The 12 Days of Christmas ......

As of tomorrow, Christmas will arrive in twelve days, this being the 3rd Sunday in Advent. How's your Advent journey going ?

Managing to get to daily Mass most Mondays and Tuesdays with the rest of the weekday people really helps to focus spiritually and provides support and strength for the day ahead. Going through the liturgical year day by day really keeps one about the scriptural themes.

We are continuing the Book / Film Discussion here, exclusively online for now, and from time to time will be adding to the list of selections - books - films

Don't forget to stop by the Coffee Sundays anyway, even if it's only to say a quick hello to everybody and grab a donut and coffe to go, and we'll see you all here online !

P.S. Here's a good review of "The Jesuit Guide To Almost Everything" by James Martin S.J., - it makes for a good gift / post-Christmas reading, ... plug, plug, ...

October Coffee Sundays Begin Again

As schedules return to a -back to school / back from vacation- routine, Coffee Sundays at St. Joseph's resume once again. It's always been a great way to fellowship and make new acquaintences, even if you can only make it for some "take-out".

For the "newbies", Coffee Sundays are after the 8 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. Sunday Masses. Usually, all those attending the 11:30 tend to head out for lunch etc., on their own after Mass, that's why it's offered for everyone at the earlier Masses.

As for our Book/Film group, this season we won't be having formal discussion meetings during Coffee Sundays to start, but perhaps can get together every other month or so as our core group's schedules get back to normal, - ie, weddings, children and now grandchildren, - how about that ! So if you're there, just look for us and come on over.

Please feel free to continue to participate on your own anyway by making selections from the Book and Film lists, and share them with your own family and group of friends. We've had good feedback on the selections so far, so have a look and try one out !

Late Summer Reading / Film

John Adams. Oh, sure - second President, from MA, fuzzy hair, ....

"Government is a plain, simple, intelligent thing, founded in nature and reason, quite comprehensible by common sense. . . . Let it be known that British [ or any other] liberties are not the grants of princes or parliments. . . . that many of our rights are inherent and essential, agreed on as maxims and established as preliminaries, even before parliment existed. . . .." p. 60.

Much food for thought just there.


I'm concurrently going through both the book and DVD series,
which is quite faithful to the parts of the book it depicts. Very rewarding.


Participate here online, or, when we can meet at Coffee Sundays ( first Sunday of every month after the 9:30 a.m. Mass).

Mid-Summer Notes - Day Trip

Mid-Summer greetings ! Just made an annual retreat up at St. Joseph's Abbey.

The Abbey can make for a wonderful destination as a family day trip. Beautiful grounds located in the rolling hills of Spencer, MA, less than an hour up I-84 from Tolland County.

Plan your visit on a Wednesday or Saturday and see the DVD presentation on the monastic life shown at 2:30 by one of the monks. The Abbey gift shop is worth the stop as well where you can browse before getting on the road again to head home.

As the school year winds down and vacations are in sight, we'll keep the book and film lists here for all those looking for material for your downtime / leisure time.

Book List

Film List

Installation of our new Pastor

We were blessed with a seasonably warm, beautiful sunny day this past Sunday for Fr. Christopher's installation as our new pastor, with Fr. James Carini acting as the Bishop's representative.
Our previous Fr. Christopher ( are there any more Christophers in the Pauline Order ?) was appointed as the new Executive Director of The John Paul II Foundation in Rome, ( we hope to have a link to their new website as it becomes available).

Also, featured in this Sunday's Hartford Courant ( March 21, '10) is an article / interview with M. William Phelps, the author of a recent book on Nathan Hale, featured on our book list. We have a little bio

here on him from a publisher's website.

We hope to have Mr. Phelps come to our book / film group in the future to discuss the Hale book with us, and possible do a book signing, - stay tuned for developments !

Coffee Sunday This Week - March 7th

Just a reminder to our visitors here, stop by and join our informal gathering at our Coffee Sundays, held after the 9:30 a.m. Mass.

Hopefully at some point we'll discuss the film "Henry Poole Is Here" ( and / or "A Man For All Seasons" ) and make a selection for our next book or film ( please see the previous post for links ).