Every year, beginning on July 27, we pray a novena to the patron of parish priests. The novena concludes on August 4 (feast day of St. John Vianney). The novena prayer is recited at the 12:05PM Mass on weekdays (Mon-Sat) and after 11:15AM Sunday Mass.
Our novena program includes other traditions as well. One is that parishioners select one of the seminarians in the Diocese of Brooklyn/Queens and make him their prayer intention.
Novena Prayer Booklet and Seminarians 2023
Another tradition is that we welcome a newly ordained diocesan priest to celebrate Mass with us. This year, Father Samuel Mwiwawi, who was ordained by Bishop Robert Brennan on June 3, 2023, will celebrate the 11:15AM Mass on Sunday, July 30. After Mass, he will lead us in the day’s novena prayer, and parishioners are then invited to the Saints Chapel to receive a First Blessing from Father Mwiwawi.
Born and raised a Catholic in Kenya, Samuel Mwiwawi studied philosophy and theology in Kenya and Uganda. He also learned to help teach the Gospel to the hearing-impaired among his community. He subsequently joined the Dominican Missionaries for the Apostolates of the Deaf and Disabled in New Jersey. He went on to attend the Pope John XXIII National Seminary in Massachusetts for a year before his eventual service to the Diocese of Brooklyn and Queens, where he began work in 2018 helping to interpret sign language. He served as a transitional deacon at St. Bernard in Mill Basin, Brooklyn. He is fluent in American Sign Language and is currently assigned to Immaculate Conception Parish in Astoria.
