Dear Parishioners:

My prayers are for all of you, especially to stay healthy and to continue to readjust to the “new normals” that we are experiencing.  I ask everyone to continue to be patient and prayerful during these times. Work, school, relationships, an already-long political season, uncertainty about finances, stressed relationships might all have us struggling to stay calm these days.  We need to make sure that we are continuing to pray, especially with our families and loved ones; prayer supports and gives hope in uncertain times.  It gives us strength to wake up each morning and be ready to tackle what has to be done for that day.  It would be great if we prayer not only for our needs, but the needs of our friends, neighbors and our country.  The Lord knows what is best for all, so praying for His Holy Will to be accomplished would be best and it is a simple, yet powerful prayer.

As for the upcoming elections, both national and local: of course, neither the Church nor I will ever endorse any particular candidate, I would simply ask that Catholic voters will vote according to their fully formed Catholic consciences.  For decades, this has been the Church’s stance on selecting a candidate to vote for.  The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) provides a guide in order to help Catholics form their consciences based on Catholic teachings and it is called, “The Challenge of Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship.”  It is included in this bulletin as an insert and I would ask you to prayerful read it, as it covers many of the issues with which Catholic voters are concerned. https://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/faithful-citizenship/upload/Forming-Consciences-Faithful-Citizenship-bulletin-insert.pdf

Finally, in a few weeks we will go to the polls (or the drop-off boxes), and I want to simply remind you all that as important as this and every election is and hopefully everyone will vote, God needs to be in charge of our lives more that any politician.  Our trust must always be in Him who can grant us salvation and peace, not an elected official.  Recall, in the Old Testament, the Israelites complained to God that they wanted a King (1 Samuel 8), a leader who would lead them, especially because all the other nations had a king.  The Lord warned them that a king will never treat and lead them as well as the Lord would.  God was their King, but they insisted on giving their allegiance to an earthly King and the Lord relented and gave them what they wanted.  Ultimately, the Jews paid quite a price for selecting an earthly king over their Heavenly King.  As badly as we want or hope a certain politician will win office, let us always remember that our ultimate allegiance needs to be to God and realize that Jesus is our King.

Psalm 146, written almost 3,000 years ago, makes this point very clear.

Psalm 146

Hallelujah!
Praise the LORD, my soul;
I will praise the LORD all my life,
sing praise to my God while I live.
Put no trust in princes,
in children of Adam powerless to save.
Who breathing his last, returns to the earth;
that day all his planning comes to nothing.
Blessed the one whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the LORD, his God,
The maker of heaven and earth,
the seas and all that is in them,
Who keeps faith forever,
secures justice for the oppressed,
who gives bread to the hungry.
The LORD sets prisoners free;
the LORD gives sight to the blind.
The LORD raises up those who are bowed down;
the LORD loves the righteous.
The LORD protects the resident alien,
comes to the aid of the orphan and the widow,
but thwarts the way of the wicked.
The LORD shall reign forever,
your God, Zion, through all generations!
Hallelujah!

King James Version

Many blessings to all!

Fr. Marc A. Vicari,
Pastor

Dear Parishioners:

Greetings to all and I hope this finds you well and enjoying this beautiful time of year.

After months of playing catch-up with the Sacraments of Confirmation and First Eucharist, I’m happy to announce that with one last Communion ceremony still to occur, all of our children and young adults who have prepared for the Sacraments have received them. Congratulations to all who have received Confirmation and the gift of the Holy Spirit over the last few months in the six ceremonies as well as the young boys and girls who have received Jesus in their First Holy Communion. I am happy for all of the kids because the Sacraments help them in their quest for holiness, and at the same time, I am happy for our Parish and the Church because these events help the kingdom of God to grow. Congratulations!

I have more good news to report: there have been no reported cases of new COVID infections of parishioners by the pastors of our deanery. Our deanery constitutes Montclair, Belleville, Nutley and Bloomfield. All the parishes within our deanery have been following the guidelines very closely, so we can say that they have paid off. I ask everyone, though, to continue to follow the guidelines and restrictions closely. This means to please make sure that you sign-up for the Mass you will be attending, that while in church, you make sure that you keep a safe distance from those outside of your household and that you sanitize your hands before and during Mass. Of course, masks remain a requirement inside the church. Thank you for your compliance so far and I’m so pleased to announce that clearly these restrictions and guidelines are working well.

Finally, I just want to give everyone a heads-up that over the last few months someone has been sending false emails out to various populations of our Parish in my name. They were initially focused on school families, but apparently have become more widespread. These false solicitations are asking the recipient to purchase gift cards because either I, or someone I am advocating for, is in need. Of course these emails are false, even if they include my photo or signature or basic information such as the Parish address. We have been in contact with the authorities regarding these scams. If you ever have a question about the authenticity of a communication that you might receive, please simply call the Parish office.

