Third Sunday of Easter, April 18
Link: https://youtu.be/Dov8CeEpMB8
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Returning to Grace , a Pastoral Letter on the Eucharist from Cardinal Joseph Tobin, Archbishop of Newark.
Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
When church historians write about the Year of Our Lord 2020, I predict they will call particular attention to the “Great Eucharistic Fast.” COVID-19, the pandemic that has taken the lives of millions, obliged dioceses throughout the world to take the unprecedented action of closing our churches and effectively denying our people the opportunity to receive Christ’s Body and Blood in the Eucharist. Some scholars may point out that, as a result, Catholics in Europe and North America experienced what others have suffered for many years due to a shortage of priests or outright persecution, namely, the absence of the sacraments... Click here to read Cardinal Tobin's complete pastoral letter or click below to watch an introduction from Cardinal Tobin.
News Site for the Archdiocese
The Archdiocese of Newark has launched a news website for the entirety of the faithful of the Archdiocese. It strives to inform, inspire and educate readers by sharing stories of our Church and mission in an effort to build our communities of faith.
The Scholarship Fund for Inner-City Children
2021-2022 Tuition Assistance Application NOW OPEN
The Scholarship Fund for Inner-City Children is trying to assist families who would like to send their children to one of the Catholic schools in our parishes. Our tuition assistance application is now open for new and re-applying families.
Click here to go to our website and donate now!
Thank you for your assistance!
Jasmin Roman
Director of Scholarship Programs
Accountability with Heartfelt Thanks
Catholic Charities received a payment of $1,357 as a result of your donations from June 1, 2020 to November 30, 2020. These funds combined with monies from parishes throughout the Archdiocese enabled Catholic Charities to provide 72,685 nights of shelter to 1,342 to homeless individuals and families (FY 19/20). Thank you for being our partner and enabling us to bring Christ's love to the most vulnerable in our society.
Mass Guidelines
-
Sunday Mass times will be as they were
-
Arriving at Sunday Mass
- Enter front doors. The side door will be locked
- Wear a mask as you enter the Church
- Both the inner and outer doors will be open
(Only for Sunday Masses)
- You can pick up a song sheet, which you will take
home with you after Mass
- Do not sit within 6 feet of somebody unless you
live with them
-
During Mass: Liturgy of the Word
- There will be no entrance procession. The priest and ministers will be seated before Mass
- If you need to read along during Mass, please bring your own missal or use a phone app
-
During Mass: Liturgy of the Eucharist
- There will be no offertory procession
- We will ask you to place your offering in the baskets as you leave or exit the Church
- The bread and wine will be in the sanctuary
- The sign of peace will continue to be touch-less unless you live with the person
- Communion will continue to be distributed only in the form of the Precious Body
- Receiving Communion in the mouth is now forbidden
- Masks need to be worn as you approach the altar to receive Communion
- There will only be one line approaching the altar for Communion
- People in rows on each side will alternate coming out into single row in center aisle
- Please keep social distancing by following the markers on the floor
- Those in side pews will continue the practice of coming across center pews maintaining social distance
- After the final blessing, please exit the church one row at a time
SCHEDULES
Regular Masses
Sunday:
8:00AM, 10:00AM, 12:00PM
Weekdays:
Monday through Friday:
12:05 PM
First Saturday Mass
12:05 PM in the Church
Holy Days
(Except Christmas and Easter): 8:00 AM, 12:05 PM, 7:00 PM
Mass followed by Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament and Benediction every 3rd Wednesday of the month at 6:00 pm
Confessions
Saturdays 1:00 - 2:00 PM
Experience God’s Mercy. Celebrate the Grace-Filled Sacrament of Reconciliation
Contact Us
Parish Center (Monday to Friday):
Tel: 201-641-2988
Fax: 201-641-0664
Rectory (By appointment only):
201-641-2988
Religious Education (Sunday to Thursday):
201-641-3937
Pope Francis’ Prayer Intention
For April 2021
Fundamental Rights
We pray for those who risk their lives while fighting for fundamental rights under dictatorships, authoritarian regimes and even in democracies in crisis.
Pope Francis proclaims 'Year of St. Joseph
With the Apostolic letter 'Patris Corde' ('With A Father's Heart'), Pope Francis recalls the 150th anniversary of the declaration of St. Joseph as the Patron of the Universal Church. To mark the occasion, the Holy Father has proclaimed a 'Year of St. Joseph' from 8 December 2020 to 8 December 2021.
New in the Area?
If you are new in the area, why not join our ever-growing Parish family. Stop by the Parish Center any weekday and register. Click on this link to download the form or call us at 201-641-2988
POSTER BOARD
The month of April is dedicated to the Holy Spirit
To believe in the Holy Spirit is to profess that the Holy Spirit is one of the persons of the Holy Trinity, consubstantial with the Father and the Son: "with the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified." (Catechism of the Catholic Church)
The Holy Spirit is the Person of Love in the life of God. He is also like a breath, an aspiration of infinite Love, from which we draw the breath of life.
The Proper Name of the Holy Spirit
"Holy Spirit" is the proper name of the one whom we adore and glorify with the Father and the Son. The Church has received this name from the Lord and professes it in the Baptism of her new children.
The term "Spirit" translates the Hebrew word ruah, which in its primary sense, means breath, air, wind. Jesus indeed uses the sensory image of the wind to suggest to Nicodemus the transcendent newness of him who is personally God's breath, the divine Spirit. On the other hand, "Spirit" and "Holy" are divine attributes common to the three divine persons. By joining the two terms, Scripture, liturgy, and theological language designate the inexpressible person of the Holy Spirit, without any possible equivocation with other uses of the terms "spirit" and "holy."
