This November edition of the Baltimore Beacon comes on the cusp of Thanksgiving Day and what is hopefully a long holiday weekend for you to enjoy some great food and restful time with family, friends, and community.
On Saturday, October 14th, the former Redemptorist parish of St. Martin of Tours in Bethpage, NY, came alive with heartfelt joy as it celebrated the opening Mass in commemoration of its 100th Anniversary.
We were honored by the presence of Dr. Morella Joseph, a member of the Partners in Mission [PIM] group from St. Lucia, during her visit to New York. She took part in two separate PIM gatherings, one conducted in person with the Brooklyn, NY PIM group, and the other held via Zoom with the Bethpage, NY PIM group.
At St. Alphonsus Villa in New Smyrna Beach, Florida the morning mass ended around 9:10am. The members of the community, under the watchful care of Fr. Ray Collins, C.Ss.R., and the Villa staff, loaded up their new van and several cars, and headed down US 1 to the Edgewater Cemetery. There we gathered in celebration and prayer remembering the lives of Redemptorists and Oblates who rest there.
“Pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” As part of our Redemptorist Vocation ministry, on the last weekend of October (26-29), eleven men joined us at our pre-novitiate formation house, Bronx, NY, to participate in our yearly “Come and See” program. We had five men come from our Denver province and six men from our Baltimore province.
The North American Redemptorists Committee for Racial Equity wrapped its Fall Series Tuesday, Nov. 14, with its second part of “American Prisons: Slavery by Another Name”. The first part of this series took place on Tuesday, Nov. 7. Both parts were preceded by Part 1: “Food Deserts & Hunger”, held in October.
The Bronx is a difficult neighborhood to live in. While it is still technically New York city, it is an entirely different world compared to the streets painted with lights of Time Square. However, we do have the Yankee Stadium where thousands of baseball fans would come every year, bringing exuberance to an otherwise tired part of New York. Our church, Immaculate Conception of Mary, is located near what I call the ‘square’, an intersection between 3rd Avenue and 149th street, where people would congregate day and night whether it is to preach, sell or just to watch the sun go down.
Father Eugene Grohe, C.Ss.R., a member of the Saint Alphonsus Villa community, New Smyrna Beach, Florida, died peacefully on November 18, 2023, aged ninety-nine and two months.