Author: Nathalie Godet

Dear Friends,

The announcement last week that Msgr. Joseph Curry will be transferred was met with lots of sadness from all of us. Fr. Joe, as he is affectionately called, has been with us for less than two years. But within this short time, he has endeared himself to our community through his unique faith-filled ministry. He has an uncanny ability to put anyone at ease with his outgoing nature and his resounding laughter that can be heard from afar!

Fr. Joe has been an invaluable help in the school, both for our teachers and our students. His love for our students was evident in the way he mingled with them and taught faith matters. He had creative ways to teach the students despite the pandemic limitations. The teachers found in him a willing tech-guru, helping with their tech problems as the teaching went remote due to the pandemic. Fr. Joe was able to bring new life to our youth ministry through his natural gift of relating to young people. Coordinating with adult mentors, he was able to keep the youth ministry going even through the pandemic, using technology and media. Both the parish and the school are truly indebted to Fr. Joe. His inspiring presence will be missed by all of us as he officially leaves on July 6 to take up his new assignment at Immaculate Conception Church, Somerville.

At the same time, we are very happy to welcome to our parish Msgr. Seamus Brennan who has been serving as a senior priest at Blessed Sacrament Church in Martinsville. As a senior priest, Msgr. Brennan comes with lots of experience, after his ordination in 1972 at Holy Trinity Cathedral in Waterford, Ireland, for the diocese of Trenton. He has served as Parochial Vicar at St. Barnabas in Bayville and at St. Philip and James in Phillipsburg. Msgr. also served as pastor of St John’s in Lambertville, St. Matthews in Edison and Immaculate Conception in Somerville, and he served as Temporary Administrator of Nativity of Our Lord in Monroe Township. Monsignor’s hobbies include golf, walking, and cycling. The Catholic Community of St. Matthias heartily welcomes Msgr. Seamus Brennan.
We know that any change can give rise to conflicting feelings within us. While farewell to one priest brings us sadness, welcome to another brings joy. And we trust God’s Word: “We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28). As we remain ever grateful to the wonderful presence and ministry of Fr. Joe, we pray that Immaculate Conception Parish will be blessed and enriched as we have been by his presence. I am sure that Msgr. Brennan will be a welcome asset to St. Matthias. He is looking forward to meeting all of you and serving the needs of our parish.

Your brother in Christ,

Fr. Abraham Orapankal

Dear Friends,

We just went through the week of graduations. It was very heart-warming to see the graduation of the little ones in Pre-K and Kindergarten. Their innocent glow as they sang some beautiful songs and posed for the diplomas touched everyone. The graduation of our 8th graders was more of a defining moment that elicited mixed feelings of joy and sadness — joy at the fact of this class of 2021 crossing an important milestone in their lives. All the parents and family, school administration and faculty, priests and parishioners are happy to see them moving onto the next phase of the journey of their life.

At the same time, there is that tinge of sadness of missing these young vibrant students who were a part of our life here. Friday before graduation, their last day of class, was an emotional day for all. In the St. Matthias tradition, the parents and faculty made it special for them by clapping these seniors out, with the band playing. The parents wrote names and messages on the ground for the students to read.

My hope – as is that of everyone else – is that these graduates will carry the torch of St. Matthias wherever they go, in the way they live out the motto of our school: FAITH, CARING AND EXCELLENCE. My prayer is that the seeds of faith the Principal and Vice-Principal have sown in these students, with the help of the caring teachers, will keep them faithful to Jesus Christ and His Church. I wish to single out our Fr. Joe for special appreciation for his good will and initiative in imparting faith and religious practices to the whole school during the pandemic year.

As the school year is ending, Mrs. Elena Malinconico, our present principal, will be leaving us for another assignment. Everyone will agree with me that this year was the most challenging for every school principal and it is no exaggeration to say that Mrs. Malinconico did an excellent job in keeping our school open, offering both in-person and remote learning, and keeping all our students safe though this past uncertain and anxious year. Thanks to her vigilant leadership, St. Matthias did not have to close the school for any prolonged period, as many other schools had to do. As we thank her for her short but dedicated service to our school community, I wish her all success in her next assignment.

