God bless you Fr. Jim McNamara! - Parish of the Holy Cross

The Parish of the Holy Cross
95 Old Nichols Road + Nesconset, NY 11767+ 631.265.2200 + www.pothc88.org
LET ALL BE WELCOMED AS CHRIST!
Children’s Memorial Garden
Presiding at Confirmation
Photograph by Fr. Jim
Our risen Lord sculpted by Fr. Buckley
25th Anniversary Mass on 1/20/13
Family Fun Day
God bless you Fr. Jim McNamara!
Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time - June 23, 2013
WE CELEBRATE EUCHARIST
Monday—Thursday: 9:00 A.M. (Chapel)
Saturday: 5:00 P.M.
Sunday:
8:00 A.M. + 9:30 A.M. + 11:30 A.M.
+ 5:00 P.M. (except holiday weekends)
WE CELEBRATE RECONCILIATION
Saturday: After 5:00 P.M. Mass
or call Father Jim for an appointment.
Parish of the Holy Cross
Nesconset, NY
Fr. John’s
going away party
WE CELEBRATE BAPTISM
Baptisms are celebrated on the second and last Sunday
of each month at 1 P.M. Please contact the Parish
Office for more information.
WE CELEBRATE WEDDINGS
Couples should contact the Parish Office at least six
months in advance of the proposed wedding date.

We are here for you!
OUR PASTORAL TEAM AND PARISH STAFF
631.265.2200 + Fax 631.265.2229 + pothc@optonline.net
Parish Office Hours: Monday - Friday 9:00 AM - 4:00 PM (closed for lunch: 12:15 - 1:00 PM)
Rev. James M. McNamara, Pastor
Mrs. Connie Calabro, Co-Coordinator of Parish Outreach
Ms. Denise Cortegiano, Youth Minister
Deacon Owen E. Farley, Jr., Parish Deacon
Ms. Ellen Fox, Director of Religious Education
Mr. John Huether, Custodian
Mrs. Mary Anne McCulloch, Co-Coordinator of Parish Outreach
Mr. James McManus, Custodian
Mrs. Judith Pickel, Pastoral Associate
Mr. Brian Reich, Director of Music
Deacon Ralph Rivera, Parish Deacon
Mrs. Elizabeth Shea, Religious Education Secretary (hcreled@optonline.net)
Deacon Gerard K. Steffens, Parish Deacon
Mrs. Loretta Tarter, Business Manager
Mrs. Jane Wirth, Parish Secretary (pothc@optonline.net)
Mass Intentions Schedule
Banns of Marriage
Second Time
Jennifer Koch & Ryan Welsh
Week of June 23rd, 9 AM Mass
Mon. John Slevin Jr.
Tue. Jessica Wider (living)
Wed. Christopher Summers (living)
Thu. Gerald O’Brien
New Life
in Christ
The Bread and Wine
for the week
June 23rd - June 29th,
have been donated
in loving memory of
Florence Siblano
by the Gallo family.
Celebrants for Next Weekend’s Masses
June 29th/30th
5:00 PM Fr. Michael
8:00 AM Fr. Michael
9:30 AM Fr. Bob
11:30 AM Fr. Bob
5:00 PM Fr. Michael
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Saturday, June 29th, 5 PM Mass
Ann Keena, Judy Keena, Nicholas Parascandola,
Rose McGinn, Lani Trinidad
Sunday, June 30th, Thirteenth Sunday Ord. Time
8:00 AM Sam Ruvolo
9:30 AM Gerald O’Brien
11:30 AM Katie Modell, Maria Perciballi, Albert
Suarez, Helen A. Haberkorn, People of
the Parish
5:00 PM Joaquin Lopez
Scripture Readings for June 30th
+ 1 Kings 19:16,19-21
+ Galatians 5:1,13-18
+ Luke 9:51-62

FAREWELL BUT NOT GOODBYE
The time has come for me to leave Holy Cross. I say: “Farewell but not goodbye”
because I will continue to hold all of you in my heart and will keep you in prayer each
morning. I have truly been blessed to be your pastor these past ten and a half years.
It was not by any means easy to come here after the memorable years of Father Joe
and Father Bill. Now, a new pastor will join you - Father Michael Holzmann. He is a very
fine priest, a very spiritual man. Our theme here at Holy Cross has been: Let all be
welcomed as Christ. As you welcome Father Michael, I ask you to welcome him, that is,
let him be himself, do not compare him with others. A true Christian welcome means to
respect each individual as a unique person created and loved by God. Father Michael
will bring his own good gifts and he will be a good shepherd of this good community.
