Good Shepherd Catholic Community consists of four worship sites: Our Lady of the Lake in King Ferry, St. Michael in Union Springs, St. Patrick in Aurora and St. Patrick in Moravia. These parishes are collecting simple medical supplies to help create 50 family health kits and two school/clinic medical supply kits for a small rural community in San Pedro, El Salvador. This project will benefit the 47 families (approximately 300 people) who enjoy a special relationship with southern Cayuga County through the Cayuga-San Pedro Sister Community Project.

The people of San Pedro are campesinos (small farmers) who grow beans and corn, and the women make hammocks to sell. They live in simple homes made with earth and wood, without electricity or water. They have a small school serving kindergarten through third-grade.

Members of the southern Cayuga community will be traveling to El Salvador in May. The following donations are being collected and will be distributed directly to the families: Band Aids, multi-vitamins, toothpaste, bar soap, Neosporin/antibiotic, Vaseline, Tylenol, Ibuprofen, Acetaminophen and anti-diarrhea medicine. Any financial donations will be used to purchase additional supplies in El Salvador (parasite medicine and pediolyte). Medications will be given to Doctors for Global Health, a group that operates clinics in the area near San Pedro. All donations are welcome, whether individual items, complete kits or financial contributions.

For questions about the parish collection, contact Debbie Patrick at 497-2049. To learn more about the Cayuga-San Pedro Sister Community Project or the upcoming trip to El Salvador, contact Larry or Laura Buffam at 364-8901.

In other news

€ Thursday, April 19, the Cayuga County Office of Catholic Charities will honor all of our local Catholic churches at its sixth annual Works of Love Dinner.

The dinner will be served from 5:30 to 9 p.m., at the Springside Inn. Everyone is invited to share in this celebration. A cash bar and hors d'oeuvres will begin at 5:30 p.m. along with a silent auction.

Dinner and the program will begin at 6 p.m. Tickets are $35, which includes hor d'oeuvres and a family style dinner.

€ At 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 24, there will be a Mass celebrating Vocation Awareness Week at St. Mary's Church in Auburn. The celebrant will be the Rev. William Coffas. Coffas spent a year at St. Mary's as a seminarian and will be traveling from his pastoral assignment in Oswego to celebrate with us.

Please join members of the Auburn Catholic Community as we celebrate those who have chosen to serve God as diocesan priests, nuns and deacons and as they continue to pray for an increase in vocations to the priesthood and religious life.

I am always encouraged by the devotion and the numbers of young people of the “John Paul II generation” who are frequently interviewed on EWTN about their vocations.

€ St. Mary's is also having a weekly Rosary which began this week and will continue at 6:30 each Wednesday during the Easter season.

Everyone is welcome to join in praying the Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary for an increase of vocations to the priesthood and religious life.

Have a good week and remember, God loves you so very much.

“My father didn't tell me how to live; he lived and let me watch him do it.”

- Clarence B. Kelland

Denise Bennett is a parishioner at Holy Family Church in Auburn. She can be reached at deniseb132@yahoo.com