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There is no question that winter has set in! The cold and icy weather has been a great remedy for the cabin fever I am experiencing after my recent surgery. Things have been going well and, by and large, I am feeling pretty well. Other than some discomfort near the incision marks, I feel pretty much like my old self. Read more.

This weekend as we celebrate the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord we bring a close to the Christmas Season. It seems like the season sped by quickly this year, but then in my current situation, the passing of time seems to be really off anyway. Nonetheless, we have a nice stretch now of Ordinary Time until we begin Lent on Ash Wednesday (March 2nd). This time of the year affords us an opportunity to prepare ourselves for Lent and to slow down between the extremes of the liturgical seasons. Easter is relatively late this year (April 17th). Hopefully we can have many of our concerns about the pandemic behind us by then. Read more.

Happy New Year! I am sure that many of, or most of us, are happy to put 2021 behind us and move on now to the new year ahead. As you no doubt have come to know, the year ended for me on a challenging note. I am exceedingly grateful to Fr. AL for carrying the ball in my absence. On December 7th, suffering with a great deal of discomfort I consulted our school nurse who strongly advised I get to the ER. This I did, and before I knew it, and after a lot of poking, testing, and imaging, I was transferred to Jersey Shore Medical Center for open heart by-pass surgery. It’s been interesting - first the waiting, and now the slow recovery. It will be another month or so before I can resume a full and normal schedule. Thank you for all of the prayers and support during these challenging days. The staff of both the parish and school offices have done a remarkable job in filling in the gaps in my absence. I’m just hoping that they haven’t gotten so good at my job that they don’t need me! Read more.

And so it is. In the whirlwind of a moment, Christmas is over. I think it funny that we are so diligent in choosing the perfect gifts and getting them beautifully wrapped and it all gets ripped apart and thrown away in an instant. Such is the fleeting nature of things. Read more.

Today we observed the Fourth Sunday of Advent. Fortunately this year we get to celebrate an entire week of Advent instead of just a few days. This is good for our preparations, both secular and religious! Nonetheless, this week we will celebrate the great festivities and Christmas. Read more.

Is it just me, or does it seem like Advent is flying by?! Here we are, the Third Week of Advent, with the familiar rose colored vestments as a reminder to us of the great joy we celebrate as we anticipate the coming feasts and the end of our penitential period. Read more.

Advent is off to a quick start here. Thank you to all who came to the Christmas tree lighting this past weekend, and a special thanks to those who supported the Knights of Columbus through the purchase and dedication of the Christmas trees along the property. This addition really makes the property feel warm and ready for Christmas! Read more.

Happy Advent! Our four-week journey to the Christmas Season begins this weekend. We are fortunate this year to get four full weeks of Advent as Christmas falls on a Saturday. Thank you all for your contributions to the giving trees and for the success of the annual RAINE Foundation Thanksgiving celebration. It is good to see all of these annual events continue to thrive during these challenging days. The Advent Season comes with a few important events that we should put on our calendars. Next Friday night, December 3rd we have our annual Christmas Tree Lighting event here in the parking lot at 6:00 p.m. This is always a fun evening – a good family event and one that happens quickly enough as the children don’t get too antsy! There is a “special guest” arriving in style to make the evening even more exciting. That same guest will appear again to spend some time visiting with the children at the Knights of Columbus Breakfast on Sunday, December 12th. Read more.

Happy Thanksgiving! The beginning of the holiday season is always festive and exciting, and I look forward to this time of the year. I hope that, unlike last year, you will all be able to celebrate the holiday with the family and friends who would typically grace your table. I will be in Pennsylvania with my Mother and whomever else she has managed to invite this year, for the holiday, and a few other days this week. For many reasons I guess, this is really my favorite holiday of the year. Read more.

We have been observing Vocation Awareness Week, recognizing our need to continue to encourage and invite men to consider a priestly vocation. The “Called by Name” cards are available at the doors of the church. Please consider carefully putting forth names of those who you feel might be open to responding to the Lord’s call. At this moment we have all of eleven seminarians for our diocese. With ninety-eight parishes and only 121 active priests, this is a non-sustainable situation. Hopefully, with the grace of the Holy Spirit, and the blessed efforts of the vocations team, we will be able to turn that around. I also ask that you continue to pray for our seminarians. It is not easy for men to discern a priestly vocation these days as there is often little support even from family and friends. Read more.

