Dear St. John Paul II Families,

Over the past week, we were quite busy here at StJPII! Thank you for your support and participation in conference days and in the wonderful events that brought our community together. It was so great to see many of you at Trunk or Treat and our 19 th Annual Run with the Saints 5K in memory of Lauren Lockard! I am always so humbled to see how everyone works together to make these events better and better every year.  I can’t give enough thanks to our wonderful staff and parent volunteers for all their hard work!
 
I was overjoyed with the outpouring of parents and students who came out to support the Soccer and Volleyball teams in the final round heading to the Championship! Thank you for sharing our SAINT PRIDE! Congrats to both of the TEAMS, Soccer taking home the GHCAA Championship and Volleyball placing Second in GHCAA! WAY to GO Saints on a great season!

As you take your little ones to celebrate this evening, whether at church, through your neighborhood, a friend’s house, I encourage you all to have fun and to be safe. As we are a community of saints, I thought, I’d also share a few things about Halloween.
 
Halloween, or All Hallows Eve, designates the vigil of All Hallows Day which is more frequently called All Saints Day. Both All Hallows Eve and All Saints Day have been celebrated since Pope Gregory III in the early eighth century. A century later, Pope Gregory IV extended it to the church and made All Saints Day a Holy Day of Obligation.
 
Tomorrow, we will celebrate Mass and see our “youngest saints” as they dress up in their Saints costume to pay homage to our heroes in the church.  I would like to wish all of you a Happy All Saints Day in advance!

As October comes to a close, I would love to share one last quote from St. Therese for us to hold true to throughout the year!

 “Miss no single opportunity of making some small sacrifice, here by a smiling look, there by a kindly word; always doing the smallest right and doing it all for love.”


In Him we trust,