Bulletin

At Saint John Fisher Roman Catholic Church, our commitment to Christian outreach is manifested through a variety of programs and initiatives that aim to support and uplift our community. Here's an overview of our recent and ongoing outreach efforts:

Drive-Thru Café

In March, Saint John Fisher hosted a monthly Sunday meal for patrons of the Marlborough Food Bank, distributed at the Congregational Church. Managed by Melissa Jordan, this initiative is part of our Drive-Thru Café, where we provide meals for three months each year. Our next and final meal for 2024 is scheduled for June 30th, marking the end of this year's efforts in this program.

Congratulations to our 2024 First Holy Communion Class that was celebrated on May 4! God bless them all and continue to guide them on their beautiful faith journey.

2024 1st Communion

2nd grade Faith Formation class at their retreat on April 27 preparing for their First Holy Communion day!

MissalMusic Most of you will agree that we have an amazing adult choir. If you like to sing and have ever thought about joining us, we are extending an invitation to anyone to come sing with our choir at mass during the month of May. Rehearsals are not necessary: just come up and join the choir in song. They will be singing at the 8:30 Sunday masses on May 5 & 19, and the 10:30 masses on May 12 & 26. We would love to have you join us.

As for high school and college students who may be off during the summer, we know that many of you have beautiful voices or play an instrument. If you are interested in sharing your musical gifts with us during the summer months, whether it’s simply to spread the word of God through song or to gain some experience musically, please see Janice Reska, our music director. This can be a wonderful opportunity to enhance our music ministry.

We hope you will consider joining us and look forward to speaking with anyone who may be interested.

The Archbishop’s Annual Appeal changes lives through service. In addition to assisting the underserved of our communities, your gift helps those discerning a vocation to the priesthood. Your gift to the Appeal is an investment in the future of our Church and our faith.

Thank you to the parish families who have made a gift or pledge to the 2024 Archbishop’s Annual Appeal. If you have not yet participated, please prayerfully consider a gift today. Please know that every dollar of your gift will have a positive impact in someone’s life.

All funds contributed to the Archbishop’s Annual Appeal are used exclusively for the purposes outlined in the Appeal literature, which can be found at https://archdioceseofhartford.org.

No Appeal funds are ever used for legal fees or settlements.

The first offering of Wine, Wisdom and Wit was a great success - being able to ask Father Al any questions and gain insight was the focus on the night. We learned more about purgatory (and no, it is not some thing to fear), the final judgement, what we believe happens when we die and Jesus' desire to bring everyone into His kingdom with His Father. Insight, discussion and Father's wit all graced our time together.

Photos by Nancy Gianetti

Donna Sawan is pictured here as she brought our parish Easter donations to Journey Home. They were most appreciative and loved the idea of Easter baskets.

A special Thank You to everyone who helped make this all possible!

EasterDonations

How Journey Home is Making a Difference

Our mission is to ensure a home for all.

We’ve spent more than a decade committed to ending homelessness in Connecticut’s Capital region by applying sustainable solutions to the barriers that create cycles of homelessness.

Every day, we work to:

Prevent as many people as possible from losing their housing
Increase the speed at which we find housing for anyone who is already experiencing homelessness
Help folks move into their homes and provide the furnishings and services they need to never become homeless again

Richard Buckminster Fuller says, “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”

For Connecticut, that new model is the Coordinated Access Network, a way for people who are experiencing homelessness to access housing and support services in a standardized and organized way. It involves having clear protocols, assessment tools, and agreed-upon priorities within the community that serves homeless individuals.

Visit Journey Home by clicking on this link!

This past April 7th, the 9th grade Confirmation class completed a community service event of assembling 120 bags of breakfast food items that were donated by the parishioners and the 9th grade Confirmation families of STJF to benefit ImmaCare Inc. located in Hartford. ImmaCare Inc., strives to eliminate homelessness in the Hartford region, by creating safe and affordable housing options and increasing the skills, income and hope of those who struggle with housing crisis. They had so much fun assembling these bags knowing that this food will help all those people in need in the Hartford area. A HUGE Thank You for all those families who donated these yummy food items! It was received with much appreciation!

It’s meeting new parishioners or connecting with those you’ve seen in church, but maybe never met.

It’s time to enjoy conversations and even brief moments of passing greetings.

It’s talking over Mass, the homily, or music.

It’s plans for Easter, dinner, or time at home with family.

It’s time to share pictures, experience you’ve have had or are coming up.

Thank you for the opportunity to bring this all together.

We asked, you answered and now we are moving to create and offer Children's Liturgy of the Word during 10:30 Sunday Mass. In order to do so, we need volunteers to lead the program on a rotating basis. Leaders will take the children at the beginning of Mass and then return them to the congregation after the homily. Children will learn about the weekly readings in an appropriate language for their understanding. Generally children ages 3-10 would participate, but younger children may also participate with an older sibling or a parent.

All materials will be provided, as well as a quick training to make leaders comfortable. The more leader volunteers we have the fewer times they will need to serve - the thought is to create a rotating calendar with the group of volunteers. Leaders could be parents, grandparents, other adults or teens/youth. We will also have a Virtus trained adult present at all sessions, with hopes all leaders will become Virtus trained (a child and vulnerable adult online training program offered and mandated by the Archdiocese for volunteers working with the identified populations).

Please consider if this is something you would like to do - it truly is a very rewarding ministry and another way that we as a parish family can minister to our youngest and to our parent population. Please email Cindy if you have interest or if you have questions at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The 2024 Archbishop’s Annual Appeal is now underway. Your support of this year’s Appeal ensures that essential charitable, educational and pastoral ministries of the Archdiocese of Hartford will be carried forward.

Since 1997, Archbishop’s Annual Appeal Vicariate Outreach Program has been able to provide over $21 million in funding to community-based local charities throughout Hartford, New Haven and Litchfield Counties to assist them in their important work of serving the needs of God’s people. In 2023, we were able to provide nearly $900,000 to over 150 various organizations. Organizations such as AHM and Marlborough Food Bank, right here in our own town, received funding.

Book Stack Continue your Lenten journey with a selection from the Liturgical Seasons section of our Lending Library, such as: