Author: Nathalie Godet

 

Dear Friends,

We are entering the month of November that reminds us so much about death and life after death. This evening we are having a special Memorial Mass for family and friends of those who passed away this year. Having it on a Sunday makes it easier for people to attend. Tomorrow, Monday, is Halloween. Tuesday is All Saints Feast. Wednesday is All Souls Remembrance Day.

For us Catholics, Halloween, All Saints Day, All Souls Day and the whole of November are opportunities with two goals: first, to really think about, cherish and remember our loved ones who are departed from earth; and second, to reflect on our own mortality and the meaning of death as a gateway to the next world. That’s why this evening we will have a special Mass to remember our departed ones. Bringing their photos to church will help us remember them as a community. The candles lit in their memory will help us surrender them to God who has welcomed them into heaven. Offering prayers help us to thank God for the blessing of their lives in which we too shared. These will also remind us about the reality of death – a topic we rather not think about!

This season of Fall offers us a pageantry for our senses with the vibrantly colored leaves; but the falling leaves remind us of the completion of the cycle of life – a living metaphor for death that will happen to all of us. Bible often calls it with a very pleasant term ‘sleep’ and even Jesus used that term regarding his friend Lazarus who actually had died. See John 11:11-14. St. Paul spoke about those who are alive and those who are asleep (referring to the dead) in 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17. Yes we don’t need to be afraid of death because Jesus conquered death through his resurrection. It is a guarantee for us to think of death as a passage to the life of eternity, to join the “communion of saints” a doctrine that reminds us of rejoining with our dear departed ones who are with God.

We have three Masses on Tuesday, the feast of All Saints: 8 am, 12:10 pm and 7:30 pm. Please try to attend one of these because this feast is a happy reminder to us of the many saints who lived with and before us, making our lives meaningful. There is also a 9 am Mass for the School, (the Grandfriends Mass). This feast of All Saints also reminds us of our own call to holiness. No wonder, St Paul was fond of calling his parishioners “saints” as in 2 Corinthians 1:1: “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the church of God which is at Corinth with all the saints who are throughout Achaia.” Coming together and celebrating our own God-given goodness of serving God in the People of God of our community is truly a sign of who we are – saints!

Happy Feast to you all saints!

Your brother in Christ,

Fr. Abraham Orapankal

Please note: This Friday is First Friday, and so our 8 am Mass is followed by Holy Hour, Sacred Heart devotions and Benediction. Most welcome to join.

 

Dear Friends,

What should be the first project/s to implement in our effort to renovate our Church? The result of the Parish Survey (which was published in the bulletin on September 4), showed that the top priorities are refurbishing pews and bathrooms, followed by deep cleaning, new floors, narthex and stained glass windows. Even before the survey, I had heard from many of you that the pews needed immediate attention and so arrangements were made for pew repairs. You can see that work is going on. I’m sure we all will gladly put up with the temporary inconvenience.

The Committee for the 60th Anniversary Fundraising conducted a consultation with the Ministry Heads of our parish and suggested that the right time for this fundraising for doing many of the proposed projects would be from January 2023. That is very understandable as we know of the demands made on all of us with the Christmas Tree sponsoring, Giving Tuesday, Raffle, Christmas contributions, etc. I am always in admiration of the sacrifices our parishioners are willing to make for the greater good of this wonderful community of St. Matthias.

We are in October, the Respect Life Month. We are a pro-life Church. Today, the pro-life people of Somerset County will again participate in the Annual National Life Chain, to give peaceful, prayerful witness to the sanctity of human life. It will be in Somerville, along Somerset St. and mountain Ave., from 2 – 3:30 pm. All are welcome to join our Pro-Life Ministry team to make Life Chain 2022 another memorable and blessed event.

