AMDG
Dear OSJ Family,
St. Paul teaches us in his letter to the Thessalonians. In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you – Thes 5:18. It is always great when we offer our gratitude to God and to one another, we need to simply say thanks as often as we can! Indeed, gratitude is a gift to both the giver and the receiver! With that, I share with you a letter of thanks that comes to our parish from the Gesu School. I am so proud of OSJ’s efforts to support the students at our Jesuit sponsored grade school in North Philly!
Below is the letter from Mr. Bryan Carter, President and CEO, of Gesu School and Sister Ellen Convey IHM, their principal:
To the Parishioners of Old St. Joseph’s,
Thank you from Gesu School for the outpouring of generosity from this year’s giving tree. Our students and families truly appreciate your kindness and this longstanding tradition, which brings so much Christmas joy to our community. We especially recognize Charles Capaldi and the Old St. Joseph Outreach Committee for making this possible.
Santa visited Gesu on December 22 to deliver the gifts, and students in grades Pre-K through 2 were delighted to open new books! Our youngest students also received hats, scarves, and mittens, which will keep them warm throughout the winter.
To share in the children’s excitement, please view our photos of this special day on our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/gesuschool.
As you may know, Gesu School serves 450 students in Pre-K through 8th grade in our surrounding North Philadelphia neighborhoods, including the three poorest zip codes in Philadelphia. Inspired by the Jesuit and IHM traditions of social justice, faith, hope and love, Gesu School strives, without selective admissions, to provide a quality, innovative education for its neighbor children to empower them to break the cycle of poverty and violence.
We invite you to learn more about Gesu by exploring our website, www.gesuschool.org, or visiting our school. To arrange a tour, to learn about volunteer opportunities, or to discover other ways to give, please contact our Development Office at 215 763 9077.
Kudos and thanks to all who helped to support this wonderful ministry of OSJ, to Gesu School!
With my esteem and prayers,
© 2016 Fr. Philip A. Florio, S.J.
Pastor
