Happy Thanksgiving

Abraham Lincoln, in his Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1863, said the following:

“[T]hose nations are blessed whose God is the Lord… It has seemed to me fit and proper that God should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people.”

What a powerful message from our 16^th president, the president who kept our country united!  

Today you and I as members of St. Gregory the Great Parish are called to offer such praise to God as the source of all our blessings.  

You are well aware that Thanksgiving and Christmas are becoming increasingly secularized;  this is nothing new – it has been happening for decades.  By “secularism” I mean the ideology that the worldly/temporal must be always distinguished from the spiritual, that religious belief must always be separated out of public life.  At one point in the 1930’s, Thanksgiving Day, which had been established by Lincoln as the last Thursday of the month of November, was moved up one week earlier to allow for more shopping time prior to Christmas.  

As Catholics we do not live as if our daily lives are separate from our religious lives.   We integrate the two and believe that our faith in God affects our everyday lives and that faith should also have a place in the public life of our country.  

May you and I live Thanksgiving Day in the spirit of the Pilgrims, George Washington and Lincoln, in a spirit of love and joy, by offering thanks to Whom it belongs: our Creator, our Father in Heaven.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Mass of Remembrance

As we look at the beautiful trees around here on campus - red, yellow, orange, and gold - and see the leaves begin to fall - we think of the words describing trees in autumn from the poet Robert Frost:

Nature's first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf's a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.

As we remember our loved ones this month, we speak those same words: “Nothing gold can stay.”  Our loved ones mean the world to us, yet we always knew all along that at some point they would have to leave us - that they could not stay forever - that they would have to pass from this world.

As I shared with those present at our Mass of Remembrance this past Wednesday, Harold Bloomfield, Peter McWilliams and Melba Colgrove have some advice for us in a book about surviving during loss. They say that it is important to grieve for our loved ones.   

“Don't postpone, deny, cover or run from your pain.  Be with it now.”  “Everything else can wait.”  “Set aside time to mourn” they say to us. We are so used to putting things behind us quickly and moving on with our lives. But sometimes we force that to happen and we never completely heal.   

It is best to be open with God about our grief as we think about our loved ones and lift them up to God.    

“Be gentle with yourself.”  “Accept that you have an emotional wound, that it is debilitating, and that it will take awhile before you are completely well,” they advise us. 

It may be a little more difficult for you to carry out certain tasks. That's okay.

“Surround yourself with goodness and light.”  “Breathe deeply of goodness and light.  Let it fill every cell of your body.”

God can help us heal. We want to breathe in the light and goodness of Jesus Christ and his Resurrection.  We choose to light candles for our loved one and allow the warmth of that light to come into our hearts.

Please take a moment to pray for our deceased parishioners whose photos are in the alcove of our Gathering Space this month.  It is a powerful way that we continue to think about them, hold them in our hearts, and still express our love for them.

Confirmation 2014

On Saturday, November 1st (All Saints Day) Bishop O’Connell, the bishop of the Diocese of Trenton, celebrated the sacrament of confirmation with 225 youngsters of our community.  It was a beautiful, prayerful, sacred, spiritual event!   These boys and girls received this final sacrament of their sacraments of initiation, the third one for them after baptism and Eucharist.  Confirmation is a strengthening of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit in the soul of the person. Those gifts include wisdom, understanding, knowledge, counsel, fortitude, piety and fear of the Lord. It was wonderful to be present as those gifts were sealed in them.

Our church was decked in red: red cloths, red flower wreaths around the candles, red ribbons on the edges of the pews, and red vestments on the bishop, priests and deacons. “Red” as you know is the liturgical color of the Holy Spirit.  At the ceremony, the boys and girls reaffirmed their faith in God and His Church by responding “I do” to the Bishop when he asked them if they believed various teachings of the Faith and the Creed.  The Bishop then laid hands on them as a group while praying a prayer. He then placed chrism on their foreheads in the form of a cross and said “Be sealed with the Gift of the Holy Spirit” followed by “Peace be with you.”   

Each youngster of course had chosen a confirmation name. Just as a piece of trivia, the Bishop told me that the two most common confirmation names for girls are “Cecilia” and “Elizabeth.”  

One could truly feel the presence of the Holy Spirit in the sacrament. May we all support these young men and women as they strive to live their Faith this year, in their high school years and beyond!  We pray that the gifts of the Holy Spirit will continue to blossom and shine forth in them.