I have been here longer than any other assignment in my forty-two years as a priest. If
the truth be told, it is very hard to leave. And yet, I know that God is always with me and
is always faithful. I learned this lesson very dramatically in 1982. I was leaving to go to
Rome to be on the faculty of the North American College for five years. My father died
of a heart attack a month before I left. Since my mother had died soon after my
ordination, our family home was sold as I started my work in Rome. It was a time of loss
and change and I needed to mourn the past before I could embrace the future. I was at
a crossroad: my life had changed and would never be the same again. I prayed very
fervently during that first year and I became convinced that God was still with me and
was doing something new.
In a less dramatic yet similar way, I am at another crossroad. I wrote recently in
response to questions about whether I was excited about going to Point Lookout, that it
wasn’t about where I am going but about where I am leaving. So, some mourning and
letting go has to happen before I can embrace the future once again. But, I will embrace
the future and I will embrace the people of Point Lookout. And I will do so with hope and
enthusiasm to share the greatness of Jesus Christ with the people there.
I have been there several times and stayed overnight once. With my new broad hat, I
walked around in the evening. I was greeted by a shopkeeper when a car came by and
a young man yelled my name. His mom stopped the car.
The shopkeeper told me that Anthony was an usher at
the 10:15 Mass on Sundays. Anthony had a broad smile
that belied his severely disabled condition. I put my
hands on his gnarled hands and greeted him and thought
that: “Yes I can do this. I can fall in love again.”
Farewell but not goodbye,
Father Jim McNamara
Fr. Jim’s
Installation at
Holy Cross 1/19/03
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A letter to Father Jim
Fr. Jim, You came to us at the Parish of the Holy Cross as the hand-picked successor to Fr. Bill,
probably with a great deal of input from Fr. Bill and Fr. Joe, our founding co-pastors. You were the
author of three books and columnist of the Long Island Catholic, a well known presenter of retreats
all over the country and world, and a spiritual director to many, but we didn’t know you. We only
knew you as this public person, and to be truthful, these facts were a bit daunting to us.
But, the first thing you did when you got here was kneel down and ask for Fr.
Bill’s blessing. What a beautiful and humble act on your part, and what a quick
way to find a way into our hearts.
In the ensuing years, we’ve gotten to know the man, the priest and the pastor.
You have weathered the ups and downs that occur in one’s life and in the life of
the parish, always with a prayerful and hopeful attitude. You invited
parishioners to come to Mass regularly and to pray with Scripture in the
peaceful atmosphere of your house garden during the summer months of
leisure time. With your guidance and leadership, we as a parish have sold a
house, bought two houses, knocked down one house, built a community vegetable garden, created
a shrine to the Blessed Mother, constructed a Children’s Memorial Garden, and enhanced our parish
and house grounds with many individual projects. You wholeheartedly embraced our Outreach
efforts to reach out globally to help those whose lives were in poverty. When asked to consider a
project, you always gave it thoughtful reflection, you never just said “no,” but “How can this be
accomplished?” You consider a request, ask for input, make a decision and act! You truly lived up
to the name we dubbed you when you first came, “Father Yesterday!”
Your attention to all the needs of your people, in both happy and sad moments, are an inspiration to
us who work with you. You are patiently there with your listening ears and heart, sometimes just
present, but most times with chocolate chip cookies. You will be remembered by all the young
people in our parish whose Religious Education classes you visited, and who were always surprised
when you called them by name on Sunday. You called forth the young families in the parish to be in
leadership roles in ministry and service. You introduced us to the beauty of Assisi and the life of St.
Francis, and the journeys of St. Paul.
You live your life as a priest in constant prayer, and your example of prayerfulness is one we hope to
model. So you are still the author, the columnist, the retreat giver and spiritual director you were
when you came, and also Vicar, but now you are our friend and we thank God for these almost
eleven years with you. We wish you an abundance of happiness in your new parish and home. We
will miss you, but know that you
are always in our hearts.
Your loving
Pastoral Team and Staff
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Father Jim, Father Bill
and Fr. Joe with the
Pastoral Team and Office Staff

PARISH OUTREACH
Today we say goodbye to Fr. Jim and wish him many blessings as he
takes on new challenges in his ministries at Point Lookout and serving the
people of our Diocese in the Western Vicariate.
We would also like to THANK him for embracing and enthusiastically
supporting Heifer International. We began our connection with Heifer
almost 10 years ago, and the parish has donated $33,163 to them
through the years. That is an amazing
amount of quarters!
To honor Fr. Jim and his commitment to
both our community and the global
community, we have purchased a Heifer
in his name. This gift of a cow is not
just a tribute to Fr. Jim:
It’s a gift of milk every morning
for a malnourished child;
It’s a gift of up to four gallons of milk a day so an anxious parent
can sell the extra to pay for their child’s food, clothes, school
and medicine;
And, it’s a gift that brings generations of renewed hope for an
impoverished village as each family fulfills its promise to Pass on
the Gift of offspring
As Fr. Jim moooooo-ves on, we send him off with our blessings, our
thanks and our appreciation of the years he has shared his gifts with our
Holy Cross community.
