Author: Nathalie Godet

4th Sunday of Advent

Posted on by Nathalie Godet

 

Dear Friends,

Merry Christmas!

Yes, even though today is the Fourth Sunday of Advent, Christmas is getting close…and it is here in just two days… Although we can’t control its suddenness, and how our culture celebrates it, we can keep the spirit of Christmas in our own home by teaching our children the value of delayed gratification. Wait for the party, wait to open a present. Read the Christmas story as a family. Matthew and Luke are the Evangelists we can depend on for the birth and infancy narratives of Jesus. The first two chapters from each of these gospels are ideal for this purpose. Read at least one chapter each day starting today.

This Christmas is very special because the Jubilee Year (celebrated every 25 years) will begin on December 24, 2024 (Christmas Eve) and conclude on January 6, 2026 (Feast of the Epiphany). This was officially proclaimed by Pope Francis in his papal bull titled Spes Non Confundit  which means “Hope Does Not Disappoint”.

It is customary that holy doors will be designated to enter through during this Jubilee Year, first in Rome and then in each diocese throughout the world. Holy Doors of the 2025 Jubilee of Hope in Rome will be located at the four papal basilicas as well as at a prison. The first Holy Door will be opened by Pope Francis at St. Peter’s Basilica on this Christmas Eve to usher in the beginning of the Jubilee Year worldwide.

What is the significance? The Holy Doors are sacred portals. These doors are ceremonially opened during Jubilee Years, symbolizing the spiritual journey from sin to grace. For pilgrims, crossing these doors is a profound act of faith, offering an opportunity for renewal, forgiveness, and a deeper connection with the divine. The act of physically crossing the threshold signifies a renewal of faith and a desire for spiritual transformation. As Pope St. John Paul II stated, “To pass through that door means to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord; it is to strengthen faith in him in order to live the new life which he has given us.”

Let us all enter the Jubilee Year of Hope. The Christmas story is truly a story of hope. May our Christmas be filled with the wonder of “Emmanuel” (Matthew.1:23: God-with-us). May His peace and joy illumine our hearts and our homes.

Christmas Blessings!

Your brother in Christ,

Fr. Abraham Orapankal

 

Christmas Season Mass Schedule 2024-2025

Posted on by Nathalie Godet

 

Tuesday, December 24

Christmas Eve   

4:00 pm (church)

4:00 pm (cafeteria)

6:30 pm (church)

11:15 pm Christmas Carols (church)

12:00 Midnight (church)

 

 

Wednesday, December 25

Christmas Day

10:00 am and 12:00 Noon

 

 

Feast of the Holy Family

Saturday, December 28

5:00 pm (Vigil Mass)

 

Sunday, December 29

8:00 am, 10:00 am & 12:00 noon

 

 

Wednesday, January 1

Solemnity of Mary Mother of God

10:00 am

 

 

Epiphany of the Lord 

Saturday, January 4

5:00 pm (Vigil Mass)

 

Sunday, January 5

8:00 am, 10:00 am & 12:00 noon

 

New Year’s Blessings!

3rd Sunday of Advent

Posted on by Nathalie Godet

 

Dear Friends,

Today we light the third candle on our Advent wreath. For families keeping this Advent wreath ritual at home can use the prayer put in this bulletin. We are reminded of how we all need that light of Jesus Christ to dispel the darkness within us. Brighter the light, clearer the vision.

Today is called “Gaudete Sunday” because today’s Mass (in its Latin form),  began  with  the  opening   antiphon:   “Gaudete   in   Domino semper” –“Rejoice in the Lord always.” In the past, when Advent was a season of penance, the celebrant of the liturgy used to wear vestments with the penitential color of purple or violet.  In order to remind the people that they were preparing for the very joyful occasion of the birth of Jesus, the celebrant wore rose-colored vestments on the third Sunday.  (you may remember that we have a similar break–Laetare Sunday—in Lent).  Today we light the rose candle, and the priest may wear rose vestments, to express our joy in the coming of Jesus, our Savior.  The primary common theme running through today’s readings is joy as we keep busy or even anxious with the preparation required of us who await the rebirth of Jesus in our hearts and lives. The second common theme is that of bearing witness. The prophet Zephaniah in the first Reading, Isaiah in the Responsorial Psalm and St. Paul in the second reading – all exhort us to rejoice and be glad.