It was such an honor to have Bishop O’Connell with us to celebrate confirmation. The Bishop is not able to go to all the 109 parishes in the Diocese of Trenton to perform confirmation, so it was a privilege that he selected us.

Most of you know about the Bishop already I am sure, but I just wanted to share some biographical information about him with you.  A member of the Congregation of the Mission (the Vincentians), Bishop O’Connell since his ordination to priesthood has served at various institutions in the areas of academic administration and education; he has served as a professor of theology, philosophy, religious studies and canon law.   

In 1998, then-Father O'Connell was named the 14th president of The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC.  One of his main priorities while he was president of the university was the Catholic identity of the programs on campus.  I was a canon law student at CUA while Bishop O’Connell was president there and was able to meet him there on one occasion (not knowing that he would be my bishop one day!).

On June 4, 2010, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI appointed Father O'Connell as Coadjutor Bishop of the Diocese of Trenton. He was ordained to the episcopacy by Bishop John M. Smith in St. Mary of the Assumption Cathedral, Trenton, on July 30, 2010.  Bishop O'Connell succeeded Bishop Smith as the 10th Bishop of Trenton on December 1, 2010.

Since becoming the shepherd of the Diocese, Bishop O’Connell has focused his efforts on the catechetical development of his flock, the sanctification and cultivation of his priests, and the advancement of vocations.  The Bishop has also devoted special attention to the sustainability of Catholic schools in the diocese, and I know that he thinks very highly of our Academy.  

The bishop also serves on the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Catholic Education. He is also a consultor to the Congregation for Catholic Education at the Vatican.

Congratulations again to all our newly confirmed and to their parents and families!       

 

 

Happy Halloween

It was fun to walk over to our school’s “Trunk or Treat” event last Friday! There were rows and rows of cars whose open trunks were filled with candy.  People were in clever costumes, and the cars were decorated in all sorts of ways. Some vehicles were spooky.  One person’s trunk was decorated according to the theme of the movie “Frozen.”    Someone even turned her car into a pirate ship! It was clear that the children who took part in “Trunk or Treat” had a great time!

We all know that kids love Halloween.  They love to dress up, eat candy, and spend time with their friends.   It is a popular holiday for them (and for many adults as well).   Additionally – and this is something we don’t think about a lot - it is also a golden opportunity to assist your kids to make connections to the Faith.  

Halloween as you know has Christian roots.  At one time, as early as 800 B.C., the ancient Celtic tribes who lived in Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Brittany celebrated the beginning of the new year and the coming of winter on November 1. On the night before the new year these pagan peoples celebrated the festival of “Samhain,” or “lord of the Dead.”  During this festival, Celts believed that the souls of the dead, ghosts, goblins and witches returned to mingle with the living.  In order to scare away the evil spirits, people wore masks and lit bonfires.  When the Romans conquered the Celts, they added their own traditions to the Samhain festival, such as making centerpieces out of apples, bobbing for apples and making apple cider; they did this in honor of Pomona, whom they considered the goddess of the orchards. 

In 835 AD, Pope Gregory IV guided this pagan holiday in a Christian direction.  He moved the celebration for all the martyrs (later all saints) from May 13 to November 1.  The night before became known as All Hallows Even or “holy evening.”  Eventually the name was shortened to the current “Halloween.”  The purpose of “All Saints Day” as well as “All Souls Day” (November 2) is to remember those who have died, whether they are officially recognized by the Church as saints or not. 

The Church throughout the centuries has been very adept at taking pagan events or symbols and Christianizing them by reinterpreting their meaning in the light of the Gospel. In Rome, for example, the famous building known as the Pantheon is today a Christian church devoted to all the saints (or more specifically to St. Mary and the martyrs); at one time it was a pagan temple dedicated to ‘all the Roman gods.’

In this spirit, the best way that we can celebrate Halloween is to see the Christian meaning of it by helping children to connect it to the two feast days of the Church that follow.  

As you know it is natural for people to want to explore the supernatural and the spiritual

world.  For example, I love to visit Gettysburg, and each time that I visit I see that there are more and more ghost tours that take place in the streets of the town in the evening.  One can see small groups led by lantern-wielding guides all over town when it gets dark.  Many people believe that the town and battlefield are haunted.   

Another example of people’s fascination with the supernatural is the movie out now called “Ouija.”  The “Ouija” board is an instrument under the guise of a simple board game through which people are able to contact spirits.  In the movie the protagonists are able to contact dead people.  

