Dear Friends in Christ:
Catholic Schools Week…as I wrote about last week, today we begin Catholic Schools Week throughout the Archdiocese and, in fact, throughout the country.
WE INVITE YOU to our first-ever Virtual Open House this SUNDAY, 1/31/2021. As with all things in this year of pandemic, we are reaching out using the media tools at our fingertips to, once again, share the amazing treasures we have here at the parish. One such treasure is our phenomenal parish school.
Come on this virtual tour of our school and see what makes St. Bridget School so special. This is a great opportunity for parents, grandparents, and extended family members to “visit” our parish school and see all that we offer in a safe and nurturing environment.
We are very excited to be offering this virtual open house!!! We are working with a Story Real Studios in New Haven to produce an impactful, concise, and informative virtual open house! Of course, an in-person tour is available for anyone who wishes to come and see in-person what our school campus looks like, what the curriculum offers our students, and see firsthand our phenomenal faculty at work.
I want every family to feel that St. Bridget School is an option for you! We educate students from PreK3 to Grade 8. Join us at your leisure today and learn firsthand from our faculty, staff, and current students why you should consider St. Bridget School for your child(ren).
We are blessed with our school building which already was up-to-date thanks to the great people of Saint Bridget of Sweden Parish. We were blessed over the summer too with great generosity from the people of our parish family. Thank you! This generosity enabled us to increase the bandwidth in our school building, purchase additional sanitizing and disinfecting chemicals, make some necessary adjustments to our HVAC system to ensure an increase amount of air comes in from the outside at various points in the day, and purchase PPE and other necessary safety gear for our faculty and staff.
Even though up-to-date technology is important, even though a great curriculum is important, what really makes St. Bridget School standout is our faculty. Our faculty not only presents the necessary material to their students, but they challenge our students to try their best, and to achieve their God-given potential. They monitor the social and emotional growth of our students in the course of the day. They educate the whole child: academically, socially, and spiritually. Each of our students comes to school knowing they are loved, treasured, and cared for. They are given the room they need to be who God is calling them to be!
Academically we are charged with exceeding national standards and so continue to implement curriculum that provides a challenging course, grounded in basic abilities necessary for students to develop foundational skills that lead to higher, more complex thinking skills, rooted in Gospel values, and integrating Catholic social teaching across all disciplines, ensuring the development of the whole child. Students graduating from St. Bridget School exceed state and national benchmarks, evidenced by our exemplary standardized test scores and high performance on high school placement exams. Our students enter to learn, and leave to serve the parish and community throughout their lives.
I hope you will join us for this exciting Virtual Open House! I want every family in our parish, with children of school age children, to feel that St. Bridget School is an option for them. Please come and see what St. Bridget School could offer your child or children.
The Parish Pastoral Staff is busy now that we are in Ordinary Time. The one thing Ordinary Time does for us is to provide the chance to catch up on projects and day-to-day life before Lent begins!
Yes I said it, Lent is not too far away and we are already making plans for our parish journey of Lent. Lent begins two weeks from this Wednesday! We will begin Lent with Ash Wednesday and we will have Masses with the Distribution of Ashes at 7AM, 9AM, and 5:30PM. We will also have the distribution of ashes from 11AM until 1PM, and 4PM until 5:15PM in Saint Bridget Church. You are invited to come during this time, say a few prayers in quiet, then approach to have ashes administered to you. Please note that we will be distributing ashes using Q-tips cotton swabs in order to avoid any contact and make this as safe as possible during this time of pandemic. A new Q-tips swab will be used for each person, discarded, and buried in sacred ground in the following days.
I have said it before, but I say it again, we want to hear from you! Is there a particular ministry you would like the Pastoral Staff to work toward forming? Is there a particular devotion you would like to see us offer? Is there a particular topic you would like covered in an evening Adult Education Talk? We are working on some exciting programs and events, both in-person and virtual, to help make this Lent meaningful for us all. But if you have an idea, please let us know. Write it out and email it to rectory@stbridgetcheshire.org or drop it in an envelope marked Pastoral Staff in the collection on the weekend. All ideas are possible for consideration.
THIS TIME OF YEAR IS USUALLY THE SCHOOL AUCTION…The St. Bridget School Home and School Association is normally gearing up for the annual Auction, which, of course, is the major fundraiser of the year. However, as you can imagine with COVID 19 it is not possible to have a large gathering. Therefore, they have many fun events planned which we can ALL participate in safely from our homes in the coming months.
The first one announced is the BINGO WITH A KICK—THIS THURSDAY, February 4th at 7PM via ZOOM. Won’t you join us for an evening of fun from the comfort of your home? It’s not too late!
Here is how it works…You purchase bingo cards electronically to play bingo:
1. Single Card for all 6 games= $20
2. 3-Pack of Cards for all 6 games=$35
3. 6-Pack of Cards for all 6 games=$50
Each game the winner will have a choice between a Designer Hand Bag from brands like Michael Kors, Coach, Kate Spade, and Dooney & Bourke or choose a $100 Gift Card from national chains like Amazon.
The item not chosen will then be put into a KICK RAFFLE. You can participate in all 6 Kick Raffles by purchasing a Kick Raffle Ticket for $10. One purchase gets you in all the raffles, or you can purchase more to increase your chances of winning.
This will no doubt be a fun evening that people of all ages can participate in and at the same time be supporting our parish school. I hope you will join us! You can order online at www.stbridgetcheshire.org/events and click on Bingo with a Kick. Click to sign-up online. You will need to pay electronically and be able to receive your bingo cards by email as well.
There are many more exciting events being planned in the coming months that will be fun for parishioners of all ages, stay tuned! I really hope you will support these efforts to help the school in these difficult times. We will have a Cow Chip Raffle, a Prize a Day Raffle, a Virtual Auction Experience, and a super surprise fundraiser that really will be exciting, stay tuned…
As always, please remember to pray for our parish family and ask God’s blessings as we build His kingdom here. Please know that I am praying for you, and I ask for your prayers for me, that together through the intercession of Saint Bridget of Sweden, our Patroness, and Blessed Father Michael J. McGivney, and united in the Eucharist, we will reflect the presence of Jesus to the world. Have a blessed week and stay safe!!!
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