From the Wellness Ministry: Blood Pressure Screening and Glucose Evaluations Now Offered

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The Wellness Ministry is back!

We will be offering blood pressure screening and glucose evaluations in the Parish Center after all of the Masses on the third Sunday of each month: March 19th, April 16th, May 21st, June 18th. Refreshments will be served. Please mark your calendars.

Please join us for questions on basic health issues, medications and other medical, nutritional and general concerns.

As you may recall, the Parish Center was closed in the past for some activities on Sunday mornings related to COVID restrictions. We look forward to welcoming back all parishioners!

Register now for The Gift of Years: Growing Older Gracefully

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The Gift of Years: Growing Older Gracefully

Prayer Day March 14th, 2023

Loyola Jesuit Center

160 James St Morristown, NJ

Based on the book By Sr. Joan Chittister, Benedictine Sister of Erie

Sr. Joan speaks of there being the “young old 65-74, the old old 75-84, and the oldest old, 85 and over”. All of these ages have some things in common - each of them faces specific issues at the same time.

Living in a transitional age such as ours is scary: things seem to be falling apart, the future is unknowable, and so much doesn’t make sense, raising many feelings forcing us to pay attention to our fears, regrets, relationships, the meaning of life.

There is wisdom and grace in exploring the gift of your years and learning how to grow older gracefully

Come and spend a prayer day pondering with soul friends and God the transitions in your own life noticing how the presence of God has been with you, and where do you go from here.

RSVP Phone: (973) 539-0740

RCIA Blog: Balancing Act

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The picture above can be interpreted as the balancing act we each have. The feelings we associate with the heart and the reason we associate with the brain can become precarious. The routine of our lives has us choosing which to follow and which to ignore. This picture is an apt metaphor of how St. Thomas Aquinas described our rational soul.  Per Aquinas, our rational soul has three complex powers. He describes them as intellect (reason, memory, calculation and understanding), the will (act, movement),  and the passions (feelings, desires, emotions).

To Aquinas, the will is synonymous with act, our actions. Our will is not automatic or automated but blessed to be free, as in free will.  There are bodily functions and actions that do not rely on our volition like breathing, heart rate, digestion, etc. Aquinas described these functions as different powers our soul in some ways shared with other living things. The other living things do not share the rational soul, that is, they are not self-aware.  There is a great deal of classical, medieval, and modern thinking about our souls. The model used by Aquinas works well to help us understand the interplay between desire (passions) and reason (intellect). Particularly because they seem to be at odds with one another. St. Paul alludes to this quandary in his letter to the Romans, “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate” (Rom 7:15). We understand this struggle within each of us as an injury of the Fall.  Our passions (the heart) and our intellect (the brain) are not aligned within us.  They struggle to assert themselves and dominate our will, our actions. The Fall of Adam and Eve left us at odds within ourselves. This is called concupiscence or the predisposition to act contrary to what is good.

We often picture a devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other struggling to get a person to act in one way or another.  The devil and angel image simplify this struggle too much. This image reduces the real struggle as between some perfect good and some terrible bad or evil.  It is more helpful to think of our man on the tightrope. He demonstrates the act of will, that is, his movement toward his goal while balancing competing perceived goods.  His passion for what he desires  draws him forward and what he fears keeps him focused on what to avoid.  At the same time, he learns, analyzes, and concludes rightness by reason. The true struggle is not between choosing what is bad or what is good. The struggle is between what we desire as a good and what we know to be a good. These may not be the same and sometimes they can be very different things. Our passions and our intellect seek what is good and avoid what is bad or evil. This first principle of our nature is written on our hearts by our Creator.  Yet, the desire to do good is sometimes at odds with the desire to feel good or avoid discomfort. “They [the faithful] show that what the law requires is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or perhaps excuse them” (Rom 2:15). Here we have the issue. We  may want to  avoid actions which bring unwelcomed consequences, even though it may be the right action to do. Conversely, we may arrive at a considered opinion for action that lacks compassion, empathy or even mercy. These are powerful and weighty decisions. In a manner of speaking, they can throw you off balance.

Our man on the tightrope demonstrates the balancing act between these two powers within us. While our thoughts and conclusions may be judged right, moral, correct or their opposite, passions cannot. Passions simply are, they offer no considered response. By reason, we may judge our passions as aligned with the good  or not. This is demonstrated by the fact that our man does not merely  stand balancing on the rope. He has a goal, a destination. Each decision he makes, each of his adjustments either aids or inhibits his progress to that destination.  For us, our goal is to be with God and share in the Beatific Vision.

We may say that our intellect informs the will, and our passions direct the will. It is not one or the other, it is both. Just as the tightrope walker most progress forward in act, he must also balance desire and knowledge. The tightrope walker has skill, experience, and knowledge to help him succeed. What do we have to succeed? We are baptized in the Holy Spirit and freed from Original Sin. We are therefore free to do what is right. We contend with concupiscence and so must pray for guidance, inform our conscience with study, and participate in the sacramental life. What will keep us in balance? The regular reception of sacraments of Reconciliation and Holy Eucharist. Our passions are powerful, so is the Holy Spirit, our intellect is fallible, but the grace of God is not.

– Frank Miller  

Mass and Liturgical Schedule for Lent and Easter 2023

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Ash Wednesday, February 22nd:

  • Masses at 9am, 11:30am, 7pm

  • Prayer Service, 4:00pm

Friday Stations of the Cross (With Music):

  • 2/24, 3/3, 3/10, 3/17, 3/24, 3/31, at 7pm

Adoration:

  • 2/27, 3/20 at 7pm

Confession:

  • Saturdays at 1:00pm (except Holy Saturday April 8th)

  • Monday, March 27th at 7:00pm

  • Or by appointment

HOLY WEEK:

  • Passion Palm Sunday 4/2

    • Saturday, April 1st 5:00pm Mass: Solemn Blessing of Palms

    • Sunday, April 2nd: Masses at 8:00am, 10:00am, 12:00pm

    • Palms distributed at all masses

  • Monday-Wednesday 4/3-4/5

    • Regular 11:30am Mass

  • Holy Thursday 4/6:

    • No morning mass

    • Solemn Mass of the Last Supper, 7:30pm

    • Night Prayer, 11:00pm

  • Good Friday 4/7

    • No mass

    • 8:30am Morning Prayer

    • Service (Passion and Death), 3:00pm

    • Living Stations (Youth), 7:00pm

  • Holy Saturday 4/8

    • No morning mass

    • No Confession

    • 8:30am Morning Prayer

    • 8:00pm Solemn Mass of the Resurrection (Easter Vigil) with Adult Choir

  • Easter Sunday 4/9

    • Masses at 8:00am, 10:00am with Children’s Choir, 12:00pm