As already announced earlier, as well as in my letter in last week’s bulletin, we welcome Mrs. Mary Lynch as the new principal of St. Matthias. St.
Matthias School is an integral part of the mission of St. Matthias Parish, and all of us have a stake in its well-being and progress. Thank you to all who have been supporting our school in various ways. May our desire to pass our faith to the next generation bear good fruits.

Your brother in Christ,

Fr. Abraham Orapankal

Dear Friends,

The Catholic Church has a rich heritage of traditions and practices many of which are enshrined as annual celebrations. Today’s feast of Corpus Christi (also known as the Feast of the Body of Christ) is a case in point. Corpus Christi is unique in
several ways. The feast was not instituted within the Church until the 14th century AD, and its principal advocate for inclusion in the Church roster of holy days was a woman: St. Juliana, an Augustinian nun in Belgium. She looked upon the Holy Eucharist with great reverence, and desired to have
a feast within the Church devoted specifically to its honor.

We know that Holy Thursday is generally associated with the institution of the Holy Eucharist. However, Holy Week was often seen as a time of great sorrow and repentance, and so Juliana felt that the celebration of the Eucharist should be a time of rejoicing. After receiving a vision concerning the Church and its lack of devotion to the Eucharist, she petitioned Robert de Thorete, the Bishop of Liege. The Bishop convened a synod in 1246 and decreed that the celebration should take place the following year. In 1264, Pope Urban IV issued the bull transiturus, a declaration ordering the Feast of Corpus Christi extended throughout the entire Church. The date was set for the celebration to be held on the first Thursday after Trinity Sunday.

When I came to the US, I was quite amazed and impressed by the cities named after the Holy Eucharist: Corpus Christi and Sacramento. My reading of history tells me that the Franciscan missionaries originally named the Gulf of Mexico the “Bay of Corpus Christi,” and gave the mission there the same name. While in California, the mission at Sacramento and its corresponding river were named in honor of the Eucharist.

Many visitors have commented positively about the Sunday worship here at St. Matthias. Some of their comments to me are:

Attending Mass at St. Matthias is very experiential;
This community is very welcoming;
People are very alive, everyone participates even by clapping.
Is different and where the Lord who comes at the altar touches all of us.

We can be very proud of such comments as we try to be a Eucharistic people. I have this request to all of you: How nice it will be if all of us, when we enter the church, dip our fingers in the holy water, (that is when we restore the use of holy water) trace the sign of the cross on our foreheads and show a sign of respect (bow or genuflect) towards the Blessed Sacrament! That will be one important visible connection between last Sunday’s feast of the Holy Trinity and this Sunday’s feast of Corpus Christi.

Your brother in Christ,

Fr. Abraham Orapankal

Dear Friends, Happy Feast of Pentecost!

Most Churches – Catholic, Orthodox, Episcopal, Pentecostal and Charismatic churches as well as many Protestant churches – view this as the watershed event in Christianity, the birthday of the Church in many ways. The Acts of the Apostles recounts the story of the original Pentecost when the Apostles and the Blessed Virgin Mary, gathered in the Upper Room, were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak in different tongues (Acts 2). Peter’s speech that day brought about three thousand people to the way of Jesus. (Acts 2:41). And the Church began to grow.

But what is the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives? I would compare it to the role of a coach. There is no game or sports without a coach! Why? Left to themselves, even the best are prone to make mistakes. No matter how good they are, coaches are essential to their success. The truth of the matter is that we all can do better with someone else’s wisdom. And yet, there are some people who think that human beings have the natural ability to fulfill our human destiny just by using our abilities and that we do not need help from anyone else – be it from the community of faith or from the grace of the Sacraments. Experience and history show us that fewer mistakes would have been made with proper guidance. That’s why Jesus said he would send us the Spirit to be our Helper, Comforter, and Guide (John 14:16). Let us call upon this Spirit: “Come Holy Spirit, come into my heart and fill me with your grace and power.” Repeat it like a mantra and see what happens to you!

