Weekly Letter from the Pastor

Dear Fellow Parishioners of St. Benedict:

Bishop O’Connell has appointed a new vocations team for our diocese, with Father Jason Parzynski serving as the diocesan director. Father Dan Swift, assisted by Father Christopher Colavito and Father Jorge Bedoya, will coordinate vocation activities on the River Side of the diocese – Mercer and Burlington counties. On the Ocean Side of the Diocese, Monmouth and Ocean Counties, I am coordinating and assisted by Father JM and Father Christopher Dayton. Both Father JM and I are happy to serve together in this ministry to and for our diocese.

For a long time, under the direction of Fr. Dan when he was pastor here, this parish has had a prayer for vocations ministry, with the Saint Benedict icon. Though this ministry continues, we have probably neglected reminding and encouraging families to pray for vocations to the priesthood and religious life. Father JM and I would like to take up that mantle again and talk more about this ministry in our parish and include more families in our prayer chain.

Two years ago, under the inspiration of Roe Abbato and the Faith Formation Committee, we took on the “Sponsor a Seminarian” ministry, which has been wonderfully received both by the parish and our seminarians. The Faith Formation Committee will continue with this work this fall. Sadly, we have fewer seminarians this year than we did last year, so our prayers need to be more fervent and focused.

Likewise, this Fall, with the new diocesan team in place, we are inaugurating a new program for recruitment and discernment entitled Called By Name. You will hear more about this as we approach Vocations Awareness Week in November.

Before we get to that point, Father JM and I are offering a new challenge to parish community. One thing I have noticed in other dioceses is that each month they pray for a specific group of priests from the diocese. The diocesan newspaper lists the names of priests to pray for and also lists the names of the deceased priests to pray for in that month. We have decided to do that as a parish. We will list the names of priests – alphabetically divided between the months of the year – in the bulletin, along with the names of the priests whose anniversaries of death come in that week. We are, however, adding two other prayers. We will pray each month for individual seminarians as well as for those who are discerning a call to priesthood. We will also include these names in the Adoration chapel so that the adorers can also pray for them during the month.

We will begin this next week in the bulletin. We chose this date – August 4 – because although it is the Eighteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, it is the Feast Day of Saint John Vianney.

Jean-Baptiste-Marie Vianney, known as John in English, was born May 8, 1786 in Dardilly, France. He was ordained a priest August 12, 1815. Three years later Vianney was appointed parish priest of the Ars parish.

Fr. Vianney spent much time in confession and often spent eleven to twelve hours each day working to reconcile people with God. His fame spread until people began to travel to him in 1827. Within thirty years, it is said he received up to 20,000 pilgrims each year. By 1853, he had attempted to run away from Ars four times with the intention of becoming a monk but decided after the final time that it was not to be. Six years later, he passed away and left behind a legacy of faith and was viewed as the champion of the poor. St. John Vianney was canonized on May 31, 1925.

St. John Vianney is the patron saint of diocesan priests, remaining the only diocesan parish priest ever canonized a saint.

Through his intercession, may the Lord bring us good and faithful priests,
Father Garry