Young Adult Group for Catholics

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If you are a young adult Catholic between the ages of 20 to 40 at any stage of life, we invite you to young our Young Adult group! We currently meet in person and virtually every other Thursday evening for Bible study, fellowship, outreach, and other social events. You can learn more about our ministry here.

To receive updates on our meeting dates, events, and to join our email list reach our to Brandon Codi at youngadults@stachurchbloomfield.org.

 
 

Join the Social Concerns Ministry for a Virtual Chat!

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Are you feeling a little disconnected and isolated due to the prolonged COVID pandemic? Have you been struggling with the “Dead of Winter Blues”? Would you like to share your concerns with someone, need help with an issue, or just have a pleasant chat with another human being about how things are going? 

If so, you’re only a click away from your friends on the STA Social Concerns Committee: Barbara Albert, Fran Gardella, Michele Gilfillan, Shelia Walsh Romeo, Jason Scotti, Steve St Hilaire, and Joe Turner.

The Social Concerns Ministry is sponsoring a virtual chat on Zoom on Thursday, March 10th, from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm for our St. Thomas Community.  We invite you to drop into our call any time between 7:00 - 9:00 PM to engage in community and conversation with one another.

This call is an excellent opportunity to meet some fellow parishioners, learn more about what the ministry is about, and share anything that may be on your heart and mind lately.

If you are interested in attending you can join our Zoom call here, if you are having difficulty connecting, please reach out to Fran Gardella at 848-448-4335 or via email at fgardella@hotmail.com. If you have questions, don’t hesitate to reach out. We look forward to seeing you soon!

Girl Scout Cookie Drive

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Come out and support Girl Scout Troop 20204 of St. Thomas the Apostle School for our Drive-Thru Cookie Booth!

  • Sunday, March 6, 2022, from 8:00 am - 1:00 pm

  • St. Thomas the Apostle School, 50 Byrd Avenue, Bloomfield

  • Parking lot across the street from the school

Stay in your car and have your favorite cookies delivered right to you!

  • $5 a box for Adventurefuls, Lemon-Ups, Trefoils, Do-Si-Dos, Samoas, Tagalongs, and Thin Mints

  • $6 a box for Girl Scout S’mores and Toffee-tastic

When stopping by our sale, we ask that you please remain in your cars and wear a mask upon delivery. We can deliver to your car window or directly to your trunk. Contact-free credit card payments or cash are both accepted.

If, instead, you prefer to order your cookies online and have them shipped directly to your home address, you can order here to support Troop 20204!

Beyond Cornerstone Seeks Volunteers for St. Augustine's Soup Kitchen

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Image taken pre-COVID

Join the Beyond Cornerstone Service Ministry for a planning meeting supporting their work with St. Augustine’s Soup Kitchen!  We will be meeting on March 9, 2022, at 7:00 PM in the Parish Center.  All are welcome as we recruit new volunteers to help us serve those in need. 

The Beyond Cornerstone Service Ministry supports the Missionary Sisters of St. Mother Theresa at St. Augustine’s Soup Kitchen in their efforts to provide meals to those in need.

They request financial support from parishioners to meet this mission.  Please consider placing a check for any amount in the collection basket or the lockbox at the parish center. Please designate that the donation is specifically for the soup kitchen in the memo line.

If at this time, you are unable to provide support financially, we are also in need of volunteers to shop for supplies, food, and water and to then help deliver items to the nuns.  Each month, our current volunteers plan and shop to feed about 150 people, including adults and children. The Sisters then prepare and distribute the meals for the community – this may be the only meal they will have all day for many of the guests.  We also seek donations of cases of water and, if you are able, assist with our twice a month delivery. 

If you are interested in participating in the Beyond Cornerstone Service Ministry, please reach out to Alicia at aliciavons@gmail.com or 973-715-5770.  You are also welcome to stop by any of our meetings! Make sure to keep an eye out in the weekly bulletin for upcoming meeting dates.

Young Adult Ministry Clothing Drive

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“The righteous will ask ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? Or naked and gave you clothing?’ And the King will answer them ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did to me.’” - Matthew 25:37-40

We have recently restarted our Young Adult Ministry, as you may have heard.  Our hope for this ministry is to provide a community for our parish's young men and women to grow together in their faith.  We believe a big part of this involves going out into the world, living your faith, and spreading the word and love of God through acts of service.

Drawing inspiration from the Franciscan Friars, we plan to engage in outreach to those in need by providing them with necessities such as food and clothing, and sitting with them in prayer.

