News - December 2024 RSS Feed

What a wonderful time of year as we celebrate the event which changes our world forever – the birth of our Saviour. Yes, Christmas is such an important Solemnity that the Church says we cannot just celebrate it on one day, so we celebrate the Nativity of Our Lord for a whole week. Our prayers for the Masses, especially, reflect this as we pray the prayers of Christmas day all week, until the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God on January 1. The Christmas Season will continue until we celebrate the Baptism of the Lord, this year on Sunday, January 12, and we begin Ordinary Time the next day.

The newly installed pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish, Whitehouse Station, frequently finds himself offering the prayer, “St. Bernadette, pray for us.”

Father Edgar Madarang arrived at St. Mary Parish, Alpha, in March, but the parish used the Feast of Christ the King Nov. 24 to formally install him as pastor.

My brother priest and best friend, Monsignor Edward Puleo, struggled with pancreatic cancer for the past three years. Just a few months prior to his diagnosis he buried his elderly father as well as his only sibling. I was with him the day he was told by his doctor in 2021 that he had only three months to live. He immediately prayed that his dear mom, already advanced in years, would pass before him.

As Mass concluded on a Thursday morning in November, women ranging from new moms to grandmoms trickled into the community room downstairs from the sanctuary at Immaculate Conception Church in Annandale. Soon, the room was buzzing from table to table as the women gathered in groups as part of the parish “Walking with Purpose” Bible study program tailored for women at all stages of life.

On Dec. 7, former St. Francis Cathedral School students from the Class of 2021 collected and donated $700 to the Giuliana Velona Memorial Fund in honor of their beloved classmate who passed away from Chordoma cancer 10 years ago.

Jesus is “the divine physician who came to heal us, the sick, and to make us whole,” a prominent theologian told parishioners at St. Magdalen de Pazzi Parish in Flemington.

Anxious to be part of a new initiative in the Diocese, some sixty to seventy participants gathered at Immaculata High School in Somerville Nov. 23 for a workshop on street evangelization. The training was preceded by Mass celebrated by Msgr. Joseph Celano, pastor, in Immaculate Conception Church, a few blocks from the school. The initiative was organized by Adam Carlisle, diocesan Secretary for Evangelization and Communication.

Six parishes in the Diocese gathered their choirs to join for the return of a pre-COVID tradition: a concert of hymns honoring St. Cecilia, patron saint of music.

When you care enough to send the very best, God-centered charitable works can reach through prison bars to touch the souls of those who live therein. This year, two Hunterdon County parishes teamed up with their Knights of Columbus council to show imprisoned men that they were not forgotten with the donation of more than 2,700 religious and secular Christmas cards intended for use by the inmates of East Jersey State Prison, Rahway.

In 1099 A.D., St. Anselm of Canterbury completed a manuscript entitled Cur Homo Deus, (“Why Did God Become Man?”). This work became the classic treatment of the satisfaction theory of redemption. According to this theory, which is based on the feudal system of society, finite humanity has committed a crime or, more accurately, a sin against the infinite God. In feudal society, an offender was required to make recompense or, better, satisfaction, to the one offended, according to that person’s status. For example, a crime against the king would require more satisfaction than a crime against a duke or a serf, for that matter. Along this way of thinking, finite humanity, which could never make satisfaction to the infinite God, could expect only eternal death.

One of my favorite Scripture verses for Christmas is from the Wisdom of Solomon: “For while gentle silence enveloped all things, and night in its swift course was now half gone, your all-powerful word leaped from heaven, from the royal throne.” (Wis. 18, 14-15) To me, those words perfectly describe the intense anticipation that we feel as we wait for Christmas Midnight Mass to begin. Of course, I know that for the past nine months, Jesus has been curled comfortably in Mary’s womb peacefully sucking his thumb, but there is still that breathless waiting for the instant when heaven leaps down to earth and we realize that he is here now! Emmanuel, forever inseparably one with us!

“The Holy Father can open up the door for graces to flow for a special reason,” Father Timothy A. Christy assured those seated before him inside the Cathedral of St. Francis of Assisi. “It is not magic, it is faith.”

As darkness fell on Sunday, Dec. 8, thousands of white lights on hundreds of Christmas trees on the campus of the Church of the Immaculate Conception illuminated the Somerville sky, giving witness to the coming birth of Jesus Christ. The tree lighting, blessed by parish pastor and director of schools Msgr. Joseph G. Celano, followed an afternoon program of contemplative music and readings for Advent at the church.

With a new year approaching, we have an opportune moment to explore the ever plenteous and fertile terrain of fresh possibilities, intentions and changes. For Catholics, 2025 is also a Jubilee Year, which adds even more impetus for such renewal and reconciliation.

With a reverent blend of tears, laughter, prayer and patriotism, St. Thomas Aquinas High School celebrated the memory of one of its graduates who had accomplished much in his short, faith-filled life. The Edison Catholic school hosted a Nov. 13 prayer service and dedicated the Anthony Raspa Alumni Lounge, named for the Class of 2008 alumnus and New Jersey State Trooper who died in the line of duty in 2015.

In just a few days, Pope Francis will solemnly open the Holy Door of the Papal Basilica of Saint Peter in Rome, formally inaugurating Holy Year 2025. During this time of special grace and opportunity, the Holy Father encourages people throughout the world to become Pilgrims of Hope striving for “a moment of genuine, personal encounter with the Lord Jesus, the “door” (cf. Jn 10:7.9) of our salvation … ” (Francis, Spes Non Confundit, 1).

St. James School, Basking Ridge, honored and prayed for local police officers in Bernards Township and surrounding areas with their annual Blue Mass, held in St. James Church Nov. 27

Franklin D. Gregory passed away at the age of 89 on Dec. 2 in Lebanon, N.J. He did so in the comfort of his Catholic faith and surrounded by the love of his family and friends.

The holiday season can be a wonderful time of year when people get together with friends and family. Especially on Thanksgiving, most show gratitude for those gathered around the table and for the food that is on it. Thanksgiving can definitely be a great day for many, but for some it can be a very lonely time.