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On Sunday, November 2, we will be hosting a parish ministry fair, which will take place in the ICS cafeteria from 8:00 am to 1:00 pm. Ministry fairs are not a new thing to parishes. They have been taking place in various ways for years. The purpose of these fairs is to highlight the diversity of pastoral life taking place in the parish and to invite people to consider how their unique experiences and gifts might contribute to advancing the parish mission. I invite you to attend.

This weekend, October 11 & 12, please welcome Rev. John M. Olenick C.Ss.R. who will be with us to celebrate Masses and tell us about the work of Unbound, a lay Catholic sponsorship ministry that helps children and elderly in 17 developing countries. To learn more, call (800) 875-6564 or visit Unbound online at www.unbound.org.

We’re excited to share that Faith Direct has upgraded to ParishSOFT Giving—our new, secure giving platform. This upgrade happened automatically and securely. No action is required from you—your gift schedules and payment details will carry over seamlessly. What’s new about ParishSOFT Giving? Weekly Giving: If you selected weekly giving, your gifts will now be deducted each week instead of in one monthly batch. More Flexibility: Adjust your giving schedule to any date that works for you—not just the 4th or 15th. More Ways to Give: Now you can donate using PayPal, Venmo, Apple Pay, or Google Pay.

On Saturday, September 20, our parish will be joining Bishop Checchio in our diocesan pilgrimage to the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington DC for the Jubilee Year of Hope. Pilgrimage is a chief feature of any Jubilee Year in the Church. Most often the place of pilgrimage is to Rome, but as the Holy Father may permit other sites to be designated by the local diocesan bishop. By making pilgrimage to these sites, a plenary indulgence may be received during the Jubilee Year.

Our Church mourns the terrible suffering of innocent victims of violence in the Middle East who are struggling to survive, protect their children, and live with dignity in dire conditions. The Holy Father continues to call for a cease-fire and for aid to enter the territory, noting with great sorrow that “Gaza is starving.”

On Sunday, July 20, following the 11 am Mass, we will be hosting a light reception for Fr. Jerome Ocampo to welcome him to our parish. During this reception, Fr. Jerome will be imparting his “first blessing” to those who ask it of him. Please plan on joining us for this reception, and please, no presents or gifts for the occasion are expected or required. Your presence is a gift enough.

We offer our prayers, support, and congratulations to those adults who received the Sacrament of Confirmation this past Sunday. May they live as faithful disciples of the Lord and always rely on the unfailing help of the Holy Spirit. Pictured here with Monsignor Celano are our newly confirmed parishioners from left to right: Marilyn Cardinale, Dominic Basile, Jefferey Douglas, and Evelyn Corrales. Wishing you all joy, strength, and a heart full of faith as you continue to grow in Christ. Congratulations!

Fr. Jerome Ocampo, a native of the Philippines, was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Metuchen on Saturday, May 31, 2025. Fr. Ocampo received his B.A. in Philosophy from St. Camillus College Seminary, Philippines, and his M. Div. and M.A. in Christian Ethics from Immaculate Conception Seminary at Seton Hall University, South Orange, NJ. He has served resident internships in several parishes in the diocese, the most recent being at the Church of St. Magdalen dePazzi in Flemington where he served as a deacon. Fr. Ocampo has worked with both English and Spanish language communities and finds joy in all aspects of ministry, but especially in caring for the sick and those in health care institutions. We welcome Fr. Ocampo to our parish and pledge him our prayerful support as he begins his priestly ministry with us.

The 2025 Bishop’s Annual Appeal is well underway. All of our registered households by now have received correspondence from me supporting the appeal and encouraging your participation in it. The funds generated by the appeal, as you know, support many charitable, formational, and educational ministries throughout the diocese. Many have come to rely upon it for the practical help needed to educate our seminarians, provide a variety of social services through Catholic Charities, and maintain a vibrant Catholic campus ministry presence at Rutgers University, New Brunswick.