This does not mean all people are happy. Many of us may not realize that there is a lot of sadness behind a smiling face. Those who suffer anxiety or stress cover it up with a smile. I read what a young person in college wrote last year:

“I am no longer afraid to admit how I’ve struggled with my mental health over the past three years. I have dealt with both anxiety and depression, both of which are common among teens.

I had trouble opening up to others and getting the help I needed. Instead I would lock myself in my room because I felt so much comfort in the darkness. Everyone had different coping mechanisms for handling not just mental health, but life in general. One thing I learned from my experience with depression was the ability to cope with my feelings by expressing them. Writing poetry helped me the most.”

Mental illness is so common that it can easily be overlooked. The “Accompaniment Project,” about which our young people spoke during all the Masses last weekend, is precisely to address the reality of mental health that afflicts more people than we know. Our parish Youth ministry’s Steering Committee (Deacon John Radvanski, Sue Lenczewski, Keith Slyman, Denik Joseph, Pat Cullen, Mary Guardini, Iris Abraham, Carl Furtado and Abigail Joseph) has prepared a survey/questionnaire that you were asked to respond, see page 8 for access to the survey. Thank you for your good will to support this Accompaniment Project which is a grant-funded initiative of the National Federation of Catholic Youth Ministry  (NFCYM). We are happy and proud that our parish of St. Matthias is one of the 43 parishes chosen from 17,000 plus parishes nationwide. The goal is to actively support young people in their faith journey, being present with them and listen to their needs to ultimately guide them to a deeper relationship with Christ. As I thank our Youth Ministry leaders, I invite us all to support this very worthwhile cause.

Your brother in Christ,

Fr. Abraham Orapankal

 

2nd Sunday of Advent

Posted on by Nathalie Godet

 

Dear Friends,

Our “Spread the Light” is on! With our Christmas Trees lighting and Manger blessing this weekend, we are making our festival season more visible and charming. We are so very grateful to all those who happily sponsored the Christmas trees. They will be excited to see the names of their dear ones memorialized with a laminated plaque on each tree. As it happened last year, I’m sure that this year too we will see numerous people – parishioners and visitors alike – stopping by to enjoy the enchanting sight, especially at night, reminding all what these trees surrounding the manger symbolize: the love of God manifested at the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ.

This huge project became a reality due to the hard work of so many. JoAnn Piagentini and Pat Cullen took the lead to make this a reality with their indefatigable spirit, hard work, and optimism. The parish staff, especially Vinnie Natale, Nathalie Godet, Mary Pat Burke-Grospin, Julio Montero, Anthony Baio, Sue Lenczewski, Joan Seamon, Amy Hanna and Kelly Counts contributed much to this project. Many volunteer groups like the Knights of Columbus, Boy Scouts, youths from our parish, St. Joe’s and even from Seton Hall gave their time and energy on two Saturdays to set up and decorate them, enduring the cold and windy weather. We are glad that Patrick Gianotto from Franklin Electric is providing us with the electrical services. Numerous other volunteers – too many to name here – gave their time to make this happen. We were blessed to receive a substantial amount as seed money for this endeavor from Bill Gleason of the Gleason Funeral Home. In the name of the parish community, I am truly grateful to all people of good will who helped in one way or other with this wonderful project that lights up not only our church compound but also our hearts.

This year the annual feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary – December 8 – falls today. Since Sunday takes precedence over other feasts, this solemn feast is transferred to tomorrow. This dogma proclaims that our Blessed Mother was conceived without original sin. It refers to the conception of Mary in the womb of her mother Anne, even though the gospel we hear at Mass this day is about the conception of Jesus. The relevance of this feast for us is to see in Mary an example of what God can do in a person and what we can do, if we put ourselves in God’s hands and at God’s service as Mary did. It will enable us to remain free from sin as much as humanly possible with God’s grace. I invite you to attend the 8 am Mass. Being a working day, it is understandable that many cannot attend. But when you come home from work, why not access our YouTube channel and join that Mass as the concluding act of this important day?

It is interesting to note that there are two more feasts of our Blessed Mother this week. On 10th is the feast of Our Lady of Loreto. According to tradition, the Holy House of Loreto is the birthplace of Mary, the home of the Holy Family, and the site of the Annunciation. Then we have the very poplar feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe on 12th. This Catholic holiday honors Mary, Mexico’s patron saint who is also referred as the Lady of the Americas. Mary’s appearance to Juan Diego, a peasant, in 1531, is a powerful reminder that Mary – and the God who sent her – accept all peoples and that we are all God’s loving children.

