PARISH OFFICE:
187 Bellevue Avenue
Upper Montclair, NJ 07043
parishoffice@stcassianchurch.org
P: (973) 744 – 2850
F: (973) 744 – 6187
Mondays through Fridays
9:00am – 3:30pm
SCHEDULE:
The Lord’s Day Mass:
Saturday – 5:30pm
Sunday – 7:30am, 9:00am, 10:30am, 12:00pm
Daily Mass:
Monday through Saturday 8:15am
Reconcilliation:
Saturdays 4:15pm-5:00pm
QUICK LINKS:
Welcome to St. Cassian Church
Important Notice
CARDINAL TOBIN SUSPENDS ALL PUBLIC CELEBRATIONS OF MASS INDEFINITELY DUE TO CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC
Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, C.Ss.R, Archbishop of Newark, announced that all public celebrations of daily and Sunday Mass will be suspended until further notice, effective today, Wednesday, March 18, 2020. This difficult decision is an extension of the Archdiocese’s recent announcement, in which Cardinal Tobin dispensed the faithful of the Archdiocese from the obligation to attend Sunday Mass until further notice.
To view Sunday and Daily Mass, please click on the REVELANT RADIO link.
THIS SUNDAY, WE WILL LIVE STREAM OUR 9:00AM MASS ON FACEBOOK. Please click on the FACEBOOK link.
If you have an emergency and need to speak with a priest outside of office hours, please call our Emergency phone at 201-704-7988.
DUE TO THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC, CARDINAL JOSEPH TOBIN, ARCHBISHOP OF NEWARK, ISSUED THE FOLLOWING DIRECTIVE EFFECTIVE MARCH 25, 2020:
Religious Education classes have been SUSPENDED and all Catholic Schools remain CLOSED as directed by the State of New Jersey.
Anyone who has had direct exposure or potential exposure to COVID-19, is advised to carefully follow the guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) regarding isolation and quarantine protocols.
For the most up-to-date information and latest Archdiocesan news, please continue to visit the Archdiocese of Newark’s website and COVID-19 resource page at RCAN.org/covid19 and our social media: @NwkArchdiocese.
Saint Cassian is a community alive in the love of the Lord and each other. We have a responsibility to be a sign of this love in the world around us, to express this love through our teaching, worshipping, and service to others.
Click here to register for Saint Cassian parish
We urge all parishioners to make regular use of the envelopes, or sign up for Faith Direct. Faith Direct is an easy, convenient and secure way to do online giving. Click here to learn more. If you are moving from the Parish, please notify the Parish Office.
Religious Education Online Registration
Click here for important information from Mrs. Sammon.
We are introducing online registration for the 2019-2020 CCD year. For more information or to register for CCD, click here.
Youth Group Registration
The St. Cassian Youth Ministry is an active ministry offering social, spiritual, educational, and service opportunities to youths in Grades 7 through 12. To receive updates via text and email, fill out the registration form (found in the parish bulletin) or register online by clicking below.
Celebrating Fr. Marc’s 20th Anniversary in the Priesthood!
St. Cassian School and Church celebrate Father Marc Vicari’s 20th anniversary as a priest with this video tribute. Fr. Marc Vicari has been the Pastor of St. Cassian Church in Upper Montclair since February 2011.
An update from Father Marc
Dear Parishioners:
I hope this note finds you well and healthy and anticipating the approaching Paschal Mysteries. Even though we are celebrating Masses in an empty church, we are praying for all of your Mass intentions and especially for an end to this health crisis. I am hopeful and confident that we will be back normal before we know it.
I use this note as a way of touching base with you and updating you about what is going on with our Parish. Perhaps you have already received an email from me from “StCassianOutreach2020@gmail.com” as a way of touching base and to make sure that no one who has any needs not cared for. As I said in last week’s bulletin and in the email, if there is anyone who needs anything such as food, prescriptions, baby needs, etc., and is not able to get them because of mobility issues or because of children/family obligations, please send an email to the above email address or call the office. Someone will reply to your email and we have someone in the Parish office each day from 9 am to 3 pm. I do not want anyone to “slip through the cracks.”
While we certainly consider the situation a difficult one, we can also recognize that there is some good that can come from the “Stay at Home” policy that Governor Murphy has mandated. For example, so often we say that there are certain things that we would like to do “if only we had the time.” We often list things like exercise, praying more, reading the Scriptures and spending more time with our family, just to mention a couple. God, in His divine wisdom, has now given us the time! Spending time with families is the most important thing that families can do together and now we are forced to do that. I hear and see that families are eating meals together again; they are exercising and playing together, and hopefully, praying together. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if these things that we are doing now that we have long desired to do are things that we will continue to do once we are all back to normal? This can be an extraordinarily fruitful time for our family life and spiritual life if we take advantage of this time that the Lord has given us.
Speaking of using time well, there is a wonderful app for your phone or tablet that might be useful in growing your spiritual life during these quiet days at home. There is an app called “Hallow” which is free and you can download it to your devices and it offers various types of reflections and prayers that are interactive. It is free and you have an option to upgrade if you would like. It might be the perfect way for you to boost your prayer life.
Another way that you can continue to prepare for the Paschal Mysteries and the Easter Season is to make a visit to our church during the days. The church building is open Monday to Friday from 9 am to 3 pm and Saturday from 9 am to 5 pm. The Blessed Sacrament is exposed all day on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. This past Saturday, as always, the Sacrament of Reconciliation was available and it was nice to have a good number of people come for the Sacrament. (To be safe, the priest will sit in the front of the open church.) Perhaps going to Confession and receiving God’s forgiveness and grace this Lent is something that would be good for you.
I also want to use this note to give you an update on a few things. Firstly, we have received about $51,000 or 66% of our Parish goal of $78,000 for our Archdiocesan Annual Appeal. Thank you to those who have made contributions to the Appeal. Secondly, obviously, our offertory has been down quite a bit since there are no public Masses and collections, so I want to encourage those of you who are able during these very difficult financial times to please mail in your envelopes to the Parish office, or better yet, to use or sign up for Faith Direct, our online giving resource. Electronic giving is easy. By enrolling in online giving, you will simplify your monthly budgeting and provide St. Cassian Parish with consistent, reliable support. Please visit www.faithdirect.net and use church code NJ514. In any case, I simply ask parishioners to give whatever they can during this crisis
Finally, while there are several ways to view online streaming Masses already (the Cardinal’s Mass on Youtube, while Relevant Radio and EWTN all stream), St. Cassian Parishioners have requested that we stream a Mass on Sundays. Therefore, we are going Facebook Livestream Mass on Sunday at 9:00 am and if you would like to view it, please go to our Parish Facebook page, “St. Cassian Catholic Church.”
Please know that I am praying for the entire Parish, especially that you will all remain safe and that this “pause” in our routines will both end soon as well as produce great fruit.
Blessings,
Fr. Marc A. Vicari,
Pastor
In response to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, our Holy Father will give an extraordinary blessing “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and the world) this FRIDAY, MARCH 27, 2020, at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time (6:00 p.m. Rome time). All the faithful and other Christians in our local Church and beyond are invited to participate in the special prayer with Pope Francis, which will be broadcast by Mondovision and live-streamed on the Vatican News website at www.vaticannews.va. The Holy Father will grant to all participants in the livestream a Plenary Indulgence before imparting the Urbi et Orbi Blessing.
As Pope Francis has said, “To the pandemic of the virus we want to respond with the universality of prayer, compassion and tenderness. Let us stay united. Let us make those who are alone and tested feel our closeness.”