This winter season, we humbly ask for the help of our parish to achieve this goal.  We are seeking donations of gently used winter clothing to bring to those in need.  One of the biggest struggles for the homeless in our area is staying warm during the winter. The smallest donation to our community could significantly impact someone’s life.

With the clothing collected, our ministry will make recurring trips to Newark Penn Station and Penn Station in Manhattan with food, clothes, and prayer to help support those going through a rough time in life.

How to Donate

Donations can be dropped off in the bucket near the Infant of Prague statue in the church, or reach out to Brandon Codi at youngadults@stachurchbloomfield.org.

It is easy to think that making an impact in others’ lives can seem too big a task to take on, but as Mother Teresa said, “There are no great acts, only small acts with great love.”

We once again thank you for your generosity, and God bless you.

Deacon Tom's Homily for the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

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Abundanza! Remember mama Celeste telling us how great her pizza was?  I don’t know whether it was the size of the pizza, the flavor of her sauce, or the amount of cheese that made her pizza “Abundanza.”

But, Mama Celeste taught us all the Italian word for abundance.

In today’s gospel, we see an abundance of water in six huge stone jars set aside for the Jewish Purification Rites: one hundred eighty gallons of water to wash the hands of the wedding guests and make them worthy of sharing in the wedding banquet.

What a blessing this abundance of water is, especially in this arid desert land. But, up to this point, even all this water cannot truly purify the wedding guests.  There’s nothing on earth that can truly cleanse them up to this point.  But, all this is about to change!

Many of Israel's ancient Prophets predicted that, at the Messiah’s coming, all the vines would yield an abundance of wine.  The Prophet Amos says: “The juice of the grapes shall drip down the mountains, and all the hills shall run with it.”  From the time the Jewish children were very young, they were taught to be on the lookout for this abundance of wine that would signal the arrival of the Messiah.

So, at Cana, when Jesus transforms 180 gallons of water into an abundance of the finest wine, Jesus is saying to all the wedding guests present and the whole Jewish nation, “Here I am. I, the Long-awaited Messiah, have arrived.”  We have here yet another epiphany, another manifestation of God’s saving presence breaking through into our world.

All the water on earth cannot purify us.  Only the Precious Blood of Jesus, poured out for us, can cleanse us.  Only the Precious Blood of Jesus poured out for us can make us truly worthy to share in the heavenly wedding banquet.

At the last supper, Jesus changes wine into His Blood, and then He generously sheds every drop of His Precious Blood for us during His Passion and His Crucifixion – showing us the abundance of God’s love for us.

Today, right now, God’s abundant Love is pouring down upon each one of us like a mighty waterfall.

St. Paul tells us in his letter to the Ephesians: that God can accomplish abundantly more than all we can ask.  He can do exceedingly more than we can even imagine!

Today, we ask: “Give me even more of your Divine Life, O Lord.  Give me even more of Your Holy Spirit!”  Jesus promises us that our reward for following His teachings will be “a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing.” 

Abundanza!

St. Thomas Food Pantry Updates

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Hello, friends of the St. Thomas Food Pantry!

I pray that you and your families are well. 

We read in the Book of Hebrews 12:1, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”

Some of us may question, who is this “great cloud of witnesses”? The great cloud of witnesses are the many saints, the holy ones who have gone before us, those souls who opened themselves up to the grace of God by allowing God’s light to shine through them, bringing the Light of God’s love into the places where light was needed the most. By their witness, we can more imitate them and be like God. 

One of these witnesses is the Servant of God Catherine de Hueck Doherty. Catherine was born in Russia on August 15, 1896, to parents of deep Christian faith, who communicated to her an extraordinary love for the poor. Often, she accompanied her mother on her visits to the local poor. Frequently she saw her father get up from the table and wait on beggars who came to the door for food. ‘A love that is not incarnate is not real love,’ she would say. Catherine would become a dedicated wife and mother, a friend of Dorothy Day and Thomas Merton, a Servant of God. Similar to many saints, Catherine experienced a closeness to God. She heard the voice of Christ say to her, "Arise — go... sell all you possess... take up your cross and follow Me.” This divine calling brought Catherine to establish the Friendship House wherein she strove to clothe the Gospel with love and service to the poor in Harlem, Chicago, and Toronto. She also founded the Madonna House Apostolate, a Catholic community of men, women, and priests living in poverty, dedicated to loving and serving Jesus Christ. Through donations of clothing, food, goods, and money, members of the Apostolate are enabled to live out their promise of poverty and better identify with the poor they serve. Today the Madonna Apostolate has field houses located throughout the world. Catherine died on December 14th, 1985. Her cause for canonization as a saint is under consideration by the Catholic Church. I recommend you take some time to learn more about her.

