Saint Joseph Roman Catholic Church Oradell / New Milford, NJ Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, June 30, 2013

Transcription

1 Saint Joseph Roman Catholic Church Oradell / New Milford, NJ Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, June 30, 2013 And another said, I will follow you, Lord, but first let me say farewell to my family at home. To him Jesus said, No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God. Lk 9:61-62 Reconciliation / Confessions Saturday, 4:00 pm - 4:45 pm Baptism Contact the Parish Office before the fifth month of pregnancy. Marriage Arrangements should be made with a priest at least one year in advance. Sick / Homebound / Hospital Ministry Call the Parish Office. Rev. Andrew Park, PAROCHIAL VICAR Mrs. Colette Vail Principal of Saint Joseph School Mrs. Angela Gussoni Vice Principal of Saint Joseph School Mrs. Diane Hellriegel Communications & Development Sacramental Life Mass Schedule Sunday Mass Saturday 5:00 pm Anticipated Sunday 10:30 am 12:30 pm Daily Mass Weekdays and Saturday Holy Days as announced Parish Staff Rev. Thomas B. Iwanowski, PASTOR Rev. George M. Reilly, PASTOR EMERITUS Mr. Heath Winborn Director of Operations Mr. Monroe Quinn Mrs. Phyllis Vrola Director of Music Business Manager Mrs. Anne Annunziato Parish Secretary Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament First Wednesday of the Month 9:00 am - 5:30 pm in Mary s Chapel Miraculous Medal Novena Monday, 7:00 pm in Mary s Chapel Christian Initiation of Adults RCIA Contact the Religious Education Office. Parish Registration Contact the Parish Office. WEEKEND ASSISTANTS: Rev. John Chadwick & Msgr. Richard Groncki Mrs. Arlene Kennedy Sacrament Coordinator Mr. Anthony Armando Youth Minister Office Location Phone Website Parish Office 105 Harrison St., New Milford office@sjcnj.org sjcnj.org Religious Education 105 Harrison St., New Milford religioused@sjcnj.org sjcreligioused.blogspot.com Saint Joseph School 305 Elm St., Oradell office@sjsusa.org sjsusa.org the greenhouse-prek 305 Elm St., Oradell vailc@greenhouseusa.org greenhouseusa.org Parish Office Hours: Weekdays 9 am - 5 pm or by appointment Religious Ed. Office Hours: Mon.-Thurs. 9am - 5 pm

2 Saturday 5:00 pm Sunday am 12:30 pm Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday 5:00 pm Sunday am 12:30 pm June 29, 2013 Jean Sapunarich June 30, 2013 People of the Parish Sophie Jacura Susan DeRosa Row Locastro July 1, 2013 Rev. Dante DiGirolamo William McKee July 2, 2013 Lillian Aquino Bernadette Robertson SUMMER MASS SCHEDULE There will be no 10:30 am Mass in Mary s Chapel in the lower church during the summer months. It will resume on September 8, the Sunday after Labor Day. SAINT JOSEPH CHURCH ORADELL/NEW MILFORD, NJ July 3, 2013 Maggie Joya (prayers for healing) Edward J. Fox July 4, 2013 Independence Day For Our Nation July 5, 2013 Richard Pommerencke Margaret M. Dodd July 6, 2013 William Higley Pat Smith July 7, 2013 People of the Parish For injured members of Armed Forces Jeanette & Jeanine Berardi Margaret Schatz BREAD AND WINE INTENTIONS The Bread for the week of June 30, 2013 is offered In Thanksgiving for Father Joseph Coda s 50th Ordination Anniversary. Congratulations! requested by Al & Gloria DeStefano. The Wine for the week of June 30, 2013 is offered In Loving Memory of Michael Braun requested by Philip DeRosa MASS INTENTIONS AVAILABLE There are still some 2013 daily Masses, as well as Bread and Wine Intentions, available. Please stop by the rectory or call Anne at for the dates. 2 PRAYER REQUESTS Let us remember those who are ill: Mary Schuber, Edward Burns, George Johns Let us remember all those who have recently died. Let us remember those serving in the military. Sunday Collection for Week of June 23, 2013 Basket Parish Pay Total $8,275 $5,556 $13,831 PLEASE DON T FORGET! As summer vacations get under way, please don t forget to drop off your envelope before you go (or when you return). An easier way to make your donations is to sign up for ParishPay, our electronic giving program. Simply go to our website at sjcnj.org and click on the green box in the upper right corner. You can adjust your giving at any time and have an instant record of your charitable contributions, while helping our parish to plan a realistic budget. NEED TO FIND A CHURCH ON VACATION? Log on to MassTimes.org PETER S PENCE COLLECTION THIS WEEKEND JUNE The Peter's Pence Collection supports the Pope's philanthropy by giving the Holy Father the means to provide emergency assistance to those in need because of natural disaster, war, oppression, and disease. Please give generously to the Peter's Pence Collection by using your special envelope or through ParishPay. Or you may wish to send your donation to: Peter's Pence Collection The Apostolic Nunciature 3339 Massachusetts Ave., NW Washington, DC INDEPENDENCE DAY THURSDAY, JULY 4th There will be only one Mass on Thursday, July 4 at. The Parish and School Offices will be CLOSED on both Thursday, July 4 and Friday, July 5. Have a safe and happy holiday. God bless America!