When I was a child I did not really know that there was anything wrong with the Ouija board, until one day when my father made this clear to all of us by throwing the game into our fireplace to be engulfed by flames!   

People are curious about the spirit world and life after death.  It is good to ask questions about these things.  And the Church has answers for us about them! 

What is wrong with the Ouija board for example? The problem is that it is a vehicle that opens us to supernatural sources that are evil.  The Ouija board, tarot cards, palm readers, fortunetellers and psychics are all examples of the “occult.”  The “occult” refers to anything that claims to give us secret knowledge from supernatural sources other than God. The First Commandment forbids us from putting our trust in spirits other than God and from placing our faith in, and entrusting our future to, something that is not of God.

What about ghosts? Does the Church believe in ghosts?  If you're wondering whether spiritual souls live on after the body dies, the answer is yes.  “Ghosts” could be souls in Purgatory (a place of purification and suffering where a soul dwells before it arrives in Heaven), or they could be evil spirits.

Many Christians do not celebrate Halloween because it has pagan origins and because some of the symbols associated with it have evil connotations.  But once again if we try to see this secular holiday with a Christian meaning, notably by interpreting it through the lens of the communion of saints, All Saints Day or All Souls Day, then our families will have many reasons to celebrate.  With this in mind, I wish you a “Happy Halloween!”  

9/11

September 11, 2001 was a date like December 7, 1941 or November 22, 1963 in the sense that most of us, if we were alive at the time, remember where we were when the tragic events happened ---- the attacks on America by al Qaeda, the attack on Pearl Harbor, or the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, respectively.  On September 11, 2001 I was in seminary at St. Charles Borromeo in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, having just entered a week or two earlier.  It was a unique morning for us seminarians, because we were getting on busses to go to the funeral of one of our fellow seminarians who had just died of a serious illness.   As I was getting on the bus, one of the other seminarians was telling us that he was just watching television and heard something about a plane hitting the World Trade Center. Over the course of the day, we heard more about this, in bits and pieces: that a plane crashed out in Pennsylvania, that all major cities were taking major security measures, that all airplanes were being told to land, and that all schools in Philadelphia would be closed the following day.  America was under attack.  Nobody knew what was going to happen next.  Eventually we learned that a terrorist group called al Qaeda orchestrated the attacks. Several days after 9-11, President George W. Bush told all Americans at a joint session of Congress to “live your lives, and hug your children.”  He asked for our calm, patience and “continued participation and confidence in the American economy.”  He asked for prayers for victims and their families and for those in uniform. 

A day or two after 9-11, the seminarians at St. Charles had a meeting with then Archbishop of Philadelphia Anthony Cardinal Bevilacqua.  The Cardinal encouraged us to pray for our country.  He also said something very powerful and moving that I will never forget.  He told us that all the first responders who rushed into the Twin Towers to help and try to save their fellow man were martyrs.  He was confident that they were all in Heaven. He said that they lived out the teaching of Jesus Christ in the Gospel of John 15:13: “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” Coming from a cardinal I was deeply moved by his words;  as those first responders were climbing the stairwells up the towers to try to save people, they were actually climbing up to the place of their eternal rest with God. 

As you know, this past Wednesday evening President Obama gave an address to the nation in which he said that America is going to lead an international coalition to fight ISIS, the 15,000 member terrorist group located in Iraq and Syria.  Thirteen years after 9/11, our nation is still fighting against radical jihadists and terrorists who hate the United States of America and the West more broadly.  The President said that we will fight them militarily and will continue to fight through diplomatic and economic means as well.  Each of us should pray for our country at this time as well as pray for those who are suffering in the Middle East.  Just this past weekend at our parish we also took up a second collection of over $6800 at all of our Masses to help Christians in the Middle East who are currently being persecuted.  

Ultimately the type of war/conflict that we are involved in will not be won by military means, as necessary as those might be to protect innocent people, but by a spreading of the civilization of life and love, by the continual spread of the Gospel, by being ‘missionaries of charity.’

Today my thoughts and prayers are, in a special way, with those of you in our parish who lost loved ones or friends on 9/11.  May you continue to experience healing as you continue to try to move on from that terrible day.  Please remember all who have answered our nation's call to duty, especially: Corporal Kyle C. Abbott, PFC Jonathan Bussi, Major James Dunphy, Lt. Lauren Eanes, Sergeant Douglas M. Eckert II, Corporal  Steven M. Edwards, 2nd Lt. Charles Garlisi, Lance Corporal Michael Garlisi, 1st Lt. Nick Guarraggi, Sergeant Michael Joy, Staff Sgt. Ryan McSorley, Sergeant John Lawrence, Lance Corporal Christopher Mitchell, Corporal Christopher R. Singer, and 1st Lt. Patrick Whitty.  My prayers today are also with the men and women in our parish who serve as first responders: firefighters, police and EMS personnel. Your service to our community saves, protects and enriches all of our lives. Your heroic deeds ‘do not go unnoticed’ by us here at St. Gregory’s.  

