Finally! An Election

The election of a new fraternity council was delayed about a year, as a result of the whole world dealing with Covid-19.  We are all thankful to the selfless fraternity member who came forward to run for offices on the council and also those who accepted nomination from the floor on the day of the election.

Mary Stavro, OFS, our District 2 Representative, was the presider of our election. 
Thank you for your time, Mary.

Here is your new fraternity council.

From left:  Paul Boisvert (Formation Director), Horace Turner (Vice Minister), Steve Fiedler (Minister), Kathy McGuirk (Councilor-at-large), Kathleen Kaney (Councilor-at-large), Janice Colgate (Secretary), Pam Deres (Spiritual Assistant).  Not pictured:  Michelle Gagne (Treasurer).

SteveS (behind Paul), Alice, Joan, and Pam assisted Mary in the administration of the election.

Joan got all her "steps" in today, distributing and collecting ballots.

And just for fun, here's a photo of the fraternity who attended elect the new council.  Even if you aren't pictured, be sure, we were thinking of you and you were missed.  

Front row:  JanC, RuthD, KathleenK, KathyM.
Back row: SteveF, PamD, SteveS, PaulB, JoanP, HoraceT, Louise, BarbaraT, MargurietteN, AliceA.

Many, many thanks to the previous council who served an extra year:  SteveF, HoraceT, SteveS, JoanP, BryanL, PegS, and PaulB.

Mid Winter Meeting

January's meeting was cancelled due to bad weather, the all seems fine in February.  It may be snowing in Boston, but we have lots of "indoor sunshine" at Holy Family.

In Honor of Our Deceased

For November's meeting, Deacon Brian led us in a Rosary to honor de deceased members of the St. Bernard Fraternity.  For those who may have missed it, two members of our fraternity passed this year:  Joyce Maxim and Fred Pierce.  Click on those links to read more about them.

It was nice to be back in the sanctuary praying together. 

October - Back in the Hall!

 Praise be to God that the effect of the pandemic continue to subside.  Our September meeting was held back in the hall of Holy Family.  It was wonderful to see to many Franciscan brothers and sisters in person.

August Indoor (Outdoor) Picnic

 This year's indoor picnic was actually held outdoors.  The council was confused about the date this year because the second Sunday felt like it came to early in the month.  Thus, we postponed the meeting for a week, which allowed us to gather on the feast of the Immaculate Conception (August 15).  We did not cook as we usually do, but invited others to bring their own lunch (BYOL) while the fraternity provided beverages and ice cream.  In the shade, the weather was very pleasant.  Even better was sharing much needed social time with brothers and sisters.  I only with a few more had come -- there was a lot of leftover ice cream.

May Meeting

We are still continuing to meet outside under the shade tree on the south side of the property.  We even have a Zoom meeting set up for others to join in since as of today our in-person numbers are still scarce.  Still we are thankful for those who are here!

October 3 - Animal Blessings

This year, October 4, the feast of St. Francis, fell on a Sunday.  For us, that meant that Fr. Jose scheduled the annual Blessing of the Animals for the day before.  The "pandemic times" as they are, we weren't able to have our usual treats of apple cider and munchkins, but it seemed as the the animals (and their owners) enjoyed the blessing as much as they always do.

Fr. Jose began with a simple reading at the entrance to the church

A smaller crowd than usual, but still nice to see people getting out.

Our banner is hanging on a music stand in front of the table so it wouldn't blow away in the wind.
Ruth & Kathy brought dog and cat treats while Steve provided pre-packaged animal crackers.

No song sheets this year, so Steve just sang a few verses of All Creatures of Our God and King.

There was an official photographer from the Catholic Free Press, so hopefully some of the ceremony will be in the next issue.  Steve also stayed for an additional blessing for the Capilla Santisima Trinidad (Leominster Hispanic Apostolate) which followed shortly after the first one.