Weekly Letter from the Pastor

Dear Fellow Parishioners of St. Benedict:

We have concluded the Summer Religious Education Academy, and, overcoming some small hiccups along the way, we have had three excellent weeks of religious education and faith formation. We are most grateful to the tireless work and efforts of Nancy Arkin and Ciro Saverino, along with the bevy of teachers, staff, and volunteers who worked so hard to make this a successful adventure. The feedback has been very positive, and we are looking forward to the family days throughout the year.

Faith formation comes to us in many forms and differing ways. Some of us attend Catholic schools, and others use different forms of participation, and frankly many of us have had little formal or structural formation in this journey. This is why a faith formation process from womb-to-tomb is so important to my personal vision of what this process can look like. Increasingly we need to develop personalized programs to meet the needs of specific individuals and families. I am okay with that. I know it means extra work on the part of our staff and volunteers but, as we speak of a personal encounter with Jesus Christ as our goal, then we need to develop personal encounters.

As our Confirmation program has evolved over the past six years and as we meet the candidates on Sunday evenings and walk them, via different pedagogical approaches, to this personal encounter, we see a need for further assistance present within that group. Likewise, as more younger families move into the area and join our parish -- and at a pace that is indeed promising for the future -- meeting their needs is also a reality. More and more millennials are living at home and they have other needs as well. So the question has been presented as to how to best respond to these needs.

As you know in the post-Covid world (if this is yet a post-Covid world) we have not returned to the 12:30 pm Mass on Sunday. There are a variety of reasons why this has been the case. One of the issues that seem to be present is the pressures on Sunday morning and the timing of everything in our lives.

In order to enhance our Sunday evening program, and to better respond to the needs of families and millennials, we will be launching a Sunday 5:00 pm Mass every week beginning on September 11th. This Mass will utilize a variety of music styles - traditional, teen choir, praise and worship -- and will provide an additional opportunity for anyone to attend Mass on the weekend. I am grateful to Ellen Remick and Tom O’Brien for their flexibility and creativity in developing the music for this Mass. Likewise, we are grateful that Msgr. Jack Carroll, Father Tony Carotenuto, and Father Ron Cioffi are available to assist on the weekends in order to help this new Mass time to happen. The other weekend Mass times (Saturday 5pm; Sunday 8; 9:30, and 11) though redundant to our area (St. Catharine in Holmdel and St. Clement in Matwan have the same Mass schedule), will remain as I am reluctant to advocate for any change there.

Another area of faith formation that is a great benefit to so many is that of the pilgrimage. This is especially true as one visits the holy sites around the world. Father JM Patilla and I are conducting a pilgrimage to Egypt-Jordan-Jerusalem in February/March 2023. We will follow the Israelites on their sojourn to the Promised Land. This is a unique opportunity as Father and I formulated this trip in conjunction with pilgrimage director and parishioner, Carolyn Norbut. We will have an information night on September 15th at 7:00 pm to talk about the pilgrimage. Please consider joining us.

The Diocese will hold the bi-annual pilgrimage to the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception on November 12th. More information on this will be forthcoming soon.

Have a blessed week. Here’s hoping that August goes slowly!
Fr. Garry