Congratulations to Nadine Burgos of Immaculate Conception Parish, Somerville, for fulfilling the requirements to earn the diocesan Series I Catechist Certificate. Burgos is the first catechist in the Diocese of Metuchen to complete the requirements for this certificate, which involved participation in three in-person training sessions at the St. John Neumann Pastoral Center in Piscataway and the finishing of 11 workshops through the Franciscan at Home formation platform. As a busy 26-year-old professional working in the accounting field, Burgos dutifully dedicated approximately 40 contact hours to fulfill these requirements over a period of about two months, a testament to her desire for formation and her strong work ethic.

This Wednesday, March 5, is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the Lenten Season. Lent is a campaign for holiness, both personally and communally, inviting us to turn more deeply to Christ through repentance and ongoing conversion of life. The Lenten season is built upon the three spiritual disciplines of prayer, fasting, and the works of mercy. These disciplines are given to us as a means of making a more personal response to the Lord who Himself calls us to undertake this 40-day campaign. We have various activities and events that our parish sponsors during Lent to help nurture your relationship with Christ in the Church, community, and the service of others.  Please join us this Lent in our striving for Christ, and through Him, renewal in mission and greater holiness of life.

Although this memorial is an optional one on the liturgical calendar, I believe it is good for us as a parish under the patronage of Mary Immaculate to celebrate it since it was to St. Bernadette Soubirous, a poor French peasant girl, that Our Lady identified Herself as the Immaculate Conception. The apparitions began on this day in 1858. Bernadette was collecting firewood for her family's home at the grotto of Massabielle. Suddenly, she saw a young Lady, shining like the sun, standing in a small niche in the grotto. Bernadette would see "the Lady" 18 times altogether. During the final apparition, Bernadette asked the Lady for her name. According to Bernadette, the Lady bowed her head, lifted her hands toward heaven, and said, "I am the Immaculate Conception". Bernadette did not understand what the Lady meant by this. The dogma of the Immaculate Conception - that Mary had been preserved from original sin and its effects from the first moment of her conception - had been defined by Pope Pius IX just four years earlier. The Lady Herself ratified the proclamation of the dogma and confirmed the truth of Her Immaculate Conception.

Once again, let me extend my deepest thanks to Gary Gavula, our combined choirs, our instrumentalists, and cantors for last Sunday’s Advent Evening of Readings and Carols. It was a beautiful evening of prayer, song, and reflection on the Word. I am also grateful to our Light Up The Night team and all those who volunteered to help with the delivery, set up, and decorations. Thank you! We couldn’t do this without you. Thank you, too, to all those who purchased a tree and by doing so help to support our parish and its mission. Thank you to all! Finally, I am grateful to members of our Parish Council for Financial Affairs for presenting you with the annual report to the parish. As I noted in my opening remarks to the presentation, one of the responsibilities placed on me as a pastor is to make an accounting of the stewardship of the resources you entrust to us for the life and mission of the parish. If you have not picked up the report yet, you can obtain it in the church vestibule and online through the parish website.

I am inviting you to join us on Monday, December 16 for prayer before the Blessed Sacrament and the Sacrament of Reconciliation beginning at 7:00 pm. Twelve priests will be available as confessors both in English and Spanish. Please, celebrate the sacrament with us in preparation for the Solemnity of the Nativity. We priests are there to welcome you and to lead you back to the grace Christ offers each of us in this sacrament of His mercy.

Jubilee Years generally occur every 25 years in the Church, the last one being held in 2000 as the Great Jubilee of the Third Millenia. Jubilee years are special years of grace. They are seasons of reconciliation and forgiveness, pilgrimage, and renewed spiritual focus. Pope Francis has called for the Jubilee Year 2025 beginning on Christmas Eve 2024 and continuing through the Epiphany, on January 6, 2026.

Each year the priests of the Diocese of Metuchen gather for an annual convocation in which we spend time in prayer, ongoing pastoral development, and in community with our bishop and each other.

The Sunday Morning Café has been a wonderful experience of fellowship and formation for those who have been participating in it. It was my hope to create an event that both helped us share time together in fellowship on a Sunday morning and provided an opportunity for us to grow in faith through topical presentations covering a wide variety of subjects.