April 22, 2025

The Season of Easter at Saint Josephine Bakhita Parish

April 22, 2025

Dear Parishioners and Friends of Saint Josephine Bakhita Parish,

Greetings and Happy Easter to one and all!

Life is a gift, but sometimes it wounds us badly, and too often we let those wounds rob us of our peace. But even more destructive than our hurts are our rampant egos, the most relentless robbers of joy and peace.

Egos run amuck are incredibly needy: they need to be right, need to be the center of attention, need to have their own way, need to have more and be better than anyone else. Ego’s curse is a perpetual state of anxious unrest. No wonder the words of the prophet Jeremiah resonate so deeply in our souls: “Peace, peace, but there is no peace.”

God’s will for us is peace, not the quiet of the grave, but the Easter serenity that Jesus had. It is more than just the absence of trouble or hurt. It is a state of mind and heart that is so rooted in the Spirit of Jesus that our deepest desires are reshaped, our nagging neediness fades, and our fear loses its power.

As we think and feel with the Spirit this Easter season, we will walk through the hard times peacefully because we know we are loved, we will delight in the joys of life even in troubled times, and we will be able to give ourselves away without fear of losing ourselves.

Blessings!!

Fr. George Couturier

Join Us For The Second Sunday of Easter

April 27, 2025

4:00 PM Vigil at St. James

9:00 AM at St. Elizabeth Seton

and livestreamed

11:00 AM at St. James

Bring Your Rice Bowls

Back to Church

Please bring back your rice bowl when churches are open for weekend masses. Kindly return them no later than the weekend after Easter (April 26 & 27). There will be greeters to accept your rice bowl donations.

Bakhita Bible Camp is Back!

Mark your calendars now for Saint Josephine Bakhita Parish Vacation Bible Camp to be held Monday, June 23, 2025 - Friday, June 27, 2025 from 9:00 AM - Noon.

Bakhita Bible Camp welcomes campers entering Kindergarten through Grade 6.

Registration forthcoming for Teen Volunteers entering Grades 7-12 and Adult Volunteers of all ages.

If you have any questions or would like to learn more about volunteering opportunities, please contact Lisa Torneo at biblecamp@sjbrh.org.

Scan the QR Code to Learn More and Register Campers for Bakhita Bible Camp

Click Here To Register Campers for Bakhita Bible Camp

Other Fun Tidbits

Pilgrimate to Fatima, Lourdes & Spain

April 28 - May 8, 2026

Deacon Michael and Krystyna Ward are pleased to announce that they will be leading a pilgrimage to Fatima in Portugal, Lourdes in France and notable sites in Spain along the way from April 28-May 8, 2026.

Arriving in Lisbon from New York and after a brief stop in Lisbon we will be moving on to our first major spiritual pilgrimage site visit at Fatima. From there we will stop in the Spanish cities of Salamanca, Valladolid and Burgos on our way to our second major pilgrimage site at Lourdes in southern France. At Lourdes we will visit the apparition site and related points of interest. Leaving Lourdes we will return to Spain visiting the mountaintop monastery at Montserrat before concluding our pilgrimage in Barcelona, visiting the famous Gaudi-designed Holy Family Church and other points, with some free time for exploring this beautiful city, before heading home!

We will be having an informational meeting on Wednesday April 30, 2025 at 7:30 PM at the St. James Parish Center (behind the church!) 767 Elm Street in Rocky Hill.

If you are at all thinking of going, or are just curious, please contact Deacon Michael at saintjmdeacon@gmail.com or call him at 860-836-8218.

Learn More Here

Giving Garden

Our garden at the Brook Street campus since 2017 has supplied the St. Vincent de Paul Soup Kitchen in Middletown with an average of 600+ pounds of fresh vegetables a year.

We are happy to welcome 3 new volunteers who are joining us this season, adding to the current team of 14.

We are still in need of a few one-time volunteer efforts:

Saturdays (April 25, May 10 or May 17 - weather permitting) to help fix our fencing and garden borders.
One more picker/team of pickers to help every two weeks (once harvesting time arrives in July and August.)

Anyone from high school age through seniors of all ages are welcome! We supply the tools, supplies and even gloves. If you have an interest in helping, please contact Bob Manzi at manzirj@sbcglobal.net or at 860 502-5097.

You can even visit the garden bench near the garden for a solitary prayer with nature anytime or meet the maintenance crew usually at 5pm Mondays, starting in June. If you have an interest in helping or in learning how to setup an organic garden, please contact Bob Manzi at manzirj@sbcglobal.net or at 860 502-5097.

Saint Josephine Bakhita Faith Sharing Group

All are welcome to join the Saint Josephine Bahkita Faith Sharing Group. We meet on the 4th Tuesday of the Month in the month of April, May and June. We meet from 10:00-11:30 AM at St. Elizabeth Seton Church. This group grew out of our parish Awakening retreat in November 2024. At our meetings we start with a presentation of a gift of the Holy Spirit and then we break into small groups to share how the Holy Spirit is working in our lives. A main focus is how we keep the Holy Spirit as an active component of our everyday life. For additional information, please contact Michael Lonergan at 860-638-7080 at Mikelonergan53108@sbcglobal.net.

Support Walk MS

Knight of Columbus, Will Shivell, will be participating in the MS Walk on Saturday, May 17. Will and others will be walking to raise money to help people with Multiple sclerosis and to fund research for a cure. Please consider supporting Will by donating to this very worthy cause. Thank you!

Donate Here

Parish Visitors

Our Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion are available to bring Holy Communion to our homebound parishioners and those recuperating from surgery or illness. Please contact the parish office to request a visit: 860-529-8655.

In just a few short weeks, our parish has raised $92,543 for the 2025 Archbishop’s Annual Appeal. If you have not yet made your gift to this year’s Appeal, please consider doing so in the days ahead. Your gift to the Archbishop’s Annual Appeal will help continue the vital services, ministries and programs that help so many throughout our Archdiocese. Please visit the Appeal website at www.archdioceseofhartford.org to learn more and make your gift today. All funds contributed to the Archbishop’s Annual Appeal are used exclusively for the purposes outlined in the Appeal literature, which can be found here. No Appeal funds are ever used for legal fees or settlements.