Little by little, I am seeing more of you returning to Mass. I am so happy to see you all and let’s all continue to pray for everyone’s health and safety as well as an end to this crisis.

Many blessings,

Fr. Marc A. Vicari,
Pastor

October is the Month of the Holy Rosary and the perfect time for families to pray it together.  If you are not certain how to pray the Rosary, please check out: https://www.newadvent.org/images/rosary.pdf

Dear Parishioners:

Over the past 125 years, there has been great change in the world and society and it is certainly no different in the Church as well as in our Parish.  At that same time, a small group of families, mostly domestics and laborers, gathered to celebrate Mass each week.  Their devotion became so fervent that the Bishop of Newark at the time, Bishop Winand Wigger (the third Bishop of Newark) determined that the territory of the “Upper” section of Montclair should form its own Parish and thus, named one, St. Cassian.

For a few years, the new Parish of St. Cassian was administered by the Pastor of Immaculate Conception Church, Montclair, as well as a few other priests until Fr. John McGeary, an associate priest from Immaculate was named the first Pastor of St. Cassian.  From that time on, both the neighborhood, as well as the Parish saw much growth, changing from a rural area to a suburban, bustling town.  With that also came great growth in the Parish, the sacramental life of the Parish, ministries and the number of Parishioners, and, eventually, a Parish School.

Now 125 years and nine Pastors into the history of the Parish, we still see continued growth in activities, ministries and Parishioners, and with all the great number of Parishioners who participate in the life of the church: most importantly by coming to Mass to pray and worship God.  At the same time, many volunteer in so many ways: beautifying the grounds, bringing Holy Communion to shut-ins, collecting food for the poor, volunteering their time in many liturgical and ministerial ways, so there is reason to believe that we will continue to grow and do great things.  I believe the best is still yet to come for our Parish!

God only knows how much the world will change in the next 125 years.  My prayerful hope is for us to stay focused on not just doing great things, but doing great things for the Lord so that others will come to know Jesus and will want to build up the Kingdom of God.  If this Parish is going to continue to flourish- and I believe it will- it will be because of the great, holy, dedicated parishioners of St. Cassian Church and all the good they will do in the name of the Lord.

Blessings,

Fr. Marc A. Vicari,
Pastor

Dear Parishioners:

I hope everyone is doing well as so many of you return to work and to school (and CCD) and hopefully the transition back to somewhat “normalcy” is going well for everyone.

I want to take the opportunity to say thank you very much to Agnes Dembia who coordinates so many of our charitable events such as the food drive that we had this past weekend (as well as being the one who takes care of the plants and flowers around the property). Recall, because we were not able to have a reception with Cardinal Tobin after our Anniversary Mass, we decided to have a food drive to collect food for the needy within the Archdiocese instead.  By Sunday afternoon, we had collected almost 1,000 items of non-perishable goods! I thank all of you for your generosity as well as Agnes for the idea and orchestrating the collection and delivery.

Speaking of charity, this Saturday night and Sunday, Dr. James Morgan will be giving a brief presentation about the St. Cassian Pediatric Nutrition Center in Haiti that we are sponsoring as our Parish charitable initiative for our Anniversary. We are raising funds to build this center and to feed the needy in Haiti. Please refer to my weekly Legacy Fund section in the bulletin. As you will notice, we are about halfway there to fund the construction of the building. After that, we will fund the purchase of the nutritional supplies to be distributed.

While it has been a slow return for many, it is good to see many of you coming back each week.  I look forward to seeing more and more of you, especially our families.

Blessings to all,

Rev. Marc A. Vicari,
Pastor

Dear Parish:

God is good!

No doubt we have witnessed this a number of times in our lives, but particularly this past weekend when we had such a beautiful celebration of the Parish’s 125th Anniversary Mass. What a blessing it was to have Cardinal Joseph Tobin here to celebrate the special day and to celebrate our patron saint, St. Cassian. On top of that, the unveiling of our new Statue and its blessing was beautiful as well. Thank you to all who made it possible, who attended in church as well as those who watched at home. The feedback was fantastic and I will be sure to pass it on to Cardinal Tobin.

We have begun our Anniversary Year and we will use this time to celebrate as best we can. While some of our celebratory events have already been cancelled, unfortunately, nonetheless, we will do the best we can to make this a special year, and maybe it will even have to carry over into next year, once the health crisis has passed. In any event, we still plan on doing good things.