Congratulations to 35 of our children receiving First Holy Communion this weekend! Dee Nann, Sr. Marie Derecola OSF and others, especially the parents, have been preparing these kids for this important step in their faith formation to receive Jesus for the first time. Last Sunday these children, with one of their parents present, had a wonderful retreat given by Colleen Kelly-Rayner. Everyone enjoyed that retreat as we can see from what one parent, Jennifer Hill, wrote to Dee: “I just wanted to reach out and thank you for such a wonderful retreat today. It was such a gift to spend time with my son and share this experience with him. Due to COVID, this past year has been challenging and isolating and it was very special to come together as a community to prepare for his First Communion. You said that Mrs. Colleen was outstanding and she more than lived up to that! She was phenomenal – hilarious, engaging and powerful. Thank you for putting this together for us!” And her son Dylan’s reaction was: “That was way more fun than I thought it was going to be”

Let us pray for these children of our parish and encourage them with our example that attending Mass and receiving Jesus in Holy Communion are the primary ways we nourish our souls and enrich our lives. May the gifts of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

Your brother in Christ,
Fr. Abraham Orapankal

Dear Friends,

We salute all our Mothers today! The opening sentence in Amoris Laetitia (Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation on the family), offers the perfect context for Mother’s Day: “The joy of love experienced by families is also the joy of the Church.” We are truly happy to celebrate the vocation to motherhood as we honor all Mothers in this Church this weekend.  The Pope beautifully describes the impact Mothers have on children: “A mother who watches over her child with tenderness and compassion helps him or her to grow in confidence and to experience that the world is a good and welcoming place. This helps the child to grow in self-esteem and, in turn, to develop a capacity for intimacy and empathy.”
Yes, motherhood is a vocation, a divine call, and not a hobby. You do not collect children like stamps or art works, but it is the divine call by which you become co-creators and sustainers of life with God. Children are a gift from God (Psalm 127:3-5) and the Bible is very clear about the responsibility of both father and mother in bringing up children with right values. The Bible demands several things from Christian parents in their duty of parenting. Some of these are:

Availability – morning, noon, and night (Deuteronomy 6:6-7).

Involvement – interacting, discussing, thinking, and processing life together (Ephesians 6:4)

Teaching – the Scriptures and a biblical worldview (Psalm 78:5-6; Deuteronomy 4:10; Ephesians 6:4)

Training – helping a child to develop skills and discover his/her strengths (Proverbs 22:6) and spiritual gifts (Romans 12:3-8 and 1 Corinthians 12)

Discipline – teaching the fear of the Lord, drawing the line consistently, lovingly, firmly (Ephesians 6:4; Hebrews 12:5-11; Proverbs 13:24; 19:18; 22:15;
23:13-14; 29:15-17)

Nurture – providing an environment of constant verbal support, freedom to fail, acceptance, affection, unconditional love (Titus 2:4; 2 Timothy 1:7; Ephesians 4:29-32; 5:1-2; Galatians 5:22; 1 Peter 3:8-9)

Modeling with Integrity – living what you say, being a model from which a child can learn by “catching” the essence of godly living (Deuteronomy 4:9, 15, 23; Proverbs 10:9; 11:3; Psalm 37:18, 37).

That is a tall order! What makes it all the more difficult is the hostile cultural environment in which Christian mothers find themselves fighting to protect their children. Many of the cultural values clash with the Christian values that a mother wants to instill in her children. Hence we need to support, help, appreciate and encourage all our mothers – not just once a year, but everyday! Thank you dear Mothers! Happy Mother’s Day!

Your brother in Christ,

Fr. Abraham Orapankal