As St. Matthew School, Edison, celebrates its 70th anniversary this academic year, the faculty and staff of the pre-K through eighth grade school dedicate each day to the intellectual, moral and spiritual growth of their students.
If one is looking for the secret to material success – to being rich, prosperous, and powerful, our Biblical readings this Sunday provide little help. On the other hand, if one desires to be Christ-like, to reflect the love God has so abundantly bestowed upon us, then these readings very clearly point the way.
The celebration of Black History Month can serve as a powerful opportunity for evangelization within the Catholic Church, highlighting the diverse richness of our faith’s history and its impact on all communities.
Nearly 40 years ago, in his 1987 encyclical, On Social Concern [Sollicitudo rei Socialis], St. John Paul II defined solidarity as “the firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the common good; that is to say, to the good of all and of each individual, because we are all really responsible for all.”
When I was growing up, the conventional wisdom was that you had fulfilled your obligation to attend Sunday Mass if you arrived before the Gospel was proclaimed and stayed until you had received Communion.
Saint Peter’s University Hospital, New Brunswick, has been recognized as one of America’s Best Hospitals by the Women’s Choice Award®. This award signifies that Saint Peter’s University Hospital is one of the top healthcare providers in the country based on a review of almost 5,000 hospitals.
While many kids get into basketball at a young age simply because they’re tall, or because their parents encouraged them, Aiden Ur found a love for the game through good old-fashioned trial and error.
Some 35 local and national Christian, Muslim and Jewish faith leaders gathered in St. Lucy Parish in the Archdiocese of Newark on Jan. 13 for a prayer service and open discussion on the proposed mass deportation of undocumented immigrants and the expected fall out of family separations.
Happy New Year! Our Holy Father has proclaimed a Jubilee Year for 2025, marking the 2,025th anniversary of the Birth of Jesus. Generally, Jubilee years are held each 25 years to mark the important milestone related to our Savior’s birth. Jubilee years are meant to be a time of grace, a time to deepen our friendship with Jesus.
On Christmas Eve, the faithful of the Diocese attended Mass with expectant hearts in anticipation of the Birth of Christ. On that day, the date marked something else that was extraordinary.
Citing Advent as a time of preparation, Bishop James F. Checchio told members of St. Peter the Apostle Parish and University Community, New Brunswick, it was an appropriate time to install their new pastor, Father Michael K. Tabernero.
The phone rang in my office last week and the caller made my day. “Hi, Mary. I’m so glad you are there. I’d like to order a gift subscription to The Catholic Spirit for my friend. She loves the paper but can’t always get to church to get it.”
As Director of the Office of Pontifical Missions (Propagation of the Faith) for the Diocese of Metuchen, I often receive wonderful notes of gratitude from missionaries worldwide. Allow me to share the following article from the Apostles of Jesus Religious Missionary Institute, Father Andrew Amaruma, AJ.
Joyous Catholics of Filipino descent filled the Cathedral of St. Francis of Assisi, Metuchen, Dec. 23 for the final night of Simbang Gabi, a pre-Christmas novena of Masses to honor the Christ Child through prayer, song and tradition.
When Sister Gabriela of the Incarnation, a Carmelite sister in Flemington, read some time ago of people in England arrested for praying silently near abortion clinics, she thought how ridiculous it was to think that prison bars could hold back prayers. “They were just standing there, praying!” she said. But she recognized what these silent witnesses had accomplished: they had called attention for those who might enter the clinic to the fact that they were not alone, that they were accompanied by the prayers of many.
Consecrated life is a call from God to a lifetime of radical discipleship shaped by the evangelical counsels of chastity, poverty and obedience, commonly known as religious vows. These vows are not simply vows, but a way of life aims to embody the life of Jesus Christ on earth while giving witness to a prophetic message of hope anchored in the promises for a life of happiness with God. Consecrated life is a journey to be walked, not alone, but in communion with all heading toward heaven. While on the way, with God’s help, one works on personal holiness as well as on aiding each other to achieve sainthood as Church, the Bride of Christ. The human experience of the journey of life here and now could be scarred by psychological, emotional, social and physical suffering, not to mention the hardship brought about by wars and natural disasters.
Everyday when I get to my office, the first thing I do is place a few drops of frankincense oil in a small jar set before an image of the Holy Family and a number of other icons. On the Feast of Epiphany, known also as Three Kings Day, I decided to do a little research on frankincense – one of the gifts to the Holy Family after Jesus’ birth.
Many of us notice how the neighbors who put up their Christmas decorations right after Thanksgiving, are often found taking these down the day after Christmas. They do not even leave these up until the Baptism of the Lord, the last day of liturgical season of Christmas. When we consider how much work often goes into outdoor lights, the Nativity Scene indoors and the Christmas Tree, it seems so sad that just a few days after the bleak winter solstice, people are in a rush to take down and pack away these beautiful symbols of the Yuletide Season. That is, of course, if you are not of eastern European descent.
There is a story about the renowned symphony conductor, Arturo Toscanini. It is said that during the rehearsal with a symphony orchestra, Toscanini suddenly stopped the whole orchestra in mid-measure and announced accusingly, “I cannot hear ze second floot!” In the flood of music of a hundred-piece orchestra, Toscanini’s refined ear had perceived that a sound was lacking: the sound of a secondary instrument. Those missing notes of one line of music distorted the whole harmony. It was not that the second flute was playing the wrong notes. There was nothing incorrect in its line of melody. It was simply not bearing its part of the harmony, and it is the harmony that makes the symphony.