3 PASTOR S COLUMN THIRTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME, JUNE 30, 2013 FREEDOM & INDEPENDENCE I am constantly amazed at how the scripture readings assigned for a particular day relate to current situations and events. This Thursday, July 4, we as citizens of the United States will celebrate Independence Day. We will commemorate the day in 1776 when we declared our independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain. As Americans, we cherish the freedoms that we enjoy. We see ourselves as independent people, each of us free to go our own way, free to determine our future, free to use our talents and abilities in any way we choose. But that freedom and independence can mistakenly be seen as giving us the freedom to do whatever we wish with little regard for how our actions or our inactions affect other people and other situations. We have a current example of that in the Edward Snowden case. No matter if you judge him a traitor or a hero, the fact is that he independently took an action that now has far reaching ramifications. If we carefully look at the scriptures and the life of Jesus, we come away with a very different understanding of independence and freedom from the one we usually have as Americans. We have an example of just that in today s second reading a perfect example of the way the scriptures relate to our life today! That reading from Saint Paul s letter to the Galatians centers on freedom. Saint Paul writes, Brothers and sisters: For freedom Christ set us free; so stand firm and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery. For you were called for freedom, brothers and sisters. But do not use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh; rather, serve one another through love. For the whole law is fulfilled in one statement, namely, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Saint Paul told the Galatians that Jesus had set them free from their slavery to Jewish religious rules and regulations. They were to use their freedom to live according to the example of Jesus and according to the one law that fulfilled all others, namely, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. For Paul being free meant being free to live the way Jesus lived, with love for God and love for neighbor. Being free meant living according to God our Father s will. You and I pray that we might live that way each time we say the Our Father. There we pray thy will be done. We ask that that the Father s will guide and 3 direct what we do on earth as it directs what is done in heaven. Freedom does not mean doing what I want but rather what God wants. Amazingly doing that is the path to true freedom. No person was ever freer than Jesus and no person was ever more obedient and faithful to God s will. It is not surprising that true freedom comes when we do things God s way rather than our own, when we bend our will to God s will. After all, God is the one who made us and knows us better than we know ourselves. As a human creator and inventor knows better than anyone else how his or her device should work, so God our creator knows better than anyone else how we should live and act. Our Christian faith also puts the concept of independence in another light. While we are politically independent, we are very much dependent persons. Just consider all the ways we depend upon others. We depend upon famers for our food, for teachers for our education, for doctors for our healthcare, for police officers for our protection, for utility workers for our power, and the list could go on. If we were truly independent and disconnected from others, we would not last very long at all. That dependence also includes dependence upon God, who created us and holds us in existence. It also includes our dependence upon the Church and our fellow Christians. Our faith is not one centered on God and Me, but rather on God and We. You and I learn about God from one another, we support one another in our faith, we come together at the altar of the Lord to share his life giving Body and Blood. Our Catholic Faith depends upon community. We are brothers and sisters in Christ, dependent on one another. Unfortunately, mistaken notions of independence and freedom are breaking down our sense of Church, our sense of being responsible for another, our sense that together we form the Body of Christ when we gather for Mass and the celebration of the sacraments. As we celebrate our freedom and independence this July 4, we need to remember that freedom comes not from doing what we want but from what God wants. We need to remember that while as a nation we are independent of foreign rule, as people we are dependent upon one another, and as people of faith we are dependent upon our fellow Christians. And we are all dependent upon God. Love, Fr. Tom Iwanowski

