My mission is to share the wisdom and experiences gained over a lifetime dedicated to faith, service, and personal growth. In my retirement, I will use this platform to offer reflections, insights, and stories from my 80 years of life, 54 years as a priest, and 13 years as a bishop. Through openness and humility, I aim to inspire, educate, and resonate with readers, seeking the Holy Spirit’s guidance in all that I write. May this endeavor bring glory to God and foster a sense of shared journey and mutual understanding among all who read.
Bishop Ray’s Blog
Finding Meaning in Each Day
Stay up to date with the latest from our blog.
-
What I learned from my Parish Priests – How to help people!
Read more: What I learned from my Parish Priests – How to help people!Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Astoria, NY known as “The Mother Church of Queens County” Every young person has heroes growing up – not just the ones you buy from the deli. The kind of heroes I’m referring to are those kind of people – larger than life – to whom you look up to and want to imitate and emulate. Sports heroes are perennially fashionable. For me, it was the Brooklyn Dodgers Baseball team beginning in 1955. To have great players and extraordinary human beings like Jackie Robinson, Gil Hodges, Pee Wee Reese, and other greats…
-
Post-Ordination Studies – A need to learn more!
Read more: Post-Ordination Studies – A need to learn more!Ordination to the Priesthood in 1971 for the Diocese of Brooklyn was an extraordinarily grace-filled moment. After many years of prayer, study, and preparation – intellectual and pastoral skills would now come together in service to God’s people as one of His Priests. It was an exciting time in the Church. We were young, enthusiastic, and energetic. We wanted to do our part; to help people get closer to God and know and feel His love. My first assignment as a newly ordained priest was to a beach community in Rockaway Beach, New York. We were the only…
-
Going to school on Saturdays – We made it work!
Read more: Going to school on Saturdays – We made it work!Cathedral Preparatory Seminary, Clinton Hill, Brooklyn It was an unusual system of education, but we had to deal with it if we wanted to attend. Cathedral Prep Seminary in Brooklyn was the “minor seminary” as it was called since it’s inception in 1914. It was known as a “day hop” seminary. We went there because we thought that God might possibly be calling us to be priests. Entering the school as a High School Freshman in 1959, there were about 150 of us, freshly graduated from the eighth grade in various parochial schools. The first thing we noticed…
-
Summers in Mastic Beach – An unforgettable time!
Read more: Summers in Mastic Beach – An unforgettable time!The Chappetto brothers in front of their Mastic Beach bungalow in 1960: front, Richie, left, and Tom; back, Raymond, left, Charlie and Lou. It all began on Memorial Day in the year 1950 when my parents put down a deposit of $50 on a beautiful bungalow in Mastic Beach. It seemed like an enormous amount of money to spend on a house, but compared to today’s standards, $3800 was dirt cheap for a summer get-a-way place. There were four boys in the family at that time, with the fifth boy to be born one year later. Well, this purchase…
Bishop Ray's Blog 