Dear Parishioners:

As many of you know, we have begun celebrating weekday Masses open to the public and that is currently limited to 50 persons. Weekday Masses are on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday mornings at 8:15 am. As I mentioned last week at Sunday Mass, we will be having Mass this Sunday, June 21st, using our Summer Schedule of 7:30 am, 9:30 am, and 11:30 am. The Saturday evening Mass at 5:30 pm will begin next Saturday, June 27th. Right now, the capacity in the church building is 50 persons with some overflow space in the lower church for a small group to watch remotely on the television, while Communion will be brought down. However, it is necessary for those who want to attend to register online or by calling that Parish office by Friday afternoon.

At the same time, please realize that the Cardinal is still dispensing parishioners from the Sunday obligation until we are completely recovered from the pandemic. Therefore, those who are vulnerable because of age or physical conditions, it is recommended that you stay home until it is safe to return to larger groups.

Please see my “Announcements” from Sunday June 14 that explain the process of reopening the church safely and please realize that we are doing the best we can to keep everyone safe. Realize, also, however, that coming to church for Mass means that you will be entering into an area where there are other people and that there is always a possibility that a virus can be transmitted regardless of how steadfast we are in cleaning and preparing for the crowds. I am never certain when I will receive information from the Archdiocese of Newark, but I continue to pass it on to all of you as quickly as I can.

Like all of you, I pray that we will be back to normal soon, as I look forward to seeing you all again soon.

Blessings to you,
Rev. Marc A. Vicari,
Pastor

Dear Parishioners:

Again, this week I pray that all are well and enjoying the beginnings of summer time. A special congratulations to our St. Cassian School graduating class of 2020! It was a difficult last quarter of the school year and their resilience and ability was like no other class of St. Cassian School. Congrats, Class of 2020. Well done!

I want to take this opportunity to again thank you for all of your kind words and support especially during these past few months. They have been difficult times, but the future is looking brighter and brighter. And a special thank you to those who have continued your financial support of the parish. Your thoughtfulness, whether through Faith Direct or by mailing your envelopes into the parish have helped us to maintain our operations. Like you, I’m very much looking forward, though, to seeing you all in person again. Hopefully soon.

In the meantime I wanted to remind you again that we have a special blessing that will occur here in the parish in the next few weeks. Longtime parishioner, reader and Eucharistic Minister, Roberto Demetillo will be ordained a Permanent Deacon for the Archdiocese of Newark and will probably serve us in our Parish.

I want to use this as an opportunity to speak about Holy Orders and the diaconate and the three-fold office of the Priesthood of Jesus Christ. Deacons, whether they are permanent or transitional (transitioning from the deacons to priests), all share in the priesthood of Christ, but to a lesser degree. Deacons receive the Sacrament of Holy Orders and have been called by God for this sacramental ministry. Roberto, who will be called “Deacon Roberto” upon his ordination, will be ordained to the Permanent Diaconate meaning that he will serve as a deacon, sharing in the Priesthood of Jesus Christ by proclaiming the Gospel, preaching, baptizing children, celebrating weddings, and giving blessings, among other activities. “Deacon Roberto” will share to a lesser degree in the Priesthood of Jesus Christ, while ordained priests (such as I or any parish priest, for example) share in a greater degree, while bishops share in the fullness of the Priesthood of Jesus Christ.

The diaconate, from its origins in the first century, was created and given to the Church in order to preach the Word and provide for the poor and the needy. That is all biblical. Deacon Roberto, who will be ordained on Saturday, June 27th at our beautiful Cathedral, and will serve at the altar in a special way, as well as read the Gospel and speak Christ’s words in his homilies. I am so looking forward to his ordination, as he’s receiving the Sacrament of Holy Orders and will be of service to our Parish. God bless soon-to-be Deacon Roberto Demetillo!

Earlier yesterday, Governor Murphy announced that he was lifting the “stay-at-home order” and allowing larger gatherings. We are officially entering Phase Two for church openings on June 15th. Last night, the Archdiocese sent out new directives about how we will be opening the churches. It will allow for us to open for daily Masses next week. Our daily Mass schedule for next week will be Tuesday (June 16), Thursday and Saturday at 8:15 am. Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament will continue for that week at the regular scheduled times. The new restrictions allow for up to 50 persons in the church for these daily Masses, but all must continue to distance, wear face coverings and sanitize their hands.

