The thirteenth session of the St. Paul’s Spiritual Enhancement Series took place on Wednesday, June 23, 2021, over Zoom conferencing. The theme was, “The Gift of Our Fathers.” Joe Amato led a discussion with three Cursillistas: John Asselta, Jim White & Conor Godfrey. Connecting with last month’s theme about mothers, this session was a great opportunity to reflect on fathers. 

Jim White was our first guest for the St. Paul’s Spiritual Enhancement Series. He is has devoted his life to helping young people in crisis overcome their circumstances to move forward to a future and a life that is good as the Executive Director of Covenant House. He began his career with there in 1982. Jim demonstrates the unconditional love of God to the young people of Covenant House, his staff, and the wonderful donors who make it possible for us to continue this important work.

A graduate of Siena College (’73), John Asselta was a religion teacher and guidance counselor at Xaverian High School (Brooklyn) and St. Francis Prep (Queens) in the 1970’s. After working for the Muscular Dystrophy Association, coordinating the NY portion of the Labor Day Telethon, John became the Director of Meeting and Travel Services for KPMG where he worked for 23 years. John has been involved in producing    Covenant House’s fundraising event, “ A Night of Broadway Stars,” held across the country over the past 15 years, helping to raise more than $26 million dollars for Covenant House’s mission to help young people move from homelessness to hope.

Having spent the better part of the last two decades on Wall Street, Conor Godfrey has a profound understanding of the struggles of working in today’s Corporate America. He is now a consultant for FranChoice, mentoring and ultimately helping his candidates to find their own fulfillment and happiness through franchise ownership. He is married to his wonderful wife, Doreen, and has three daughters. Conor made Cursillo #230 in March 2019.

These three amazing men showed pure honesty, vulnerability and candor, talking about their fathers & the gifts & challenges of being fathers. Having a close  relationship with our three guests, Joe Amato asked them very introspective  questions. Thanks to them for strengthening or faith and challenging us!

If you were unable to attend the session, you can watch a recording of it on the  St. Paul’s Community YouTube channel. Subscribe to the channel if you haven’t already! The link to the session is https://youtu.be/RdO2oPt1TpU.

We’ll be resuming this great series in September – thank you for all the attendance and support over these last 13 months – and share this video with the people in your lives to bring them to Cursillo!