This weekend we celebrate the Solemnity of Corpus Christi – the Most Holy Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. We are reminded of the centrality of the Eucharist in our lives, making this the perfect weekend for the bishops to have removed the dispensation to attend Mass on Sunday and Holy days of Obligation. We welcome back those of you whom we haven’t seen in a long while, and for those of you still unable to come out for one reason or another, we continue our prayer with and for you during these challenging times.
As I mentioned last week, Friday night saw the graduation of the forty-three members of the SBS Class of 2021. We wish them the best as they advance to one of the many high schools in our area that our graduates choose to attend. May the Lord bless them, their families, and keep them safe.
This weekend also marks the ordination of Deacon Reginald Joy Ballacillo to the priesthood. He is the only priest ordained for our diocese this year and, as we ordained no transitional deacons this year, we will ordain no priests next year. We need to continue our prayer for vocations and support for seminarians, as the number of retirements from active pastoral ministry continues to well out-pace ordinations in our diocese. There is a diocesan discernment event planned for Tuesday, June 29th, at St. John parish in Allentown. If you or someone you know is discerning a call or is open to the conversation about priesthood, please have him give a call to either Father JM or myself. Thank you.
We are fortunate to have a seminarian assigned to our parish for the summer. Mr. Anthony Gentile, a parishioner at St. Thomas More, Manalapan, has completed his college seminary studies at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary (Wynnewood, PA) and is entering his first year of theological formation there this coming semester. He will join us the weekend of June 19th-20th and will remain with us through July. When his family first moved to New Jersey from Brooklyn they settled temporarily in Aberdeen and worshipped here for one year before they moved to Manalapan. For Anthony, then, this is a bit of a homecoming.
We are also happy to report that our bishop has recovered from his illness, and came out of the hospital on Tuesday. With a new regimen of medications he will be able to return to his full schedule shortly. He thanks all of us for our prayerful support during his time in hospital and now as he recovers.
With the opening of churches to full capacity, we are now able to also celebrate multiple baptisms at one celebration and to expand attendance for weddings and funerals. Perhaps this is a good time to remind you that if you lost a loved one during the past year and have not scheduled a Memorial Mass, that you can make contact with the parish office to do so. While not required, a Memorial Mass is a fitting way to bring closure to the life of our loves ones, especially those who were faithful in their Mass attendance. We are happy to accommodate you and walk with you on this journey. Similarly, if you are holding on to the cremated remains (cremains) of a loved one, please make arrangements for their interment and make contact with the parish office for the assistance of a deacon or priest in the ritual.
It has been an awkward time for many of us, and many of the celebrations and rites of passage that we so took for granted have either been limited or unavailable to us during these days. Hopefully getting “back to normal” includes the practice of our faith and the rituals that provide us with grace, familiarity, and comfort, while themselves being efficacious on our behalf and that of others.
May we be strengthened through the Eucharist to remain faithful disciples,
Fr. Garry