4 MINISTERS OF COMMUNION AND ALTAR SERVERS NEEDED Would you like to grow in your relationship with God, make new friends, and help your parish? Saint Joseph is looking for parishioners who would like to be Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion and Altar Servers. By volunteering in these ministries, you will find your own faith enriched while you help to enhance the celebration of our liturgies for everyone. Training will be provided here in the parish on Tuesday evening, July 30. For more information or to volunteer, please contact Fr. Tom at , him at or speak to him after Mass. FORTNIGHT FOR FREEDOM 2013 A SPIRIT OF GRACE AND PETITION Often we approach prayer as a last resort. When we have exhausted all human efforts, we turn to the divine for solace, relief, and remedy. But that is to misunderstand prayer; for recourse to prayer ought not to be a final, desperate plea to the Almighty, but instead, ought to be infused into every moment of our lives continual opportunities to offer thanksgiving, praise, and petition. Like us, our ancestors petitioned the Lord frequently and for almost everything imaginable. The Scriptures record prayers for wisdom, mercy, physical healing, children, strength, and good weather. Certainly the Lord never grows tired of our petitions. The Prophet Zechariah tells us that prayer itself is a gift from God; that the Lord will grant to his people a spirit of grace and petition. For even our desire to pray, our ability to raise our hearts and minds to God, is itself a gift from Him. Today we exercise that divine gift by continuing our prayers for religious freedom. The U.S. Bishops have declared a Fortnight for Freedom, asking Catholics to engage in a great hymn of prayer for our country and a national campaign of teaching and witness for religious liberty. Fittingly, this period of special petition will last until July 4, the day we celebrate as a nation all our liberties. The bishops have called us to participate in this twoweek period of prayer and action to address the many current challenges to religious freedom, including the SAINT JOSEPH CHURCH ORADELL/NEW MILFORD, NJ 4 August 1 deadline to comply with the mandate of the Department of Health and Human Services for all employers, including the Church, to provide health insurance for contraception, sterilization, and abortioninducing drugs. For more than a year, the bishops, Catholic citizens, and religious leaders of various faiths have attempted to work with the government to secure an exemption from the mandate. Unfortunately, the government has been unwilling to provide an exemption for the vast majority of faith-based organizations, including Catholic hospitals, universities, and charitable organizations. In addition to the mandate, there are other threats to religious freedom: new laws which prohibit the Church from offering spiritual and charitable assistance to undocumented immigrants; laws that have effectively closed Church-run adoption agencies in Boston, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C., and an expected Supreme Court decision that may attempt to redefine marriage in U.S. law. In the face of these serious threats to religious liberty, the Church cannot be silent, nor can it cease to beg the Lord for a restoration of our rights. The Scriptures continually exhort us to prayer and petition for all our needs. Jesus tells us, Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened (Matthew 7:7-8). Let these days of the Fortnight of Freedom be a time of intense and focused prayer, asking the Lord for protection of conscience and religious liberty. As we bring our prayers to Him, we desire the same gift of which the Prophet Zechariah spoke: that the Lord might pour upon our country a spirit of grace and petition to help assure the preservation of our freedoms for generations to come. (FortnightForFreedom.org ) PRAYER FOR RELIGIOUS LIBERTY Almighty God, Father of all nations, For freedom you have set us free in Christ Jesus. (Gal 5:1) We praise and bless you for the gift of religious liberty, the foundation of human rights, justice, and the common good. Grant to our leaders the wisdom to protect and promote our liberties. By your grace may we have the courage to defend them, for ourselves and for all those who live in this blessed land. We ask this through the intercession of Mary Immaculate, our patroness, and in the name of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, with whom you live and reign, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