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CHILDREN’S MEMORIAL GARDEN
Stealing from the Children’s Memorial Garden
Someone stole the Japanese Maple from the Children’s Memorial
Garden about a week ago. It is hard to believe anyone would do
this. They obviously knew it was the most expensive tree there
and probably sold it to some unsuspecting person. If you have
any knowledge of this, please contact the parish office.
OUTREACH NEWS
Presently, Parish Outreach has received a number of requests for
Eucharistic Ministers to visit parishioners who are homebound, due to
illness or surgery. Often these are short-term assignments. If any of our
Eucharistic Ministers would be willing to bring Communion to someone
in these circumstances, please give us a call at 265-2200 ext. 13. Thank
you for reaching out to those who cannot be with us on weekends, but
who would like to be connected to us through Jesus in the Eucharist.
VACATION BIBLE SCHOOL
We Need Your Help!
Preparations for Vacation Bible School are underway. Thank
you to all who are donating items that were posted on our VBS
donation board in the Atrium! We find that we could also use
small bottled waters. So, if anyone hasn’t had a chance to
donate something and would like to, please consider donating a
case of small bottled water. Thank you!
LIFE TEEN NEWS
6/23/13 - 5pm Life Teen Mass followed by a BBQ and our Father/Teen
baseball game at Gibbs Pond Park
6/30/13 - 5pm Life Teen Mass followed by a fun Life Night.
Teens…don’t forget to bring a friend!
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You can make a difference in the lives of those around us by
making a gift to this year’s Catholic Ministries Appeal
Every Gift Counts!
A gift of $25 may help pay the gas for a Meals On Wheels van to deliver
food for a day.
A gift of $50 may help care for a newborn infant in Catholic Charities
Regina Residence
A gift of $100 may help support a Seminarian’s education
Because of you, every year we are able to serve more than 600,000 people in
our Long Island Community. This support enables our children to continue to
receive the gift of spiritual formation, sacramental preparation, and quality
education. It allows seminarians and lay leaders to fulfill their calling to
serve the community. With your support Catholic Charities can maintain its
services for the poor and disadvantaged, and we can continue to reach out to
our young people and others to find the best ways to guide and pass on our
faith from generation to generation.
All funds raised go to support the Appeal and its Ministries
Please consider what you can do to make this campaign successful.
Please make your check payable to: Pledge: $_______________
Catholic Ministries Appeal Down Payment: $_______________
Balance:
$_______________
Parish: _______________________________
Parish of the Holy Cross
Name: _______________________________ Monthly Quarterly
Address: _______________________________ Annually Other
City, State, Zip: ____________________________
Phone:__________________________ Donor Signature: ________________________ Acct# _________________
Place in weekly collection basket or drop off at the Parish Office.
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CASH CALENDAR
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MEETINGS THIS WEEK
Saturday, June 22nd
WOMEN’S ENRICHMENT
(All are welcome!)
10 AM - Noon
Fr. Joe Room
Sunday, June 23rd
11:30 AM
FR. JIM’S FAREWELL MASS/RECEPTION WA/Atr.
LIFE TEEN MASS
Thursday, June 27th
MOMS’ GROUP
Sunday, June 30th
BAPTISMS
LIFE TEEN MASS
5:00 PM Worship Area
10:30 AM
Fr. Joe Room
1:00 PM
Worship Area
5:00 PM Worship Area
SUMMER CONCERT SERIES
The Nesconset Chamber of
Commerce and County Legislator
John M. Kennedy are proud to
announce the 6th annual free
outdoor concert series. All concerts
start at 7:30PM at the gazebo on Smithtown
Blvd.- bring a lawn chair or blanket. If
inclement weather, please call 631-724-2543
after 3PM for concert status. LI Cares will be
there to collect food, cash or check donations.
(Make check payable to Long Island Cares.)
July 2 ……... That 70’s Band
July 9 ……... Songs in the Attic
July 16 ……. DEC8DIA
July 23 ……. Minute by Minute
July 30 ……. 45RPM
August 6 …. The Fast Lane
August 13 .. Just Groovin
FATHER’S DAY MASS
REMEMBRANCES
In Memory of...
LEONARD SESSA
HENRY COLBAN
JAMES M. SCHULTZ
HAROLD BURNS
CHARLES BURNS
JOHN J. DALY
HENRY J. KNIPPER
TIMOTHY DALY
ROBERT POTTER
GEORGE PARISI
GIUSEPPI PARISI
RUSSELL LEACH
PETER’S PENCE
Next week our diocese will take up
the Peter’s Pence Collection, which
provides the Holy Father with the
funds he needs to carry out his most
important charitable works. The
proceeds benefit the most
disadvantaged: victims of war,
oppression, and natural disasters.
Through your generosity, we can
cast the peace of Christ upon the
world.
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