Weekly Letter From the Pastor

Dear Fellow Parishioners of St. Benedict:

Since Easter of 2018 the Church has undergone a long and dark Lent. This has been – and continues to be – a time of challenge, pain, and disappointment. As we anticipate Holy Week and Easter of 2019 we do so amidst the eternal promise of hope. This is not a false hope, nor a hope that cannot be realized. We know that with every death comes a resurrection; every failure spawns a success; every loss brings about something new. It is not always to realize in the immediate, but it is the necessary undercurrent of who we are and at the very core of what we believe.

In many ways I believe that all of this experience in the past year will make this coming Holy Week even more poignant and powerful. The Palm Sunday Procession – which begins next weekend in the SBS Gym – begins the dramatic shift to the starkness and coldness of Good Friday. We make this journey from triumph to total desolation always with the eye to the proclamation of the Exsultet on Holy Saturday night. Ours are not empty symbols – they point us in the depth reality of the plan of God and his work for our salvation.

Not only do we hope that you will be present for the Holy Week services to the extent that you are able, but that you take the opportunity of Holy Week to be a time of recommitment to your faith and a time of strength and hope in the face of despair.

As I have said in previous years, I believe that the most powerful liturgy of the week is the one we do not celebrate in the parish church bur rather in the Cathedral – or in our case, the Co-Cathedral – with the Bishop. The Chrism Mass – the Monday of Holy Week – is when the bishop consecrates all of the oils to be used in the sacramental rites of the coming year. The holy oils – Oil of catechumens, Sacred Chrism, and the Oil of the Sick – are replenished each year as the bishop sends newly blessed oils to each church and chapel in the diocese. The oil stocks of the previous year are consumed in the fire lit on Holy Saturday, while the new oils are presented at Morning Prayer on Holy Thursday. They are placed prominently in the Sanctuary for the Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord’s Supper.

While the blessing of the oil is meaningful, it is the presence of the priests there, recommitting themselves to their sacred office observing the institution of the priesthood at the Last Supper that takes on a new and powerful expression, especially this year. As Father JM and I stand, with over one-hundred other priests from our diocese this year to recommit ourselves to the promises we made on the days of our ordination, we do so with both heavy hearts and a renewed vigor.

Your presence – the presence of over a thousand of the faithful from throughout the diocese – is especially encouraging and meaningful to us. If you are able to attend and show your support for us and our bishop, that would be for us an awesome and most meaningful gift. OUR LADY OF VICTORY ADORATION CHAPEL Please consider joining us as an Adorer. Contact Kathy 732/739-3381 for more information about available hours.

Yes, not everyone can attend, but even a few present there with us, will be a sign of hope for us in the midst of our own darkness. We have much to look forward to as we make our final approach to Holy Week. This week Father JM and I are teaming up for the presentation at Soup and Scripture on Wednesday as we reflect on the death and raising of Lazarus.

We will also offer confessions and adoration in the evening.

May the Lord bless all of us with his loving bounty,
Fr. Garry