Phase Two will also allow for funeral Masses with 50 persons or fewer. Baptisms will be part of Phase Two, but I would prefer to celebrate baptisms in groups instead of just one at a time, therefore, we will hold off a little while with the baptisms until the congregation can be a little bit larger.

Phase Three of the reopening of churches will begin with Sunday Mass on June 21st. We will begin our Summer Mass Schedule on that day with the Saturday evening 5:30 Mass, followed by the Sunday morning 7:30, 9:30 and 11:30 Masses. We will maintain this schedule until September. There will be a need to register for Masses either online or by calling the Parish office. The 5:30 pm and 9:30 am Masses will be designated as “family Masses” so that families can sit together while all others will be required to socially distance. More information on this will follow and I thank you in advance for your patience.

Lastly, this week we celebrate the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Jesus, which used to be known as Corpus Christi. On Sunday we celebrate Jesus’ Body and Blood, the Eucharist, being the central mystery of our Catholic Christian lives. Yet for so long, now, so many of us have gone without receiving Holy Communion. We suffer because we don’t receive Him and His grace. In a time when our country is so divided over many things and we see such a lack of peace all around us, we need Our Lord’s physical presence and divine grace more than ever.

Hopefully everyone is making spiritual communion using the prayer in the weekly bulletin, asking God for the grace that we would have received in Holy Communion. It will be interesting to celebrate this Solemnity with so many people not receiving Holy Communion. Hopefully this absence of the Eucharist in your lives and in the lives of all church members, particularly these days, will cause you to desire Him all the more! My prayer is that soon everyone will be sharing the Eucharist again, our beautiful foretaste of the Eternal Banquet.

Many blessings to all of you,
Fr. Marc A. Vicari,
Pastor

Dear Parishioners:

I received a text message from a friend yesterday that simply said, “These are crazy times, Padre!” At the same time, one of the Facebook comments from Sunday Mass was a simple, “Love Your Neighbor.” No doubt we would all agree with these statements. Between the lingering effects of covid-19 as well as the social unrest, it is making for the “perfect storm” of difficult times.

Like all of you, undoubtedly, I condemn the senseless and cruel killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. How can we all not be aghast at, not only the video of the killing, but the disregard for a human life? Like many of you, I wholeheartedly stand behind the peaceful protesters seeking justice and peace and needed change. I would ask you all to read the statement, in this bulletin, of our Archbishop, Cardinal Joseph Tobin, regarding George Floyd’s death.

The national turmoil that has resulted is also unfortunate and is unquestionably delaying our physical and economic recovery from the virus. I prayed on Pentecost Sunday and I continue to pray that the Holy Spirit would bring renewal to the face of the earth and that there would be unity in our country and in our lives so that together we can fight these crises. The crisis of the virus and the crisis of injustice when innocent life is taken.

This upcoming Sunday, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, a feast that recognizes and celebrates the unity of God as perfect love: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Theologically, it’s the day that we recognize that from the Father and the Son a love comes forth which is the Holy Spirit. These days we can pray that the hatred in our world and in our lives will be replaced with love, similar to the love of the Holy Trinity that results in complete unity. Authentic love brings unity and it is what we need now more than ever. I ask that we as a Christian people, we pray more than ever for this unity.

I want to use this message also to communicate an update about the reopening of our churches. Since the Governor announced the other day that we are entering Phase Two soon, I would expect that we will be given the go ahead to begin celebrating daily and small Masses publicly soon. As of right now, I’m not sure what the Archdiocesan guidelines will be. For example, how many people will be allowed in the church at once and what other protocols might be necessary? As I find out, I will be making them known to you all.

At the same time, realize that masks will certainly still be required and I would encourage you to again read the bulletin article that tells us “What to Expect When Churches Reopen.” We will probably require some kind of reservation system to be in so that we can accommodate you all and we are working on this now in the Parish Office.

At the same time, realize that masks will certainly still be required and I would encourage you to again read the bulletin article that tells us “What to Expect When Churches Reopen.” We will probably require some kind of reservation system to be in so that we can accommodate you all and we are working on this now in the Parish Office.

Of course, Phase Three will mean that we are open for Sunday Masses. Obviously, we don’t know when that will begin and we all hope sooner rather than later. In the meantime, please note that we are going to go our regular, annual summer schedule for Sunday Masses. When the time comes that we can have public Sunday Masses, we will celebrate the regular 5:30 Saturday evening Mass, followed by the Sunday 7:30, 9 30 and 11:30 Masses. We will continue to live stream to accommodate those who are either compromised or believe it is best not to come to church for health reasons. The Cardinal continues to grant a dispensation for those people who cannot attend for those reasons. Again, this is all a while down the road, but I want you all to be updated as much as possible.