We know that the Bible teaches that life is a gift from God, and, hence, we respect it from womb to tomb. But, where in the Bible do we see explicit support for this? The term “with child” (in reference to pregnant women) occurs twenty-six times in the Bible. The term “with fetus” never occurs. The Bible never uses anything less than human terms to describe the unborn (Exodus 21:22-23). In Luke (1:36 and 41), we are told that Elizabeth conceived a “son” and that the “babe” leaped in her womb. God does not say that a “fetus” leaped in her womb! Elizabeth greets Mary (in her early pregnancy) as “my Lord’s mother.” If God allows a child to be conceived, then God obviously has a plan for unborn children (Jer. 1:5; Lk. 1:13-17; Gen. 4:25; Jud. 13:3-5), and so to abort an unborn child is to stop a plan of God: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I appointed you… Psalm 139: 13: You formed my inmost being; you knit me in my mother’s womb. I praise you, so wonderfully you made me; wonderful are your works!” Thus, based on the word of God, the Church teaches that an unborn child, from the moment of its conception in his or her mother’s womb, is precious because he or she carries an immortal soul.

Such Biblical insights are important. What about biblical understanding about other aspects of our life? The best way is the small groups that we are starting from next week. Pope St. John Paul II said, “Small Christian Communities are a tremendous source of bringing more life into our life and into a Parish.” Last Sunday you heard the testimonies of those who were in small groups. Why not be enriched the same way? For sign up info, please see page 8 of our bulletin.

Your brother in Christ,

Fr. Abraham Orapankal

 

A Message from Msgr. Brennan:

October, The Month of the Holy Rosary

Next Saturday is October first, the beginning of the Month of the Holy Rosary. And October seventh is the day the church celebrates the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. As we begin this month I make a special appeal to all families and individuals to make an attempt to pray the rosary daily during this month or if that seems too much perhaps once or twice a week. Rediscover the power and peace this prayer can bring to your life and to your family.

This October marks the 20th anniversary of pope Saint John Paul 11’s apostolic letter on the rosary entitled Rosarium Virginis Mariae. (RVM)  In the introduction the pope describes the rosary as follows; “Simple yet profound, it still remains at the dawn of this third millennium. A prayer of great significance, destined to bring forth a harvest of holiness”. Though clearly Marian in character, the rosary is at heart a Christocentric prayer. All of the 20 mysteries of the rosary are clearly scripture based and Christ centered, from the Annunciation to the birth of Christ, to the Transfiguration, Crucifixion and Resurrection. The letter proclaims, “With the rosary the Christian people sits at the school of Mary and is led to contemplate the beauty on the face of Christ and to experience the depths of His love”. Pope John Paul acknowledges, “The rosary is my favorite prayer. A marvelous prayer!  Marvelous in its simplicity and its depth “

For some time now the rosary has been devalued by some and has not been taught to children as in the past. In my home growing up the family rosary was prayed every day, no exception and still is prayed today. Pope John Paul asserts that praying the rosary enables us to enter more deeply into the celebration of the Eucharist and the great mysteries of our redemption.  “The rosary belongs among the finest and most praiseworthy traditions of Christian contemplation “(RVM #5)

The rosary is proposed as a prayer for peace and the family.” At the start of the millennium which began with the terrifying attacks of 11 September 2001, a millennium which witnesses every day in numerous parts of the world fresh scenes of bloodshed and violence, to rediscover the rosary means to immerse oneself in contemplation of the mystery of Christ who “is our peace”, since he made “the two of us one, and broke down the dividing wall of hostility” (Ephesians 2:14)   . Consequently, one cannot recite the rosary without feeling caught up in a clear commitment to advancing peace”. On several occasions in recent months Pope Francis ha appealed to Catholics to pray the rosary for peace in Ukraine.

Speaking of the family the letter reads  “ A similar need for commitment and prayer arises in relation to another  critical contemporary issue; the family, the primary cell of society , increasingly menaced by forces of disintegration on both the ideological  and practical  planes, so as to make us fear for the future of  this fundamental and indispensable institution and , with it , for the future of  society as a whole “ (RVM # 6). Since the pope wrote these words the disintegration and pressures on the family has greatly increased.

On October 7th 2020, the feast of the Holy Rosary, Pope Francis invited all Catholics to pray the rosary daily and to carry a rosary beads in their pockets. In part he said “I invite everyone to rediscover, especially during this month of October, the beauty of the prayer of the rosary, which has nourished the faith of the Christian people through the centuries”.

Consider praying the rosary this October as a regular part of your daily prayer. If you are not familiar with how to pray the rosary you will find a prayer card entitled How to pray the Rosary on the bookshelves in church.  Please take only one and share with other members of your family. Happy Month of the Holy Rosary and may your praying this powerful prayer bring you many divine blessings.

Msgr. Brennan