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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.

For all of our shortcomings, failures, and sins as individuals and as a corporate body, the Catholic Church remains the largest provider of services to the poor, homeless, elderly, infirmed, youth, and person’s in crisis in the world, the United States, and New Jersey. Read more.

The time has finally arrived – this week Father JM and I, along with Deacon Steve, Sister Margaret Tierney, SC from St. Catharine-St. Margaret Parish (Spring Lake) and some 40 other pilgrims embark on our pilgrimage to the Holy Land. This is always an awesome experience, and I am happy to share it with a whole new set of pilgrims. Many of the pilgrims are parishioners at St. Benedict. Read more.

It was certainly a very pleasant week, a great respite from the arctic cold of the week before. We got our taste of Spring, and certainly we can sense the increasing sunlight every day. Read more.

I wish to thank everyone who participated in and supported SBS during Catholic Schools Week. The students had a great week of celebration, including a surprise and welcome visit from SBS alumnus and St. Benedict parishioner Jim Yacabonis. Jim is a pitcher with the Baltimore Orioles and a proud SBS (and CBA) graduate. He offered the students some inspiring words of wisdom and insight into the life of a professional athlete. Read more.

January affords several opportunities for making statements about our faith. As this is Pro-Life Month, we focus on the rights of all people to a life with dignity and respect from conception to natural death. This covers a wide range of issues over the protection of life, health care, education, immigration, basic civil rights, equal justice before the law, housing, employment, and a host of other issues. Let us all be attentive to the short-comings in our own lives that make us silent – or maybe not so silent – agents of injustice and inequality instead of advocates for the rights of all. Certainly responding to Deacon Rich’s appeal for baby bottles is one way we can help. Read more.

Things get back to normal here this week. Ordinary Time begins after Vespers on Sunday, and we begin the journey to Lent. In the meantime, we are planning a few programs to get us ready for the Lenten Season. Read more.

A blessed 2019 to everyone! Today is the great feast – as you know in some areas of the world even bigger than Christmas – Epiphany – the celebration that God is made manifest among us. The great mystery and miracle of the Incarnation is now fully realized for us. As we celebrate this feast – and by an accident of the calendar this year we celebrate it on the traditional date January 6 – let us be aware of the presence of God in our midst, and as we reflect on the gold, frankincense, and myrrh, we are called and challenged to think of the ways in which we offer our gifts to the Lord. Read more.

I trust that everyone had a pleasant Christmas and is enjoying some relaxing family time this week. Father JM, the parish and school staff, and I are grateful for your thoughtfulness and generosity this season. Words are inadequate, really, to express our gratitude. Please be assured of our prayers, and the intention of our Masses, for all of you. Read more.