These are crazy times. These are difficult times for a number of reasons. We need to continue to pray for the peace and unity that only our Triune God can bring.

Prayers and blessings,
Fr. Marc A. Vicari,
Pastor

Dear Parishioners:

I hope everyone had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend! Summer is upon us and at the same time, remember, also, we are one week closer to the end of this crisis. And hopefully the crisis will end soon.

This past week, as many of you know, we opened up the church a couple of days for quiet prayer. Tuesdays and Thursdays will continue to be open from 10am to 2pm. Some parishioners come early and prayed the Rosary together. Also on Saturdays from 12 noon to 4pm, the church has been open and I was there for Confessions from 2pm on. For all hours of visitation, the Blessed Sacrament is being exposed. For your safety, the church is being sanitized after each prayer session.

As of today, I still don’t know when we will move to the next phase of reopening the church is, but I hope we will be able to do this soon. Of course, we will do it safely and I will inform you as I find out the plan, especially as the Archdiocese notifies pastors.

It would be wonderful if you all made visits to the church, either as individuals or as families. This is good for a couple of reasons: firstly, so that everyone stays in the physical and spiritual presence of the Lord and continue to pray as families. This is important during this time to make sure that we are making an effort to be with the Lord. Secondly, it will be a way of letting me know what kind of attendance I can expect when the churches are in fact, reopened. It will give me a gauge as to what I can expect when we start celebrating Masses publicly.

At the same time, we continue to provide services even if they are virtually. On Mondays, Greg Hann, our Director of Evangelization, gives brief theological talks. On Thursdays he leads Bible study. On Wednesday nights we have a virtual Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. All of these are at 7:30pm on Facebook. Hopefully you’ll be able to attend them as well as the regular livestream Sunday Mass at 9am. Again, I want to encourage you all to stay active in your faith even if it means simply watching on your computer at home.

Last Sunday we celebrated the Ascension of Our Lord, when Jesus ascended into heaven. This Sunday we celebrate Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended upon the apostles, forming the church and renewing the earth. This is what we pray for particularly this Sunday: that the Holy Spirit will come more powerfully than ever and renew our church and all the earth. We pray that the Holy Spirit will give guidance to all of our leaders, both civic and Church and that they will be guided by His Divine Presence. We pray that we will all be guided by the Holy Spirit in our lives!

Please, let’s continue to pray for each other, that we are all healthy, safe, and growing in holiness.

Blessings,
Rev. Marc A. Vicari,
Pastor

Dear Parishioners:

I pray this finds everyone healthy and well. No doubt, the nice weather has lifted the spirits of many.

As many of you know, this week we begin opening the church for quiet individual prayer. We are open on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10 am to 2 pm and Saturdays from 12 noon to 4:00 pm (with Confessions from 2:00 to 4:00). The Blessed Sacrament is being exposed on the altar for quiet prayerful devotion. Hopefully you will all have an opportunity to come to the church and pray in person, along with your family.

As I mentioned last week we are just beginning Phase One of the church reopening. I’m not sure how long it will take until we get to Phase Two, but hopefully it will be soon and I am optimistic about this. Please see the details in this bulletin of the proposed reopening, the 3 Phases and what to expect.

There are a few things I’d like you to be aware of, so I used this bulletin message for that purpose. If you come to church, you will notice that there is a small area of the front of the building being worked on by contractors. We are having niches created in the front of the church near the altar, so that statues can be placed there. On the left will be the statue of Mary that we usually put out for the month of May near the altar. She will be in that niche. On the right will be the statue of St. Cassian that is in its final stages of creation. I think you will all be very, very pleased with how beautiful this statue of our patron saint is. I wanted to take advantage of this time where there is not much activity in the church to have this work done, but unfortunately, it has to be done while the church is in its soft reopening.

At the same time, realize in about three or four weeks, the interior of the whole church as well as its exterior will be painted. Recall, this is one of the major jobs that we outlined in the We Are Living Stones (WALS) campaign from four years ago. Again, unfortunately, the timing isn’t the greatest with our reopening, but last year when we were scheduling the contractors, we planned on June as being the best time to do this work because it would be the beginning of the slow summer months. And please realize that all this work is completely funded already. It is being funded by our WALS as well as some private donations. Essentially, you all have funded this with your generosity!