First Day of School

Yesterday was the first day of school for our Academy students! It was great to see our first through eight grade students gathered in Ferrante Hall at 8:00 am, ready to begin their first day and to embark on a new school year. Our Kindergarteners start today and our Pre-K students on Thursday. I’m happy to think about the new opportunities that await them this year! As they gathered this morning, there was a lot of excitement and energy, you could tell – also on the part of the parents, and for that matter the teachers and administrators as well! I saw a couple people shedding some tears, which is completely understandable. I know that our teachers and administrators care about our children very much and want them to learn and grow. I hope our students will form good, lasting friendships. Above all I hope St. Gregory’s is a place where they will feel the presence of God and know that they are loved by Him.

Our reading from St. Paul yesterday at Mass was highly appropriate for the first day of school.  The last verse, I Corinthians 2:16, stated, “[W]e have the mind of Christ.”  St. Paul exhorts Christians to take on and live according to the mind of Christ.  That’s what we are all about as a Catholic school: to help our children to know and to be formed by the mind of Christ and to be shaped and inspired by His ways. We want our children to have eyes of faith, so that they will be able to see so much more, both now and throughout their lives.   

What is unique about Catholic education? The answer is that at our school our students are allowed and encouraged to develop their friendship with Our Lord Jesus Christ, in an open manner throughout each school day.  This friendship with Christ is built into the structure of the school day and is part of the fabric of the Academy community. As part of their daily schedule, and not only during religion class, our students learn about Scripture, learn Church teachings, and take part in the sacraments and liturgies. Jesus Christ is a foundational and essential part of the spirit of the school.  Christianity is the ‘air that our students breathe.’

My goal as an administrator of course is to help each child in my parish to grow in his or her relationship with Jesus Christ and the Church, whether the child is at our Academy, or is in public school, home school, or at another institution.  I don’t “favor” the Academy students over the public school students or any other students. I myself never attended a Catholic school until I entered seminary. Each child can and should learn the ways of Faith.  Each parent in our parish is called to pass on the Faith to their child – in a manner adapted to the type of institution that their child attends.      

But at the same time I cannot help but think that Catholic education truly is a unique gift, in our community and in our world.  At the beginning of the school day yesterday, as all our Academy children were assembled, our principal, Dr. Jason Briggs, led the students in a prayer --- a prayer for guidance and protection from God.  At first this could just seem like a routine procedure, but in reality it was a powerful and profound moment. I am so pleased that the children were able to see the head of their school turning to God for help in such a public manner.  Furthermore, at our Academy the students are free to pray, to turn to our Creator for help, and to talk about and get to know Jesus. What a tremendous privilege these children have been given! My thoughts and prayers are with our 505 Academy students who begin their 2014-2015 academic year journey here at our parish.

Deacon Neil Pirozzi

This past Sunday, August 3rd, at our 12:00 pm Mass we honored in a special way our own Deacon Neil Pirozzi in honor of his 33 years of service as deacon here at St. Gregory’s.  Deacon Neil in his heartfelt, sincere, insightful homily at this Mass talked about how he started training as a deacon while Msgr. James P. McManimon, the fourth pastor of our parish, was pastor. It was Msgr. McManimon who invited Neil to study counseling. 

  

In his homily Neil mentioned that one of the most important skills we can have is listening.  He said that when we counsel others, while we sometimes can improve people we must always listen to others.

After Mass we had a light reception at which members of Neil’s family and his brother deacons shared thoughts and delightful stories about him.  They described Neil as a person who always has a joy for life, a youthful spirit, and a smile on his face. Almost everyone mentioned that he loves golf! More importantly he loves his family.     

Two of the deacons shared that their vocation was affirmed by Deacon Neil who told them

convincingly, “God has called you.”  ‘You didn’t choose God, he has chosen you,’ he told them. In the homily at diaconate ordination the bishop usually says these or similar words before he lays hands on the men: the deacon “will help the bishop and his body of priests as a minister of the word, of the altar, and of charity.  He will make himself a servant of all.”  Ministry of the word for the deacon includes proclaiming the Gospel and preaching.      Ministering at the altar includes serving at Mass and distributing communion to the faithful.    Ministry of charity involves the many types of works of love that deacons carry out. In Deacon Neil’s case, it has involved counseling, doing marriage preparation, visiting the sick and ‘shut ins,’ and many other works of charity.   

