Farewell to St. Brendan’s!
It is a bittersweet moment that I bid farewell to St. Brendan’s as my spiritual home and the community I have truly grown to love these last few years. I would like to share with you wonderful moments that have touched my heart.
St. Brendan’s schoolchildren prepared BOTH birthday cards and farewell cards for me this year, treasures forever. ( I have already re-read the birthday cards a few times. As a team, the St. Brendan’s staff and volunteer organizations helped us to restore the parish to the wonderful physical and financial status I remember as a child, ( my grandmother lived further up Rockaway and my aunt and uncle and cousins lived less than a block away on Ulloa St.). I remember throughout my life referring to St. Brendan’s parish community and facilities as the “Crown jewels of the Archdiocese”.
I will miss the shouts from very young children as I both proceeded into Church or recessed out, asking for a “high five”. Some of the smallest children had quite a whack! I will miss the school boys and girls playing on the lawn and the tree in front of Church, alternatively referred to as the “boy tree” or the “girl tree” depending upon who was highest in the branches. (It was never called the Fr. Mike tree!).
I will miss the impressive results of both the St. Brendan’s Mothers’ Club and the St. Brendan’s Men’s Club. They have very different styles. I still believe the Mothers’ club could end world hunger! I remain impressed at the cheerful sense of community and camaraderie that are ever present in the Men’s Club as they work to edify the St. Brendan community in visible and behind-the – scenes service jobs, always with cheerful enthusiasm and success.
I will miss a community with whom I have shared many joys, seasons and even sorrows as we have collaboratively worked to keep God in our lives and keep our faith strong. I will miss the joyful shouts of the kindergarten children as they receive a retrieved ball that has fallen outside the fence and I toss it back. You’d think they were made of gold!
I will miss the very intimate moments of being invited into people’s lives in moments of illness or hospitalization and even sharing the last precious minutes of a person’s life. Believe it or not, I remember each of these special moments. I will miss the opportunity to promote Riordan High School, although if one were to ask the children I always thank a Catholic School child/ high-schooler for “wearing their colors”. I believe it means more than the colors; it speaks of pride in faith! I will miss being invited to special moments with families. But most of all, I WILL MISS EACH and EVERY ONE OF YOU! Please consider St. Mary, Star of the Sea another “home”. My cell phone number is 415-246-5535 and personal email address is frmquinn@gmail.com. Feel free to contact me.
Thank you for the best years of my life.
With All my Love,
Fr. Mike Quinn
P.S. Thank you, Fr. Dan, and all the volunteers for a wonderful send-off.
