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Happy Solemnity of Saint Benedict! As we have transferred the feast to Sunday, we are able to honor our patron with the dignity that are his due. He rescued monasticism, and through his followers, the faith in Europe, through a programmatic system of reform and renewal. The church was then, is now, and always is, in need of reform and renewal. Please accept the challenge to be an agent of such reform and renewal in your own homes, neighborhoods, our parish, and in the church in the world. Please visit the Narthex, and accept the challenge for your own renewal as disciple of Jesus Christ. Read more.

This week we begin the Summer Religious Education Academy. This has been an important development in the faith formation of the students in our parish. Most of the religious education students in our parish will complete the majority of their required hours of instruction during one of the next three, week-long sessions. The program includes several required family day events through the course of the year, so that we can maintain contact with these students and their families for purposes of enrichment and on-going formation. Read more.

This weekend we welcome Monsignor Jose Roel Casas who will be making the annual missionary appeal sponsored by the Diocesan Office of the Propagation of the Faith. A priest of the Prelature of Isabela de Basilan in the Philippines, Msgr. Casas was ordained a priest there in 1999. While he has spent most of his priesthood in Basilan, he did serve briefly (2013 – 2015) as parochial vicar at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in Cleveland. From 2016 until May 23 of this year, Monsignor served as the Diocesan Administrator of the prelature, as they awaited the appointment and ordination of their new bishop. Read more.

I am writing from Day 2 of the Latino Enrollment Institute at the University of Notre Dame. We have heard some very interesting and challenging speakers sharing experiences and ideas that have been successful in parish schools. Certainly this has given Mr. Donahue, Mrs. Ulrich and me some strong talking points to present to the various constituent boards and officers of our school. Read more.

A most blessed and Happy Father’s Day! Today we remember our Fathers, Grandfathers, and all of those wonderful father-figures who have graced our lives. May the Lord pour out his abundance on all of you. Read more.

New Jersey Independent Victims Compensation Program opens June 15

Come, Holy Spirit fill the hearts of the faithful ...A most blessed Pentecost to everyone. Today is the proverbial “birthday of the church” and, although like any other 2000 year old, we’ve had some aches and pains, we are alive and well and proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all peoples and lands! Let us continue to support and pray for one another. Read more.

Happy Memorial Day! The summer season has “officially” arrived and I am sure many of you are enjoying the shore at some point this weekend. Let us pray that this is a safe summer for all of us. Read more.

Thank you all for the many ways in which you support our parish. The generosity of time and talent is always impressive, and certainly inspiring to others. It is also true that many of us have been in various forms of ministry, or volunteer, or do committee work for a long time, and that often wears on us as well. Read more.

May is always a busy and exhausting month. There are just so many activities, holidays, and celebrations, that it can seem overwhelming. Today is a day when – at least in theory – we allow our Mother’s to relax and be feted as we celebrate Mother’s Day. Read more.

Next weekend is Mother’s Day and the May crowning. In the month dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, we are ever-mindful of her guidance of and patronage of the Church and we pray for her intercession for all that we might remain faithful to our call as disciples of Jesus Christ and his Church. May we be earnest and fervent in our prayer. The Motherhood of Mary is even more highlighted now as Pope Francis declared the Monday after Pentecost to be the Feast of Mary, Mother of the Church. Read more.

A most blessed Divine Mercy Sunday to all of you. The apparitions to the Polish nun Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska of the Blessed Sacrament revealed the image of the Divine Mercy along with the expression: “Jesus, I trust in you.” These apparitions, mostly in the 1930’s just before the onslaught of WWII, emphasized the need for conversion and the desire of the Lord to extend his mercy to us. Read more.

Alleluia! A blessed Easter to all of you! We have completed our Lenten journey and now the Easter journey begins. This is not a time now to slack off as though we have completed the race for indeed, there is still a long way to go. Read more.

Holy Week is serious business for serious disciples of Jesus Christ. The Sacred Rites are not incidentally or accidentally longer than the usual celebrations. They are deliberately lush with the symbols of worship at the heart of which is the Lord Jesus the Christ Himself. Entering into the Mysteries of the Triduum (Holy Thursday – Good Friday – Holy Saturday) sweeps us from Lenten preparation and plunges us into the waters of Baptism where we drown to worldly allurements and arise to Easter Joy. Read more.

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. Read more.

On Friday the Very Reverend Gabriel Zeis, T.O.R., Vicar for Education in the Diocese of Trenton, administered the Sacrament of Confirmation to 101 students of our parish community. While this is always a wonderful celebration and occasion, it is also a time for reflection on meaning. Read more.

We are deep into another Lenten Season and the promise and hope of Spring and the coming Easter is beginning to take hold. Such a late Easter means that we will have (hopefully) some wonderful weather by the time we get there. Read more.

Our Lenten journey can often be fraught with the struggle to keep the discipline going. It is easy to become discouraged and disappointed along the way. In the Hall of Saints we have a Lenten shrine, focused on the Pieta and the Stations of the Cross. Near the shrine is a basket with some pencils and slips of paper. You are welcome to write your journey – whatever that journey might be – and place it into the basket. This way of articulating our prayers helps to put a sense of hope and the solidarity of the saints with our journey. No matter how alone we might feel, we know that we are never truly alone as the saints walk with us on our journey to sainthood. Read more.

Happy First Sunday of Lent! Today we travel to the Co-Cathedral in Freehold to celebrate the Rite of Election for our candidates for Initiation at the Easter Vigil. Rachel DeMasi and Kim Reit will receive the Sacraments at the Easter Vigil. As they participate in the Rite of Election this weekend and the Scrutinies over the Sundays of Lent, we pray for them that they will grow in the faith and in their relationship with Jesus Christ and his Church. Read more.

I am writing after a long day of travel from Jerusalem to Petra, Jordan. We had an awesome pilgrimage experience and I am now exploring the other side of the Jordan River. Sadly, issues with his Visa prevented Fr. JM from continuing on this leg of the journey, so he got two extra days in Jerusalem — which is a wonderful thing to do — but he is disappointed that he was not able to continue on here. Read more.