For example this Sunday, we will be having our non-perishable food drive collection in the lower Church. Bring your non-perishable goods to Larkin Hall sometime on Sunday before 1:00 p.m.  Everything will be collected and in a few days distributed to Catholic Charities so that people of the Archdiocese can be fed and blessed with our charity.  What a nice way to celebrate our Anniversary as a Parish.

At the same time, keep an eye on the bulletin and the Legacy Fund box. The latest items to be added there are the Phase One and Phase Two parts of our collaboration with Dr. Jim Morgan to build the St. Cassian Pediatric Nutrition Center. As I’ve mentioned, $20,000 is needed initially for the building to be built in Cite Soleil, Haiti. Once that is collected, and the building has begun, we can look to complete Phase Two which is the purchase of the food and medical supplies that will be distributed to the poor of that city. Again, what a great way for us to celebrate our Anniversary by spreading the Kingdom of God!  Already, we have received $10,200 towards this first phase. Once Phase One is complete, contributions will go automatically to Phase Two and the food purchase. Dr. Morgan will speak at the Masses next week, September 26/27, to give more details about this most important Parish undertaking.

This week at the 9:00 am Mass, we celebrate Catechetical Sunday. It is the week that we emphasize catechesis in our Parish and we pray in a special way for our students who attend our CCD program as well as ask God’s blessing upon all of our CCD teachers. Obviously, this year we will need to ask for special blessings from the Lord during these difficult times of distance learning. Mrs. Sammon has always done a wonderful job with this program and there is no reason to believe that this year will be any different.

Finally, if you have not yet seen the new Statue of Saint Cassian, make sure you take a good look at it up close. The details of the martyr’s life and death are beautifully depicted in this incredible statue.  Feel free to take home some prayer cards commemorating the day and the blessing, as well.

While it is slow, I am confident that we will be returning to normal soon. Let us all join together and ask the Lord’s blessing on all of us during this difficult time, that He will not only keep us safe and healthy, but that he will also bless our school year, especially St. Cassian School, and our Parish’s Anniversary Year.

Many blessings to all of you!

Rev. Marc A. Vicari,
Pastor

Dear Parishioners:

As your Pastor and on behalf of all eight of the pastors who have preceded me, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for being a Parishioner here at St. Cassian Parish! This week, we celebrate our 125th Anniversary of the founding of St. Cassian’s and there would be no celebration of a Parish if there were not Parishioners who were part of that Parish and its history. I want to thank you and all those who have been a part of the Parish since its inception.

From the tiny little country wooden church that was built in 1896 on Norwood Ave., to our beautiful modern-day building, there have been many changes. At the beginning there were only about 25 families and a handful of ministries when the Parish was founded. Now we have about 1700 and continue to grow. If you have a chance, please read the history of the Parish.

It is a blessing that we have Cardinal Joseph Tobin this week celebrating our Anniversary Mass as well, as in some ways, the story of our little Parish growing into a big Parish mirrors what was our little diocese growing into our large, major metropolitan Archdiocese headed by a Cardinal! I thank Cardinal Tobin for recognizing the importance of this day and blessing it with his presence.

In last week’s bulletin, I spoke of our Parish’s desire to celebrate this year through our charitable work. I mentioned that I’m asking the Parish to support Dr. Jim Morgan’s Lamp for Haiti work of building a nutrition center. Instead of raising funds for our own Parish’s financial security, I ask that we support Dr. Morgan’s initiative to build a much-needed pediatric nutrition center in Cité Soleil, Haiti, near Port-au-Prince. Part of our mission as a Parish for the last 125 years has been to build up the Kingdom of God, not only in Upper Montclair or Northern New Jersey, but throughout the world. The St. Cassian Pediatric Nutrition Center in Haiti, as it will be named, will help us do that, specifically by helping feed the poorest of the poor.

Please continue to check out the bulletin as the Nutrition Center’s phases will be a part of our Legacy Fund requests. To view the video produced specifically for this project, I ask you to go to our Parish website, click on the “Donate Now” button and scroll to “featured charity” where you will be able to view the video.

Lastly, just a reminder, that next week will be our non-perishable food drive. On Sunday, September 20th, you are invited to bring non-perishable items to Larkin Hall in the lower Church. These items will be gathered and then passed on to those in need within the Archdiocese of Newark, through Catholic Charities.

Again, I deeply thank you for choosing St. Cassian Parish as your Parish and for your prayers and support over these first 125 years of our existence. My prayer is certainly joined with all of yours, asking that the Lord will continue to bless us all, invigorate us during these trying times, and lead us into a new and even greater phase of St. Cassian Parish’s future.

Blessings to all of you as we begin our Anniversary Year!

Rev. Marc A. Vicari,
Pastor