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May 2008 Quick
Update
Read about the
theme gardens....
See a sneak preview
of the Holy Family Statue...
After a long winter's nap,
the Prayer Garden planting plans for all eight gardens are completed.
The remaining minor work on the irrigation system has also been
completed.
The plantings are being installed in
the Easter Vigil Garden, the Bell Tower Garden, the St. Dominic Central
Garden and the Jubilee Garden. Through the generous donations of many parishioners, the beauty of
this sacred space on our parish campus is becoming a reality. The
Holy Family Shrine will be dedicated on May 18 with Archbishop Dolan.
The Mary, that will be part of the Holy Family shrine, will have a
special bronze crown of flowers made for her with a different color
patina by the Domus Dei Studio in Rome. This is the same studio
that has provided us with the beautiful St. Dominic Statue and Crucifix
for our prayer gardens. We will be having a short May crowning at the
dedication.
We will be publishing a list of donors to recognize the
generous support of so many people who have helped make our prayer
gardens a beautiful addition to our parish campus, a visible expression
of our love for our faith, and a gift dedicated to the greater honor and
glory of God.
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October 2007 |
Thanks for all the favorable comments on the progress that took place
over the spring and
early summer. This included repairs on the bell tower and the
construction of the terrace, the bases for the Crucifix and the three
shrines to come and additional sidewalks.
We were able to celebrate our first Mass on the terrace on the Feast of
St. Dominic, on Wednesday, August 8. Through the continuing,
generous donations of parishioners, we are
now able to go ahead with another phase of the prayer gardens. In the
near future, you will see the following take place:
- Nine Juniper evergreen trees and eleven Flowering Crab trees
will be planted in the gardens.
- Fourteen custom Lannon stone benches will be installed.
- The grass where the seven flower gardens will be located will be
skinned, and the bed preparation taken care of.
- The garden areas will be top-dressed with shredded oak mulch.
- Next spring, as weather permits, the plantings for the three
gardens that have been sponsored so far, will be done.
- An irrigation system will be installed as well.
As a special highlight, the beautiful bronze Crucifix which has been
made in the same Roman Art Studio, Domus Dei, that made our St. Dominic
Statue, will be installed and unveiled. on November 18. on the
terrace in the Prayer Gardens. The beautiful bronze Crucifix that
will grace our prayer gardens was made possible through the generous
gift of one of our faithful parishioners, Marge Healy, in memory of her
special daughter, Mary. We are most grateful to Marge for her love of
St. Dominic Parish and the Prayer Gardens of St. Dominic.
Looking ahead, I am happy to announce that three parishioner/families
have indicated their
willingness to make a donation of $10,000 each. This means that we need
one more $10,000 donation and we will be able to order the next shrine
for the prayer gardens, namely, the Holy Family Shrine. It is our hope
that the Holy Family Shrine will take shape, be shipped over the winter
and be ready to be installed and unveiled next May. We have
decided to have the Domus Dei Studio design a crown of flowers that will
be used next May and then annually as part of an outdoor May crowning in
the prayer gardens. If you would be able and willing to provide the
final $10,000 donation to make the Holy Family Shrine a
possibility, please contact me. That will mean we will still have two
shrines that will be added to the prayer gardens sometime in the future,
Christ and the Children and the Pieta, Mary with the crucified body of
her son, Jesus, in her lap. Each shrine will necessitate
a donation of $40,000 to become a reality in the prayer gardens. If you
would be in a position and are interested in providing a $10,000
donation toward the cost or more, please contact Danita Stich at the
grade school or me.
At this point, everything described in this article and everything
that you presently see in the prayer gardens has been or will be paid
with monies donated to the prayer gardens fund.
Even though the parish council approved an internal line of credit to be
used if needed to help finance phases of the gardens to assure favorable
pricing and minimal disruption of the grounds, we do not anticipate
needing a penny of the line of credit at this point. At the time of my
writing this article,
- We only have six trees left at a donation level of $1,000.
- Three benches at $2,500.
- Four flower gardens at $5,000.
- Donations of $1,000 and up can be recognized as donors of the
terrace in the gardens.
- Any donation of $100 or more, will result in the name being
added to a plaque that will be recognize all donors and will be
mounted on the base of the bell tower facing
the interior of the prayer gardens area.
We will be publishing a list of donors between now and the end of the
year to recognize the generous support of so many people who have helped
make our prayer gardens a beautiful addition to our parish campus, a
visible expression of our love for our faith, and a gift dedicated to
the greater honor and glory of God. After people have an opportunity to
check the spelling of names, including donations given in memory of
someone, we will have
plaques made and installed in early spring 2008.
If you have any questions or interest in helping our prayer gardens
continue to grow, please contact Danita Stich or myself.
God bless you,
Father David H. Reith |
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May 2007 |
More progress this spring with our Prayer Gardens project!Due to
a number of generous donations from parishioners over the past year, we
are now in position to make some significant progress in the growth of
our prayer gardens. On or near May 1st, you will begin to see a terrace
constructed in the gardens that will also serve as the base for a
beautiful life size bronze crucifix. The terrace will serve as the place
that, with a portable altar, an occasional outdoor Mass in good weather
may be offered in the future. It will serve as a wonderful place for
classes from the school and Christian formation program to conduct
outdoor gatherings, such as story telling, a place to do some art work
or to spend some time outdoors reflecting on the serenity of the
evolving prayer gardens, a beautiful green space. The bases for future
shrines will be added along with some sidewalk work. In addition, some
necessary repair work will be done on the base of the bell tower that
was donated to the parish by Fr. Edward Grohall, our founding pastor.
The stone on the bell tower will also be cleaned.
I would like to thank our "seeds of giving" donors, benches, trees,
theme gardens, etc., for their patience as we now move forward with this
construction, so these donated items may begin to be placed in the
Gardens in the fall of 2007 or spring of 2008.
We have good news that we have received three gifts of $10,000 each
to help sponsor the beautiful bronze Crucifix that will eventually grace
our gardens. The cost to sponsor the crucifix will be $50,000. This will
pay for the design costs, the making of the crucifix in Italy, its
shipment here, and preparation of the base and installation. We are
looking for two more sponsors, willing to give $10,000 each to help make
the Crucifix a reality in our prayer gardens. If you are in a position
to help by sponsoring the Crucifix, please contact me at the Parish
Center Office.
As I am about to complete my third year as your pastor on June 22nd,
I am overwhelmed with the generosity of our parishioners, who truly are
dedicated to "Seeking Christ, Knowing Christ, and Becoming Christ, each
one for the sake of all." This is really a remarkable faith
community.
God bless you,
Father David H. Reith |
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Watch our Gardens Grow