Neil’s family figured out that he has performed about 600 weddings over the course of his 33 years as deacon!

We gave Neil several gifts at the end of the reception, including the gift of 33 trees that will be selected and planted on our campus in his honor.

It is very special that Neil “retired” after 33 years of service.  “33” after all is one of those mystical numbers like “7” and “3.”  God created the world in 7 days. There are 3 persons in the Holy Trinity.   They are numbers that traditionally have special spiritual, religious, biblical meaning.  “33” is special because it is traditionally the age at which Our Lord Jesus died and rose.  Those trees that we will plant also will symbolize the fruitfulness of the Word, the seed of the Gospel that Christians plant in others and which grows and bears fruit in people’s hearts. The trees will be symbolic of the fruitfulness of the Word as Deacon Neil has preached it during these last 33 years.

We are grateful to Deacon Neil for all that he has done for us; we wish him well and assure him of our prayers! And even though he is “retiring” I think we will still see him around the parish and at our liturgies.

Deacon Neil (far right) and his wife Tommi (seated, second from right) are joined by our deacons, their wives, and our priests.


Watch Deacon Neil's homily here:

One Project NJ Update

I would like to write a revised blog post about ONE Project and my involvement in the preparation of food for the needy in Mercer County last Saturday, in response to just a couple comments/questions from parishioners.  I could have taken the easy road here and just deleted my posts altogether and moved on to another topic, but this is a good opportunity to share some of our Church’s teachings more clearly. And I also have a responsibility to clarify my statements if I believe that I have mischaracterized Church teachings in any way.

This past Saturday July 26 I joined hundreds of volunteers from Robbinsville to take part in a new community start up organization called “One Project.”  I was so impressed with the number of young people present.  Altogether over the course of over three hours the volunteers present packed and prepared over 15,000 healthy meals for children in the Mercer County area. Those who participated were able to help the unfortunate in such a direct way. There was a tremendous sense of fulfillment in being able to do that. 

I thank the leaders and co-founders of ONE Project for coordinating this particular event; I want to thank them for giving all of us present the opportunity to carry out acts of charity;  I want to thank them for facilitating that.         

I realize now however that the story is just a bit more complicated.

As I walked through the doors of Robbinsville High School, I believed that this organization had the sole purpose of providing an opportunity for people of different backgrounds, points of view and faith traditions to strive together for a goal that everyone shares, in this case feeding the hungry. I thought that that was the only purpose of the organization: social service, helping the unfortunate. If that were true, then everything would have been fine; the Catholic Church is all about serving the poor and the needy.

Two days after I attended this event, however, a former parishioner pointed out to me that on the “Mercer Me” blog site from July 18, 2014, there was the following statement that surprised me greatly:

“The ONE Project plans to host community education programs that will focus on either equality (issues involving racial, religious, LGBT), education, or drug abuse.”

The Catholic Church and St. Gregory the Great Parish have clear, well defined teachings in the area of marriage, human sexuality and sexual identity. These are all good, true teachings:  marriage as a permanent, exclusive bond between a husband and wife, the goodness of children and openness to life. There are many others; I cannot list them all now in this particular posting. I adhere to all those teachings and do not intend to promote any other type of teachings in those areas. 

I do not know exactly what the leader of ONE Project means when he refers to LGBT community education programs, but I must infer that those programs will involve promotion of same sex ‘marriage’ and the spread of teachings on human sexuality that are antithetical to Catholic Christian teachings. If I am wrong about that, I ask the leaders of ONE Project please to correct my erroneous thinking as quickly as possible.

As the administrator of a Catholic parish, I do need to be conscious of how my actions are interpreted by others to some degree, because there is a teaching role in those actions.    In our culture at this time we are so confused and conflicted about what human sexuality and marriage mean, and there are so many evil, erroneous and deceptive messages out there.   I must reiterate that I can neither endorse ONE Project in any way nor participate in any more of their events, so long as they promote false teachings. As President Ronald Reagan once said, at times we must raise a banner not of “pale pastels” but rather of “bold colors which make it unmistakably clear where we stand.”  This is an instance in which such “bold colors” are called for.