Happy Father's Day

06-20-2021From Fr. Antony's DeskFr. John J. Barbella

I want to begin by offering a very Happy Father’s Day to all the fathers, grandfathers, and spiritual fathers in our parish.

Seeing so many Father’s Day envelopes come in, with the names of fathers both living and deceased on them, tells me that many of us both appreciate and want to pray for our fathers and grandfathers. We will keep those envelopes near the Altar throughout this month, and include the names on them in all the Masses that are offered. Let’s also be sure to keep our fathers and grandfathers, and all those men who have been a blessing to us, in our personal prayers as well.

Deacon Timothy Eck, who spent a summer in our parish as a seminarian a few years ago, will be ordained by Bishop Checchio this Saturday (June 19th). Indeed, he may be a priest by the time you read this! Please keep him, and the others who will be ordained with him, in your prayers this weekend. May our good God make them true spiritual fathers who care for the people entrusted to them.

The ordination of new priests is a good time for us to renew our prayers for vocations to the priesthood. I know that many of you pray for this every day, asking God to call many men to the priesthood, and to help them say yes to His call! The Serra Club has a Mass for just this purpose on the first and third Tuesday of every month at 6 PM in our Church. Even if you are not part of the Serra Club, you are still welcome to join them in praying that God will bless us with many good vocations to the priesthood. We are all well aware that a truly good priest can be a blessing to many people.

This would be a good time to think about people who might be candidates for this coming year’s RCIA in our parish. As most of you know, RCIA is the process by which unbaptized adults prepare for Baptism, and non– Catholics interested in conversion are prepared to be received into the Catholic Church. Our parish is blessed to have people in this process year after year. I attribute that in no small part to the efforts made by so many of you to invite and encourage people to give this a try.

If you know someone who is interested in becoming Catholic, or might be, please direct them to me. I will be happy to answer any questions they have and help them decide whether God might be leading them to RCIA and the Catholic Church. It is always a pleasure to do this.

This is also a good time to make sure that your children and/or grandchildren are registered for CCD (Religious Education) for the next school year. Parishioners in grades

1 – 8 who attend public school should be enrolled in CCD. This will ensure that they are learning the Faith. It also helps their families in preparing for First Holy Communion and Confirmation. You can call the Parish Office (908– 454– 0112) or use the parish website to register for CCD.

I am writing this letter earlier than usual due to my retreat. While I am home already for this weekend’s Masses, I had to write this before the Summer Festival at school last Saturday. I want to thank everyone who lent a hand with that, and hope everyone had a good time.

Please remember to pray for me this week, at least one

Hail Mary a day. You are in my prayers daily. pray for the sick, and for peace.

Have a great week!
Fr. John

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