As November is the month of the Poor Souls I thought this an opportune time to talk about an issue that is increasingly presenting itself to us in the parish here, and in other parishes throughout the country. Many times we are getting requests for a Funeral Service Outside of Mass to be celebrated in a funeral home. While this is understandable in certain circumstances, as a general rule a Catholic has both the right and the obligation for a Funeral Mass to be celebrated in their parish church. Read more.

Our campus has been busy over the past two weeks with the presence of public servants offering information programs to the youngest students in our school, from pre-K-3 through second grade. The Holmdel Police Department sent a cruiser and other vehicles to show to the students, while discussing safety and protection skills with them. They also visited with students and offered them tips on how to remain safe and vigilant during Halloween festivities. The EMS and Fire Department also sent vehicles and offered the students an opportunity to learn about fire safety and the work that they all do to keep us safe. We are grateful to these dedicated public servants who take the time to come here and offer instruction and be a friendly face to the children. It is important that they learn to put their trust in public servants and to see them as safe and friendly if they should ever be in need. We are grateful for all of the assistance we receive from the local police, fire and EMS squads, and especially to the Holmdel Police who are so often present on our property, insuring the safety of our property and the people who pass through here each day. Read more.

We are approaching now the last week of October and the liturgical year is quickly coming to a close, as Advent looms quick on the horizon. We are grateful for the many of you who responded with generosity in enrolling for the various ministries of the parish at our Ministry Fair. If you missed the opportunity and are still interested, please make contact with the parish office. We are still especially in need of Ministers of Holy Communion to serve the nursing homes in our area. We would also like to be able to open the food pantry more than just three hours on a Wednesday. If you have any time to volunteer please let us know. Over the past year we have done some significant remodeling of the pantry so that both volunteers and clients feel safe given the protocols for the pandemic. Read more.

This weekend marks two particularly poignant moments in the life of the church. One of them is an historical reflection on a past experience with on-going importance for us, and the other is the genesis of a process yet to unfold. Read more.

I have finished my tour of local parishes where I preached about the need to foster a culture of vocations to the priesthood and religious life, so I will be around this weekend. After giving the same basic homily at three to four Masses each weekend for three weekends in a row I am happy to be able to get back into a more normal routine. I have no idea how professional presenters and politicians, or even stand-up comedians can give the same speech or routine day in and day out. I know of course, that I will have to do it again. I will make this presentation here later this fall. Overall at the three parishes that Father Dayton and I visited these past three weeks (St. Joseph, Toms River; St. Dominic, Brick Town; and St. Thomas More, Manalapan/ Our Lady of Mercy, Englishtown) the vibe and our reception was very positive and encouraging. Let us continue our prayers for vocations (as well as prayers for our seminarians and priests) but also know that we have much work to do in this regard. Read more.

Last weekend we had a very positive and exciting beginning to the faith formation year with the families of our Summer Academy students and our eighth grade Confirmation candidates. Thank you to the host of volunteers, our staff, and all of the families that make the commitment to the growth-in-faith of the students in our parish. May the Lord bless all of us with his bounteous love. Read more.

THANK YOU! We had a wonderful Welcome Back event last weekend and came out of it feeling excited and ready for an exciting year ahead. The 50/50 Raffle did extremely well this year, surpassed only by last year’s in terms of total money raised and distributed. Thanks to all who participated and congratulations to the winners. Likewise, the BINGO on Sunday was very successful. Read more.

Hard as it might be to believe this week we say farewell to summer and begin the autumn season. Of course, there doesn’t seem to be any fall weather in the forecast, but with the rapidly diminishing number of daylight hours it is easy to tell that the seasons are changing. Read more.

There weren’t too many tears this week as school opened, and it certainly feels and sounds good to have the students back on campus. We opened with 432 students in grades PreK-3 through 8. Our mobile classroom was delivered and installed this past week, so the PreK-3 students now have their own home. Congratulations and blessings to Mr. Donahue, Mrs. Keeling and all of our teachers, aides, and staff members of SBS. Read more.

Happy Labor Day weekend! I know we call it the unofficial end of summer, but realistically there is still plenty of nice weather ahead. We are excited to welcome the students back to school this week. We seem to be in pretty good shape for the opening of school and, even with all of the protocols in place for the protection of our children it feels much more open and easier than last year. We know there will be challenges going forward, but we are poised to address them as needed. Congratulations to Kevin Donahue our principal, Christine Keeling, our vice-principal and Bob Cognat and his buildings and grounds crew for getting us ready for the school year.