I wanted to have this work done, firstly, because after 25 years the church needs to be repaired and repainted which is what we are doing. Secondly, we want to make sure that our beautiful Church looks great for the beginning of our 125th anniversary which we will begin celebrating in September. I am hoping that we will be able to have our planned celebrations, but obviously, those are still up in the air.

Speaking of the summer, too, we usually go to our summer Mass schedule at the very end of June where we go from four to three Sunday Masses. I am still deliberating what to do about this and I am planning on using Phase One information to determine if there will be less of a need or more of a need for the fourth Sunday Mass. I will keep you all abreast as soon as I know.

Lastly, if you have watched the live stream of Mass the last couple of Sundays, you probably noticed that the quality of the video and the sound have been greatly improved. Thanks to Walter Springer, we were able to get the live stream even going on both Facebook and YouTube. I would not have known where to even begin without him and he got the immediate need taken care of, thankfully! In an attempt to get the quality even better, I spoke with Lou Picciano who has set us up with top notch sound and a new camera so our live stream is high quality, as many of you have commented. I am looking to make a few more upgrades so that we can maintain this level of quality moving forward at least until we are back to normal.

Again, I thank you all for your support: financial, spiritual and friendly support. It has all been very helpful and fruitful. Know that I pray for you all each day and often that you will be well and that we can return to church soon and together thank God for His blessings, especially in helping us all get through this difficult time.

Last week I asked you all to please continue to be patient in the reopening process. I ask you, even more so, now, as we still try to figure out the best way to do it and have necessary contracted work going on at the same time. Like you all, I look forward to all of this being over!

Many blessings,
Rev. Marc A. Vicari,
Pastor

Dear Parishioners:

There is great news about the reopening of churches in the Archdiocese of Newark! Next week we will begin opening our Parish church for quiet prayer a few days a week for a few hours. There will be guidelines as far as people being able to visit the church and this issue of the bulletin has an outline that the Archdiocese has given us (“What to Expect When Mass Resumes”). As you will see, there will be a three-phase approach to opening the churches. The first starts next week, as I mentioned above, and then it will progress to Phase 2 and Phase 3 accordingly. The outline from the Archdiocese also gives everyone a heads up on what to expect when they return to the church. Please read the included page titled “Phase One.”

Some important details to notice are that visitors will need to wear face coverings or masks, must be at least 6 feet away from each other at all times (according to pew and church indicators), visitors can only sit in designated areas at certain times and I ask everyone to bring your own hand sanitizers. I will have the Blessed Sacrament exposed during this time of prayer. I will also make the Sacrament of Reconciliation available next week, probably Saturday afternoon. (concerning this, please read point 11 in the “Phase One page.”)

There is other news in the Archdiocese is that unfortunately sad. Ten Archdiocesan Catholic schools have closed. That notification from the Cardinal is included in this bulletin as well. We are not one of the schools closing. As a matter of fact, St. Cassian School remains very, very healthy, even with a waiting list. I only mention the other schools so that you all are aware of news around the Archdiocese.

Some other immediate news that affects our Parish that is good is that we have been approved for the Payroll Protection Program (PPP) and have in fact already received the assistance check that will be used solely for payroll. This is very helpful in maintaining the vitality of our Parish during these difficult times, at least for a two-month period. At the same time, I am very, very grateful to all of you who have maintained your financial support during this tough time. Using Faith Direct and mailing your weekly envelopes directly to the Parish office have been extremely helpful and I am grateful.

While we are certainly all excited about the reopening of our Church and the celebration of the sacraments, again, I ask you to please make sure that you are patient and follow the guidelines that our Parish and the Archdiocese set for it. Again, I am going to ask everyone to bring their own face coverings/masks, hand sanitizers (gloves is you choose to wear them) and follow the markings in the church. It would be impossible and unsafe for me to provide all of these for all of the visitors, so please bring your own.

While there will be many demands on those who return to church, I would ask that those who are vulnerable either because of health or because of age to please remain at home if there is even the slightest risk to your health. Parishioners are also asked to take their temperature before they come to church to make sure there is no fever.

We will continue the Sunday Mass live streams so there is no need for people who are susceptible to infection to risk their health in coming back. You can continue to watch our Mass on Facebook or YouTube or any other Mass, as it counts for your Sunday obligation.

I will keep you all informed as we move forward, but in the meantime, let’s all continue to pray for a safe and speedy end to this crisis. And let’s continue to pray for one another.

Many blessings,

Fr. Marc A. Vicari,
Pastor