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Worthy Officers, Brothers, and Sir Knights,
Since last month your Council has developed a list of officers to be voted on Thursday, 9 June. All but three officers are staying on! Our Chancellor nominee is Ray Bouchard from Round Table St Jude. PGK Dick Stevens is stepping down from an officer role after 40 years of service! Please thank him when you see him.
Our Outside Guard nominee is Cullen Bullard, and the Inside Guard nominee is Chris Johnson. These two are some of our most recent members. Dinh Dang is moving to Virginia this summer and will be sorely missed. Duan Vu is stepping down due to a very active travel schedule to Florida and Vietnam in his retirement. Safe travels and God speed. Duan will be active, especially with the Color Corp, when he is back in Vermont.
This year Supreme wants the report of Service Personnel at the same time as the Officer vote results, instead of a month later. I have sent this list out to folks ‘‘selected” by me last year and thanks to the many who responded. I am not going to chase you down. Unless you tell me you no longer wish to serve-your back in!
Our State Convention was a huge success this year. The council was well represented by the GK, PGK Tom Gravelin, and Worthy Warden Jay Benson. Richard and Jackie Labrecque were honored as the State Family of the Year! I presented a check for $100,000 to Bishop Coyne for the Knights of Columbus Catholic Charities Donor Advised Fund. This is the most generous gift to date.
We lost a member of our council this past month: REV Bruce Favreau. The homeless veteran on our prayer list, who we have helped financially also passed away; Christopher Haley. We also mourn the loss of an Icon; Mrs. Yvonne Gravelin, who raised nine boys in the faith, including two Sir Knights. Dave Martin's friend Lucie also lost her sister-in-law Lindsay Benoit in a car accident. We commit them all to the Lord and everlasting life. Pray for them and their families in the promise of the Resurrection.
We continued to pray the scripture rosary at First Friday Holy Hour, and our Worthy Warden has made initial repairs to the Sign in front of St Jude. More to follow on that project. PGK, PFN Jay Benson also worked to find a final resting place for the remains of the late Patrick Benner at Resurrection Park Cemetery. Jay is still accepting donations. Finally, Jay worked to document Cullen Bullard for the coveted Knight in Shining Armor Award. Jay is our May Knight of the Month and with his lovely wife Alice is the Family of the Month for May. (Remember the very successful Pancake Breakfast for Ukraine on May 1st at Round Table St Catherine of Siena planned and manned by Jay and Alice)
We made the first of three presentations to our April Families of the Month. PGK Tom Gravelin presented a Family of the Month certificate and restaurant gift certificate to Mike and Maureen Parent at the Mt Sinai Bingo on Sunday.
Our brother Council 279 in Milton has extended an invitation to us to join them this summer for a Vermont Lake Monsters Home Game and BBQ. Details are in the Newsletter.
The Council needs to adjust our budget considering our generosity to the Vermont Donor-Advised Fund. We will have a report from the Budget Committee soon and a recommendation from the Trustees on what to expect from our Morgan Stanley Account.
Our Brother PGK, PFN Don Sutton is back home and looking for a cribbage partner! He is generally available on SAT, MON and Thursday afternoons. Next Monday doesn’t work, but WED 15 June may be wide open. Look for him on Zoom during monthly business meetings. Can you spare some time for Don?
There are opportunities for us to serve SJV Parish this summer. The “shed” needs interior and roof repairs. We will need crews to demo, assess, and repair as needed. Labor is the critical need.
The month of June is when we traditionally think about our Heavenly Father, St Joseph, and our own earthly father. We may honor all three on Father’s Day. This year Father’s Day is also the Feast of Corpus Christi. This June we also celebrated Pentecost, and the Most Holy Trinity. All these celebrations help us to remember that no one is a father alone. Fatherhood is a state of being in a loving relationship with children. They may be biological or adopted; the key is the love between them. For there to be a God the Father, there had to be a God the Son. The love between them was so intense the love too became God, the Holy Spirit. And Jesus called His Father, Abba “Daddy”.
Probably the most illustrative of revelations about the kind of Father God is comes from the parable of the Prodigal Son. Who can forget the father’s anticipation, Joy and lack of judgment about the return of the son? What did Joseph say to Jesus when they found Him after three days in the temple of His “real Father”. The words are not recorded but we can infer from the parable that they were words of gratitude, love and encouragement. We do know there was discipline and obedience in the household of the Holy Family.
St Joseph was not simply a custodian of the Son of God, but a real father to the Son of Man who led Him by Word, Deed, Example, and taught Him to be a truly virtuous and faithful man. Each of us is an adopted son of God the Father, and by extension, sons of St Joseph, much like St Mary is the mother of us all.
As I contemplate the example and loving instruction I received from my own biological father, I imagine that God the Father would have taken the same care in selecting a human father for the Son of Man as He did in selecting the woman who agreed to be His human Mother, especially when you consider the patriarchal society His Son would live in. I think it possible, maybe likely that St Joseph too was born without original sin through an immaculate conception and when his earthly task was complete, was assumed into heaven body and soul without experiencing death or corruption. (Salvation from the death and resurrection of Jesus applied without the limitation of historical linear time)
So many mysteries. So much love. We answer the love of our Heavenly Father with Faith, Hope and Love. We believe in the One He sent, Jesus. We welcome and embrace the Love of God in Spirit and Truth. We are family in body and spirit, the Church.
Here is a fitting prayer to the Patron Saint of the Catholic Church.
Patris Corde Prayer
Hail, Guardian of the Redeemer,
Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
To you God entrusted his only Son;
In you Mary placed her trust;
With you Christ became man.
Blessed Joseph, to us to,
Show yourself a father
And guide us in the path of life.
Obtain for us grace, mercy and courage,
And defend us from every evil. Amen.
Blessings!
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