Your brother in Christ,

Fr. Abraham Orapankal

 

All Are Welcome to Come Visit Our Nativity & Christmas Trees on Display

Posted on by Nathalie Godet

St. Matthias is again celebrating the Christmas Season by illuminating our church and school property with beautiful, personalized, freshly-cut Christmas trees, decorated with white lights.

The Nativity and trees will remain lit every night from 6:00 PM until midnight, through the Feast of the Epiphany on January 5, 2025. People are welcome to visit the trees and read the plaques throughout this time.  Everyone driving by on JFK Boulevard will be reminded of the hope and peace that breaks into our darkness at Christmas time.

To find a specific tree, visit https://www.stmatthias.net/treedirectory/.

Giving Tuesday 2024

Posted on by Nathalie Godet

GivingTuesday is an opportunity for people to give back in many different ways: through acts of kindness, gifts of voice, time, talent, or treasure. Our parish of St. Matthias has been blessed with generous parishioners who always responded joyfully to every need of our community. Please consider donating to St. Matthias Church as one of your GivingTuesday contributions. Every contribution no matter how small goes towards making improvements to our church. Thank you for your goodness.

To donate to St. Matthias Church, please click here.

 

1st Sunday of Advent

Posted on by Nathalie Godet

 

Dear Friends,

This year Advent begins on December first, giving us a full four weeks to prepare for Christmas. Contrary to what we hear and see in the commercialized culture around us, Advent is a season of spiritual preparation – not of external decoration/shopping – for Christmas as the Jews longed for the Messiah. So the first question we need to ask ourselves is: how can we use these four weeks to prepare for a frenzy-free Christmas? Remember the visit of Jesus to the house of Martha and Mary in the gospel of Luke? Seeing the restlessness of Martha, Jesus told her: “You are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken away from her” (10:41-42). Try repeating this Bible verse as if Jesus is addressing you, and it will truly help you focus on what is important during this busy season. One way to focus on the meaning of this holy season is to choose some Advent spiritual practices. Some examples:

Family Bible Quiz: It will be an excellent Advent practice to do a Bible Quiz or Bible Trivia with your family. Here are five simple Biblical questions connected with Advent/Christmas:

1.) What does Jesus’ other name, “Emmanuel” mean?

2) What was Joseph’s first reaction when he discovered that Mary was pregnant?

3.) Why did Joseph and Mary go to the city of David?

4) How much older was John the Baptist than Jesus?

5) Which angel appeared to Mary?

Making such questions part of your family dinner table conversation will certainly have a very meaningful impact at your home.

Family Advent Wreath: It is a common practice for families to light Advent wreath candles at home. During each Sunday of the Advent season, we focus on one of the four virtues Jesus brings us: Hope, Love, Joy and Peace. Others consider the lighting of the first candle to symbolize expectation, while the second symbolizes hope, the third joy and the fourth purity. Elsewhere in today’s bulletin there is a simple prayer that the family can do together while lighting the first candle on your Advent Family Wreath.

Follow the daily readings for Mass: Even though it is not possible for most people to attend the weekday Mass, everyone can read the daily scriptures and have a daily connection with the Word of God. You can easily access the daily readings from https://bible.usccb.org/

Follow our daily Mass from YouTube at night! It was very heartening for me to hear some parishioners tell me how they attend our daily Mass at night! Since they have to go to work in the morning, they access our live-streamed daily Mass at night from our St. Matthias Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/stmatthiassomersetnj. Jeff Beck who monitors the viewership of our live-streamed Masses, told me that there is a very significant increase in attendance after the updated media project with the new exceptionally clear screen.

Thus, let us enter into the spirit of Advent taking some concrete action plan for ourselves and for our family, so that we can experience a meaningful Christmas of the Lord touching us!

Your brother in Christ,

Fr. Abraham Orapankal

 

The Giving Tree is Back! Please consider donating to someone in need.

Posted on by Nathalie Godet

 

GIVING TREE 2024

The Giving Tree will be at the front of the Church beginning Tuesday, November 26th, and remain there until Sunday, December 15th.  During this time you will have the opportunity to take ornaments (gift tags) off the tree and purchase some or all of the items listed.

