October 4, 2020: 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time
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
September 27, 2020: 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time
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
September 19, 2020: 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time
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
September 13, 2020: 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time
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
September 6, 2020: 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
Greetings to all!
Like many of you, I’m excited to be getting back into the swing of things. Now that our summertime is almost over, we are all certainly anticipating the fall activities. Of course, one of them is returning to church for Mass.
We have some good news that has come from the Archdiocese of Newark in the last few days. We are permitted now to open up masses to 25% of the church capacity without exceeding 150 persons. This means that a few more people are allowed into Mass. Instead of just 100, we’re allowed about 120. At the same time, I must remind everyone who wants to attend to be sure you sign up for Mass on our website or by calling the parish office. Over the summer we were able to get by without everyone signing up and permitted some walk-ins, however when everyone returns for Masses, it may pose a problem.
Next week, on September 13th at the 11:30 a.m. Mass, Cardinal Joseph Tobin, our Archbishop will be coming and celebrating our Anniversary Mass on the Feast of St. Cassian. I again insist that you sign up for the Mass if you want to attend, as seating will be very limited and I ask that you please be seated by 11:15 am. If you are not able to attend, please realize that the Mass will be live streamed and if there is any reason why you cannot attend, please view from home.
We’re very excited to have the Cardinal, as not only will he celebrate the Parish’s 125th Anniversary, but he will celebrate our patronal Feast day of St. Cassian. During the Mass, too, he will bless our new St. Cassian statue. Right now the statue is in the niche, but it is covered until the unveiling before Mass that day.
One of the effects of the Coronavirus is that we will not be celebrating our Anniversary year like we had hoped to. A few of the events that we had planned were for fundraising for our Parish and to ensure our financial security for the future. Not all of the events were for this purpose, but a few were and we were hoping to be able to add to our saving and operational accounts. Unfortunately, we won’t be able to do that, however, I believe, that we can do something even better.
Many of you are aware of Dr. James Morgan, a Saint Cassian school graduate and long-time parishioner of our Parish. Many are also familiar with his organization, Lamp for Haiti which brings much-needed medical care and supplies to the very poor and needy in Haiti. Months ago, our Anniversary Committee determined that supporting Dr. Morgan’s initiative to build a nutrition center in Haiti would be a project that we would undertake as a Parish in thanksgiving to the Lord for all the blessings we have had as a Parish over the past 125 years. Therefore, instead of using this year to help build our financial legacy, I am asking the parish to instead support and fund Dr. Morgan’s initiative in bringing a nutrition center to Port-au-Prince, Haiti. This would be an even-greater legacy of our Parish: to help save lives and make better the lives of those who are struggling just to eat.
Dr. Morgan has filled our Committee in on the numbers needed. Right now the initial cost is $20,000 to get a simple building built in Port-au-Prince and furnished as well. That is his most immediate need and once that is complete another $20,000 is needed for the medicine and nutrition packages to be distributed to the needy. Therefore, as a Parish, we are going to forgo our Anniversary fundraising in order to help the people of Haiti simply to survive. I believe that this is the greatest legacy that we could leave and celebrate as a 125th Anniversary project: to help save lives of poor and malnourished people. On top of that, Dr. Morgan has already said that it will be called the St. Cassian Nutrition Center in Port-au-Prince! Please check out the video on our Parish Website featuring the St. Cassian Nutrition Center and the great work that Dr. Morgan, our Parishioner, does.
One of the Anniversary projects that we did not suspend, was having Christmas tree ornaments made in the shape of our beautiful Church. Our Decoration Committee designed the ornaments and had them produced. There will be a picture of one in the bulletin as well as a link to purchase them. These will certainly make a great gift for family members and it would be great if every Parish family purchased one for your own Christmas tree. They are available for sale next week and for the upcoming months, but I would recommend you get yours early.
Lastly, another casualty of the Coronavirus is that when the Cardinal comes next week, we won’t be able to have a reception with him. I was looking forward to him meeting our wonderful Parishioners. However, I am hoping that he will agree to a very brief and socially-distanced greeting in our back plaza.
In lieu of having a reception as we planned, Agnes Dembia and I are asking that our Parish have a food drive to help those who have been so greatly impacted by the effects of the Coronavirus. Therefore, on September 20th, I would ask that you bring non-perishable goods to Larkin Hall, in the lower Church. What we are missing out in having a post-Mass reception I am hoping will inspire others, again, to help the needy. So, on September 20th please feel free to bring your non-perishable item (s) to our collection center in order to help others. Again, this will be another opportunity to celebrate our 125 years as a Parish by helping the needy and building the Kingdom of God!
Again, I very much look forward to seeing all of you soon as we return from the summer and begin our Year of Celebrating St. Cassian Parish’s 125 wonderful years.
Blessings,
Rev. Marc A. Vicari,
Pastor
