FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

THANKS

for all your support of

the KidsRelig Annual Funraiser

Our last days at KidsRelig were fun and through your generosity we were able to donate almost $500 to each of the charities we chose this year: Desda’s Grate (a home for homeless young mothers in New Rochelle) and The Catalyst Foundation (fighting family poverty and child trafficking in Vietnam).

This Sunday is Good Shepherd Sunday. What better way to end the year at KidsRelig than to hear Jesus say to us: “I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me.” As I watched Middlers milling about with pizza in hand or Elementaries running around after ice cream sundaes were quickly downed, I had a vision of sheep. And my prayer was one of gratitude and hope. Gratitude to all of our teachers, who have let our sheep know Jesus and Jesus know them. Hope that after another year of KidsRelig each of our kids in her/his own way is closer to Jesus. That’s what the Good Shepherd Gospel is all about—needing to be close, wanting to be close and just being close to Jesus.

CHAPPAQUA INTERFAITH COUNCIL

FAMILY FUN DAY

Sunday, April 29

1-4 PM

Wagon Road Camp

The Chappaqua Interfaith Council is holding a Family Fun Day. People of all faiths can come together for a relaxed afternoon of shared food, games and music ,and community service. The event will be held on Sunday, April 29 (1 - 4 pm, rain or shine) at Wagon Road Camp, 431 Quaker Road in Chappaqua. It is free to the public. All ages—from young children to high schoolers, adults and sprightly seniors—are encouraged to attend.

• 1 pm — Kickoff Barbecue.

• All Afternoon — Music and Sports.

• 2 - 3:30 — Community Service to Help Wagon Road Camp.

• 3:30 - 4 pm — Music Sing-along, Drinks and Cookies.

FIRST COMMUNION NEWS

• Rehearsals for First Communion will be May 1, 3, 8 and 10, at 3:45 to 4:45 pm. There is NO BUS TRANSPORTATION on those days. Tuesday Rehearsals (5/1, 8) are for the 9:30 Mass & Thursday Rehearsals (5/3, 10) are for the 11:30 Mass.

• Emails have gone home about dress code, seating for families at First Communion, arrival times, photography and more; if you haven’t gotten an email, let us know at kidsrelig@optimum.net and we will get it to you.

• First Communion: May 12, 9:30 & 11:30

Love,

Deacon Charlie

THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER

"Why are you troubled? And why do questions arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you can see I have." And as he said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. (Sunday’s Gospel)

The last days of KidsRelig are this coming week (April 24, 25 & 26), except for First Communion Rehearsals for our Second Graders (see below). And in these last days, we put flesh and bones on Jesus by gathering in his name to celebrate and sacrifice at the

KidsRelig Annual Funraiser

               • Pizza & Soda for the Middlers


               • Ice Cream Sundaes & Lemonade for the Elementaries


               • Games on the lawn (we have placed an order for sunshine)

That’s the celebration part. The sacrifice is this. Every year, we choose two service organizations (one local and one international) for which we raise funds. This year, we are raising funds for

• Desda’s Grate, a home in New Rochelle for single mothers in need of housing, social, educational and employment support. Desda’s Grate was founded and is directed by Sr. Mary Alice Hanon, OP.


• The Catalyst Foundation (a CNN Freedom Project) helps families in Vietnam break out of the cycle of poverty, which has condemned them to living on their pickings from garbage dumps and victimized them at the hands of human traffickers of children.

$$$ HOW WE RAISE THE MONEY $$$

• MIDDLERS: A couple of Middlers will be in the parking lot when parents come to pick up on Tuesday and Thursday. The kids will have brown bags marked “FUNRAISER.” If parents could throw a couple of dollars in the bags, we would all appreciate it. A few of the teachers and I will be in the parking lot to supervise.

• ELEMENTARIES: Under the front portico, there will be a row of brown bags, all marked with teachers’ names. When parents come to pick up, we ask that they throw a couple of dollars in the bag marked with the name of their child’s teacher. (Although we will have been outside, the kids will be called back to the classrooms for dismissal, so that we can check them off before leaving with their parent.)

The kids have been asked to do one thing to prepare for the Annua Funraiser--pray for good weather.