5 A FOURTH OF JULY REFLECTION "While we are zealously performing the duties of good citizens and soldiers, we certainly ought not to be inattentive to the higher duties of religion. To the distinguished character of Patriot, it should be our highest glory to add the more distinguished character of Christian." --George Washington, First U.S. President The Writings of Washington RELIGIOUS EDUCATION REGISTRATION FORM DUE JULY 15 You should have now received the registration form for the term. Please be sure to review all the information, correct or add any new information, and return the forms and fee to the Religious Education Office in the Rectory (105 Harrison Street, New Milford, NJ 07646) by July 15. Classes are formed on a first come basis. Registration forms and fees received after July 15 will be subject to a $35 late fee. If you did not receive a packet in the mail or if you need a new Family Information or Student Information Registration form, please us at religioused@sjcnj.org or go to the Religious Education website page at sjcreligioused.blogspot.com and download the form(s) you need. You can also call the Religious Education Office at THIRTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME, JUNE 30, 2013 WE NEED YOU! Catechists and Volunteers are the heart of our Religious Education Program. We need your help and support to provide quality religious education for the over 900 students at Saint Joseph Parish who participate in our program. With so many families seeking faith formation for their children, we need many volunteers to staff our classrooms and offices. Please prayerfully consider sharing your time and talent as a volunteer in our Religious Education Program. All parishioners are welcome to volunteer. Parents of children in Saint Joseph religious education who also volunteer in the program will receive a discounted fee. K-6 Classes meet on Sundays from 9:45-11:10 am or on Tuesdays from 3:45-5:10 pm. Grades 7-8 meet on Wednesdays from 4:45-6:10pm or 6:30-7:55 pm. If you are interested in volunteering as a Catechist, Co- Catechist or Office Assistant, please call the Religious Education Office at FOOD DRIVE ~ THANK YOU! Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of these least of my brethren, you did it to me. Matthew 25:34-35, 40 A sincere thank you to all who participated in our Food Drive on June In addition to the many bags of groceries that were donated, we received $900 in monetary donations. At this time of the year, when food pantries are low in supplies, your generosity was a true blessing! We also extend our sincere appreciation to Shop Rite of New Milford for donating the bags we distribute at all our food drives. A PARISH SUGGESTION BOX Saint Joseph Parish welcomes your questions, concerns, and ideas. Please feel free to drop your into our electronic suggestion box at suggestionbox@sjcnj.org SUPPORT FOR THOSE WHO HAVE LOST A CHILD The Office of Family Life Ministries of the Archdiocese of Newark sponsors three support groups for Parents Grieving the Death of a Child. Groups meet year round on the first Wednesday of each month at 7:30 pm (July and August at 7:00 pm) at St. Thomas the Apostle Parish Center, 60 Byrd Avenue, Bloomfield, and on the third Monday of each month at St. Peter the Apostle Parish Center, 445 Fifth Avenue, River Edge. The Support Group for Fathers Who Have Lost a Child meets quarterly at Notre Dame Parish Center, 359 Central Avenue, North Caldwell. The next meeting is on September 14 at 10:00 am. There is no preregistration for any of the groups, and there is no fee. For further information, please contact the Office of Family Life at or mccormja@rcan.org ARCHBISHOP S ANNUAL APPEAL We have now received pledges from 297 parishioners for a total of $67,537. Our sincere thanks! If you have not yet had the chance to pledge, envelopes are still available at the doors of the church or at the rectory. VISIT US ON OUR WEBSITES: Saint Joseph Church: sjcnj.org Saint Joseph School: sjsusa.org Religious Education: sjcreligioused.blogspot.com

6 SAINT JOSEPH CHURCH ORADELL/NEW MILFORD, NJ Compiled by the Liturgy of the Word With Children Committee The Gospel is the Good News about Jesus. The Gospel Reading for today is from Saint Luke 9: When the time drew near for Jesus to return to his heavenly Father, he decided to go to Jerusalem. On the way, he planned to stop at a particular town to rest. But the people of that town would not welcome him, so Jesus and his friends had to continue on. As he walked, Jesus met people who said that they would follow him. However, each of them had something that they wanted to do first. There was a man who wanted to bury his father and another who wanted to say goodbye to his family. Jesus told them that if they wanted to follow him they should come immediately with no excuses. Whenever God the Father asked Jesus to do something, he did not makes excuses or put off doing what God wanted him to do. Jesus asks the same thing from those who would follow him. He wants us to do what he asks without excuses. But many of us do make excuses. For example, we might say: I can t go to Sunday Mass because I have a baseball game. I don t have time to pray in the morning because I have so much to do. I don t have time to do the jobs my Mom or Dad gave me because I want to play with my friends. I don t want to help out at church since none of the kids I know are altar servers at Saint Joseph Parish. Jesus does not want followers who make excuses for not doing the right thing. Jesus wants NO EXCUSE CHRISTIANS. MISSION OF THE WEEK During the summer, when we go on vacation, we sometimes forget about Jesus. Make a promise to try to go to Mass every Sunday and to think of Jesus every day. Remember to pray often. Here is a prayer you can say every morning: Lord, before I get busy with my day, I want you to know that I love you. Amen. Jesus wants us to put him first even in the summer. 6