On November 11th, 2023, ninety three people gathered together to celebrate at the Saint Paul’s Cursillo Communion Breakfast. This Cursillo family was able to pray together, receive the Eucharist and then enjoy a wonderful meal with their fellow Cursillistas.

In the past few years, this event has been held at the Immaculate Conception Center in Douglaston. However, due to a new policy, we were not able to use that facility. Luckily, we found a beautiful church at Our Lady of the Snows parish in Floral Park. This church was going to be the setting for the Mass.

However, as often happens, due to the unexpected scheduling of two funerals and two weddings in the church that day, the Communion breakfast was held in the lower level hall and school cafeteria. As always, the people of Saint Paul’s Center just rolled with the punches and we had a wonderful mass in the large hall and then a delicious breakfast / brunch in the school cafeteria decorated for the Thanksgiving season. It was decided to have a combination breakfast/ brunch meal and this was catered by Iavarone Brothers. Nothing but great compliments were heard with reference to the food and many people brought food home when they left that afternoon.

Monsignor Thomas Caserta was the celebrant and our guest speaker for this event. Monsignor Caserta has a long history with Saint Paul’s Center starting with his attending the co-ed Young Adult Christian Awakening program in 1972. Since that time, he held many different positions at Saint Paul’s Center leading up to becoming the Director of Saint Paul’s when it was located on Humboldt St. He has also served as a faculty member at the college level seminary, a pastor at parishes in Brooklyn and now that he is retired, he continues to teach theology at St. John’s University.

Many people commented on how wonderful his homily was at the mass. He brought the readings to life and was able to relate them to both our daily existence and our St. Paul’s experience.

As the guest speaker during the luncheon, Tom chose to talk about the obligation, the responsibilities and the joy every person can experience during their 4th day. He spoke about the need for prayer, study and action and that each individual should be challenged by the phrase many of us heard on our weekends “Christ is counting on you.”

Hopefully this event will continue to be well supported by the Saint Paul’s family as it is a wonderful opportunity for old friends and new friends to pray, worship and enjoy each other’s company.