FIRST COMMUNION NEWS

• Rehearsals for First Communion will be May 1, 3, 8 and 10, at 3:45 to 4:45 pm. There is NO BUS TRANSPORTATION on those days. Tuesday Rehearsals (5/1, 8) are for the 9:30 Mass & Thursday Rehearsals (5/3, 10) are for the 11:30 Mass.

• First Communion: May 12, 9:30 & 11:30

Love,

Deacon Charlie

SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER

The Middlers read Sunday’s gospel in parts. We heard Jesus break into the fear of his disciples through doors that had locked them into hiding. And we heard Thomas in his own fear bluster about the need for proof. The Middlers understood that this story about Easter Sunday evening nailed it when it described the human reaction to fear. We either hide from it or cover it up with false bravado. And Jesus’ reaction? To those cowering in the corner, it’s, “Peace.” But it’s not a peace that says calm down, it’s a peace that says get ready. Jesus sees that like all of us the disciples’ real fear is that they are not good enough. They just didn’t have what it takes to go on. And Jesus tells them they will go on with the Spirit in them. Indeed, they are good enough! But what will keep them good enough is their readiness to forgive each other—never better than anyone else, we each become good enough together.

And Thomas, humbled out of his fear and into reality by what he sees, becomes the promise of what is to come. The promise that there will be plenty of us to follow with the same chance to believe, as long as we are convinced that only through forgiveness are we a Church good enough to become the foundation of the Kingdom of God.

The Elementaries heard the Tale of Three Trees. Ask them how each tree out of ambition to be better than anyone else almost missed the chance to cradle and carry and proclaim the Best.

CALENDAR REMINDERS

1. 
   
   
   The last three days of KidsRelig will be April 24, 25 and 26, when we will have our Annual Funraiser


2. 
   
   
   Rehearsals for First Communion will be May 1, 3, 8 and 10, at 3:45 to 4:45 pm. There is NO BUS TRANSPORTATION on those days. Tuesday Rehearsals (5/1, 8) are for the 9:30 Mass & Thursday Rehearsals (5/3, 10) are for the 11:30 Mass.


3. 
   
   
   First Communion: May 12, 9:30 & 11:30

Second Annual Pillows for Puppies
Building Up Creation

The McCarthy-LePage Family is again spearheading an effort to protect rescued dogs and puppies. There will soon appear a big box in the Front Hall of the Upper Church to accept donations of pillows, blankets, towels, dog food and more. Information will be posted on the box explaining this effort and the items needed. In this Easter Season, our call to new life challenges us to build up the earth and care for all its creatures.

Love,
Deacon Charlie

EASTER SUNDAY

HAPPY EASTER

from

KIDSRELIG

HOLY WEEK

I had a job in college working as an orderly in a Catholic nursing home. Every week, I had to go up to the men’s ward and shave a bunch of old guys, who were World War I Vets. These guys could curse like no one I’ve ever met since, especially when, digging into the valleys of their wrinkled faces, I’d capture a whisker and nick their leathered skin. After an hour of being chewed out by this roomful of drill sergeants, I’d be sent out to get a can or two of “Sneaky Pete”—the boys’ chewing tobacco of choice. Back up to the ward, I don’t know what I dreaded most—chewin’, spittin’ or repeatin’. The nuns had begrudged the guys spittoons, which defied and mocked their aim, just as I endured and smirked at their stories—the same stories over and over again. To the guys, it was still the Great War, the war of Black Jack Pershing and the AEF; they told of battles and places with names as butchered as the young soldiers who fought there—Château-Thierry and Belleau Wood in the Aisne Offensive, Saint-Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne.

Places I never heard of, people I never met and a struggle that wasn’t mine. The know-it-all kid in me was at first disinterested, then bored and finally amused. Until I got it and it got me. These guys trusted me with their stories—with the places they had been, the friends they had made and lost, the struggle that had become their own in what they dared to suffer and dared, even more, to remember. They trusted me not only with their stories, but with their very lives.

And that’s why we prayed the Stations of the Cross this week with all of our kids at KidsRelig. A story of places not known, people never met and a struggle not our own. But we have been trusted—trusted with the story of Jesus and his Passion and Death; trusted to know the places he knew and the friends he loved; trusted to make his struggle our own, to dare to suffer with him and to remember. Trusted not only with the story of Jesus, but with his very life.

Love,
Deacon Charlie