Titles of the Holy Spirit
When he proclaims and promises the coming of the Holy Spirit, Jesus calls him the "Paraclete," literally, "he who is called to one's side," ad-vocatus. "Paraclete" is commonly translated by "consoler," and Jesus is the first consoler. The Lord also called the Holy Spirit "the Spirit of truth."
Besides the proper name of "Holy Spirit," which is most frequently used in the Acts of the Apostles and in the Epistles, we also find in St. Paul the titles: the Spirit of the promise, the Spirit of adoption, the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of the Lord, and the Spirit of God — and, in St. Peter, the Spirit of glory.
Excerpted from the Catechism of the Catholic Church
Symbols of the Holy Spirit
Water. The symbolism of water signifies the Holy Spirit's action in Baptism.
Anointing. The symbolism of anointing with oil also signifies the Holy Spirit, to the point of
becoming a synonym for the Holy Spirit.
Fire. While water signifies birth and the fruitfulness of life given in the Holy Spirit, fire symbolizes the transforming energy of the Holy Spirit's actions.
Cloud and light. These two images occur together in the manifestations of the Holy Spirit.
The seal is a symbol close to that of anointing. "The Father has set his seal" on Christ and also seals us in him.
The hand. Jesus heals the sick and blesses little children by laying hands on them. In his name the apostles will do the same. Even more pointedly, it is by the Apostles' imposition of hands that the Holy Spirit is given.
The finger. "It is by the finger of God that [Jesus] cast out demons." If God's law was written on tablets of stone "by the finger of God," then the "letter from Christ" entrusted to the care of the apostles, is written "with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts." e hymn Veni Creator Spiritus invokes the Holy Spirit as the "finger of the Father's right hand."
The dove. At the end of the flood, whose symbolism refers to Baptism, a dove released by Noah returns with a fresh olive-tree branch in its beak as a sign that the earth was again habitable. When Christ comes up from the water of his baptism, the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove, comes down upon him and remains with him. e Spirit comes down and remains in the purified hearts of the baptized.
Excerpted from the Catechism of the Catholic Church
Veni, Creator Spiritus (Come Holy Spirit, Creator Blest)
One of the most widely used hymns in the Church, Veni, Creator Spiritus, is attributed to Rabanus Maurus; (776-856). It is used at Vespers, Pentecost, Dedication of a Church, Confirmation, and Holy Orders and whenever the Holy Spirit is solemnly invoked. A partial indulgence is granted to the faithful who recite it. A plenary indulgence is granted if it is recited on January 1st or on the feast of Pentecost.
Come, Holy Spirit, Creator blest, and in our souls take up Thy rest; come with TThy grace and heavenly aid to fill the hearts which Thou hast made.
O comforter, to Thee we cry, O heavenly gift of God Most High, O fount of life and fire of love, and sweet anointing from above.
Thou in Thy sevenfold gifts are known; Thou, finger of God's hand we own; Thou, promise of the Father, Thou Who dost the tongue with power imbue.
Kindle our sense from above, and make our hearts o'erflow with love; with patience firm and virtue high the weakness of our flesh supply.
Far from us drive the foe we dread, and grant us Thy peace instead; so shall we not, with Thee for guide, turn from the path of life aside.
Oh, may Thy grace on us bestow the Father and the Son to know; and Thee, through endless times confessed, of both the eternal Spirit blest.
Now to the Father and the Son, Who rose from death, be glory given, with ou, O Holy Comforter, henceforth by all in earth and heaven. Amen.
Divine Mercy Sunday is a relatively new addition to the Roman Catholic
liturgical calendar. Divine Mercy Sunday is celebrated on the Octave of Easter (the
eighth day of Easter; that is, the Sunday after Easter Sunday). Celebrating the Divine
Mercy of Jesus Christ, as revealed by Christ Himself to St. Maria Faustina Kowalska,
this feast was extended to the entire Catholic Church by Pope John Paul II on April 30,
2000, the day that he canonized Saint Faustina. Christ's Divine Mercy is the love that
He has for mankind, despite our sins that separate us from Him.
The History of Divine Mercy Sunday
The Octave, or eighth day, of Easter has always been considered special by Christians. Christ, after His Resurrection, revealed Himself to His disciples, but Saint Thomas wasn't with them. He declared that he would never believe that Christ had risen from
the dead until he could see Him in the flesh and probe Christ's wounds with his own hands. This earned him the name "Doubting Thomas."
A week after Christ rose from the dead, He appeared once again to His disciples, and this time Thomas was
there. His doubt was vanquished, and he professed His belief in Christ.
Nineteen centuries later, Christ appeared to a Polish nun, Sr. Maria Faustina Kowalska,
in a series of visions that took place over almost eight years. Among those visions,
Christ revealed the Divine Mercy Novena, which He asked Sister Faustina to pray for
nine days, beginning on Good Friday. That meant that the novena ended on the
Saturday after Easter — the eve of the Octave of Easter. Thus, since novenas are
commonly prayed in advance of a feast, the Feast of Divine Mercy — Divine Mercy
Sunday — was born.
Indulgences for Divine Mercy Sunday
A plenary indulgence (the forgiveness of all temporal punishment resulting from sins that have already been confessed) is granted on the Feast of Divine Mercy if to all the faithful who go to Confession, receive Holy Communion, pray for the intentions of the Holy Father, and "in any church or chapel, in a spirit that is completely detached from the affection for a sin, even a venial sin, take part in the prayers and devotions held in honour of Divine Mercy, or who, in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament exposed or reserved in the tabernacle, recite the Our Father and the Creed, adding a devout prayer to the merciful Lord Jesus (e.g. 'Merciful Jesus, I trust in you!')."
A partial indulgence (the remission of some temporal punishment from sin) is granted to the faithful "who, at
least with a contrite heart, pray to the merciful Lord Jesus a legitimately approved invocation."