Catherine de Hueck Doherty became God’s instrument by allowing His love to enter and move through her, most especially in her service to the poor. She is a beautiful model for us to follow. When we donate food to the St. Thomas Food Pantry, we become like Catherine de Hueck Doherty, an instrument of God, a channel of peace, a channel of love. When we love one another, we pass on God’s grace and mercy to others and to ourselves. Having been blessed, we can bless others in our parish community and outside our parish community. Grace is not meant to be hoarded and stored. And let us remember that giving to the poor is a foundational and non-negotiable Christian obligation: “If someone who has the riches of this world sees his brother in need and closes his heart to him, how does the love of God abide in him?” (1 Jn 3:17).

Thank you for your donations, past, present, and future. The food you donate to the St. Thomas Food Pantry is distributed to needy parishioners and local soup kitchens. If you or somebody you know needs food, please contact the parish center. All communication is completely confidential.

With that, we’d like to share a few reminders with you regarding donations to the food pantry:

  • Donated food should be left inside the "handicap accessible” doorway at the back south side of the Church. Be careful not to place bags or boxes in the path of foot traffic.

  • Only non-perishable food items are suitable for our Food Pantry (i.e., peanut butter, jelly, cereal, oatmeal, pancake mix, syrup, coffee, tea bags, canned tuna, boxed macaroni and cheese, canned vegetables, canned fruit, canned fruit juice, canned soups, canned stews, pasta sauce, pasta, bagged rice, canned or bagged beans, powdered potatoes, powdered milk, stuffing mix, cake mix, and baby food)

  • Supermarket Gift Cards are gladly accepted. Please drop them off at the parish center. Please contact the parish center if you wish to donate fresh/frozen beef or poultry (only current sell-by date).

LET US PRAY

O God, thank you for the abundance of life, relationships, health, comfort, and wealth you have provided.  Thank you that even in times of need, despair, and brokenness, you are there. And, Lord, guide us, so we can be your hands and feet, pursuing justice for the poor and upholding the cause of the needy. Amen.

Peace!

Your friend in Christ,

Deacon Brian

2021-2023 Synod Listening Session

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Pope Francis’s Invitation

Our Holy Father Pope Francis has invited the Catholic Church to embark on a journey together. Through listening and discernment rooted in the Holy Spirit, the entire people of God will be called to contribute to a process by which the Church deepens in understanding of Her mission and looks toward the future.

What is a Synod?

A Synod, which is the process by which the Church will begin this important work is not just a convening of Bishops reflecting on a particular topic and advising the Pope. A Synod is a journey of discernment, in which the people of God are called to pray and reflect upon the Holy Spirit’s will for the Church. Through our listening and our sharing, we will seek to understand what the Holy Spirit’s will is for the topic being discussed – and thus, for the Church.

Synod Listening Session

Pope Francis is asking all dioceses and parishes throughout the world to hold listening sessions to hear what the Holy Spirit is asking of the Church in the 21st century. All are invited to participate in a listening session to pray, listen, and discern where the Holy Spirit is leading the Church.

In the parish setting, parish staff, parishioners, youth, young adults, parents of children in the school or religious education program, and those missing — who may have left the parish during the pandemic or for other reasons should feel welcome to come. We encourage as many people as possible to participate!

The goal of the listening session is to gather together to share our experiences and ideas.

Our Deanery’s listening session will take place on:

Prayer for the Synod on Synodality

Every session of the Second Vatican Council began with the prayer Adsumus Sancte Spiritus, the first word of the Latin original meaning, “We stand before You, Holy Spirit,” which has been historically used at Councils, Synods and other Church gatherings for hundreds of years, being attributed to Saint Isidore of Seville (c. 560 - 4 April 636). As we are called to embrace this synodal path of the Synod 2021-2023, this prayer invites the Holy Spirit to operate within us so that we may be a community and a people of grace. For the Synod 2021-2023, we propose to use this simplified version, so that any group or liturgical assembly can pray more easily.

We stand before You, Holy Spirit, as we gather together in Your name.

With You alone to guide us, make Yourself at home in our hearts;

Teach us the way we must go and how we are to pursue it.

We are weak and sinful; do not let us promote disorder.

Do not let ignorance lead us down the wrong path nor partiality influence our actions.

Let us find in You our unity so that we may journey together to eternal life and not stray from the way of truth and what is right.

All this we ask of You, who are at work in every place and time, in the communion of the Father and the Son, forever and ever.

Amen.