Call the Red Cross Donor Center @ 1-866-236-3276 

Lending Library in the church

For some time now, the library cart containing a variety of texts and items, religious in nature, has been growing and now it is past its usefulness. I think its purpose has run its course. If there is some volume you would like to have, please feel free to take it with you. The library will be eliminated by April 30th.

Outreach Drive - KACS

Our next Food Drive will be May 16 & 17 and will benefit KACS (Kennett Area Community Service) Food Bank. In March 2026 the KACS Food Cupboard distributed over 87,800 lbs. of food to over 3700 individuals, so food donations are always and sincerely appreciated. Before each mass volunteers will assist in loading your donations onto the KACS truck that will be parked at the PLC. Please click on the link to access the flyer which includes suggested donations. Our Outreach Ministry and charities are very grateful for your continued generosity.

Kennett Area Community Services (KACS)

May Crowning 

During May, we honor the Blessed Virgin Mary in a special way as it is one of the months dedicated to her by the Church.

Please join us during the 11:00 am Mass on Sunday, May 3, to honor Mother Mary, Queen of Heaven and Earth, as she is crowned by a young woman from our parish.

The St. Cornelius Literary Society 

The Next Book is This is Happiness by Niall Williams

Change is coming to Faha, a small Irish parish unaltered in a 1,000 years.

For one thing, the rain is stopping. Nobody remembers when it started; rain on the western seaboard is a condition of living. But now - just as Father Coffey proclaims the coming of the electricity - the rain clouds are lifting.

Seventeen-year-old Noel Crowe is idling in the unexpected sunshine when Christy makes his first entrance into Faha, bringing secrets he needs to atone for. Though he can't explain it, Noel knows right then: something has changed.

As the people of Faha anticipate the endlessly procrastinated advent of the electricity, and Noel navigates his own coming-of-age and his fallings in and out of love, Christy's past gradually comes to light, casting a new glow on a small world.



Harking back to a simpler time, This Is Happiness is a tender portrait of a community - its idiosyncrasies and traditions, its paradoxes and kindnesses, its failures and triumphs - and a coming-of-age tale like no other.

Luminous and lyrical, yet anchored by roots running deep into the earthy and everyday, it is about the power of stories: their invisible currents that run through all we do, writing and rewriting us, and the transforming light that they throw onto our world.

Our next meeting is Sunday April 19^th. We meet at 2:00 PM in the Parish Life Center.

SAVE THE DATE!

The Brandywine Pops Orchestra is returning to present a free concert Monday, May 18th, 7:00 PM at the Parish Life Center. They performed here in December 2025. If you missed that concert, you have another opportunity in May. An entertaining program of music from Band of Brothers, the world premiere of River Songs written especially for the Orchestra; Cape Cod Shanty, Dance of the Hours, Appalachian Morning, selections from Brahm's 4th Symphony, Overture from Carmen, American Landscape and a selection of symphony themes.

We hope to see you there! 

Camp Cornelius

St. Cornelius Early Learning Center is thrilled to announce that we will be offering summer camp at our school again this summer. We are excited to be offering extra weeks as well!

Camp Cornelius will run from 8:00 am - 3:00 pm with morning care and aftercare available.

Week of June 8th- Pre-K only

AGES 3-10

Week of June 15

Week of June 22

Week of July 6

Week of July 13

Week of July 20

Please contact Abigail McCusker at Akohlbrenner@scornelius.org or Debbie Anderson at Danderson@scornelius.org with any questions or for a registration form.

The Big Finish

This past Saturday, April 11^th, our parish welcomed Bishop Keith Chylinski to our campus in order to celebrate the Sacrament of Confirmation for our young Confirmandi. God blessed us with a beautiful day and a wonderful Liturgy. The Bishop gave a terrific homily about the manner and means by which he came to appreciate God’s presence in his life as a young man.

Afterwards he and I stayed around for photos. It was such a charge to see the happy faces of the newly confirmed and their parents. I was touched by a gift presented to me by Luca Malizia. Luca gave me a hat from the Master’s golf tournament which, as you may know, was last weekend as well. Rory McIlroy got to wear the Green Jacket again but that didn’t come close to the sense of gratitude I have for that gift of that hat from Augusta. I see Luca and his mom, dad and sister at Mass each weekend.



In gratitude for his kindness I write this to express how grateful I am for his and his family’s thoughtfulness on their big day. Of course I put the hat on with the remark: It’s not only the Bishop who gets to wear a hat today.

Small gestures can have great meanings.

Faithfully,

Msgr. Diamond