Gifts/gift cards should be dropped off at the Church on the weekends of December 7th/8th and December 14th/15th. PLEASE if you take a gift tag, return the gift.  ALL GIFTS ARE DUE BACK DECEMBER 15th.

St. Matthias parishioners and friends have been very generous in the past.  Your kindness is truly appreciated by the recipients at YES Early Learning Centers, Great Expectations, Ozanam Family and Men’s Shelter,  Naomi’s Way, Pregnancy Aid, Elijah’s Promise, and other local families. Thank you in advance for your continued support.

As always, we can use more elves before and after Sunday Masses and need drivers for deliveries the mornings of December 9th and 16th, after the 8:00 AM Mass.  If you can volunteer a bit of time, please contact: Joanne Diana at (732)322-6270 or j-diana@comcast.net.  Thank you.

 

CANCELLED – The Racial Justice Initiative Hosts ADVENT MOVIE NIGHT

Posted on by Nathalie Godet

Unfortunately, our special Advent movie night has been cancelled.

   

Please join us for a special Advent movie night!  We will be watching Black Nativity, a musical based on the Langston Hughes play.  There will be refreshments and lots of fellowship.   We will have a free-will offering for dinner and ALL are encouraged to attend!

DATE:       Saturday, December 7th

TIME:        6:00 pm Dinner / 6:30 pm Movie

WHERE:   St. John XXIII Room

RSVP to matthiasracialjustice@gmail.com by Thursday, December 5th so we can be prepared.

HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE!

 

Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe

Posted on by Nathalie Godet

 

Dear Friends,

We are entering the last week in “Ordinary Time” beginning with the celebration of the Feast of Christ the King. It is the signal that the Church’s calendar year is coming to an end and that we are about to start the new year! Thus, the First Sunday of the New Year in the Liturgical Calendar is next Sunday as we begin the season of Advent! It is good for us to know that today’s feast was established by Pope Pius XI in 1925 as an antidote to secularism, a way of life which leaves God out of people’s thinking and living and organizes life as if God did not exist. The feast is intended to proclaim in a striking and effective manner Christ’s royalty over individuals, families, society, governments, and nations. May we all recognize this truth and continue our efforts to honor Jesus by living his values in our lives.

Our St. Matthias church door near the Tabernacle has been closed for over a year as part of the Eucharistic Revival. As we know, it was a reminder to keep the area around the Tabernacle as a sacred space. The innocent chitchats and socializing in that area have been reduced significantly. There is a greater sense of reverence shown to the Blessed Sacrament by those who pass by the Tabernacle. This Solemn Feast of Christ the King is an auspicious day to reopen that door so that we can enter/exit that way as before, while being more conscious of the need to continue the silence and reverence around the Tabernacle.

We are also entering the Thanksgiving Week! Some have asked me:

Is Thanksgiving a religious holiday or a secular celebration? Although the secularism of our present culture may have turned the focus more to indulging in food, fun, games, and family gathering, we must not forget the history and the religious significance of this quintessential American holiday.

It is definitely a religious holiday rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition of our country. So we need to pause to thank God. One lively song that has remained in my memory from my missionary seminary life is titled: Count Your Blessings, Name Them One by One. It has these wonderful and uplifting words in one verse:

Are you ever burdened with a load of care/Does the cross seem heavy you are called to bear?
Count your many blessings, ev’ry doubt will fly/And you will be singing as the days go by.

Yes, we need to really take the time to be thankful for what we have been blessed with, especially for those simple things that we take for granted.

I invite you to begin the Thanksgiving Day by attending our special Mass to thank our loving God who is the source of all blessings. Welcome to join the 8 am Thanksgiving Day Mass this Thursday.

It is wonderful that many families have the tradition of not only saying a Thanksgiving prayer before meals, but also of going around the table and having each person say what they’re thankful for. In my observation, I’ve found that people most often neglect to mention material things. Instead, they say “family” or “friends.” This could be because Thanksgiving teaches us to appreciate the things we can’t buy — the important aspects of life. Yes, St. Paul is right: “We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brethren, as is only fitting, because your faith is greatly enlarged, and the love of each one of you toward one another grows ever greater..” (2 Thessalonians 1:3)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Your brother in Christ

Fr. Abraham Orapankal