Help Needed with Christmas Decoration Setup

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Helpers are needed to set up our exquisite Christmas decorations! It’s that time of year to enjoy all the Christmas season brings, including beautiful lights, trees, and flowers. It can’t be done without the effort of volunteers every year. Please consider giving of your time to help make it possible.

Setup will commence at church on Saturday, December 16th at 9am. To get involved, please call or email Dan at (973) 216-7639 or dbitecola@gmail.com.

Are you unavailable or not able-bodied, but wanting to help? Please consider a donation to help offset the cost. Click here to make an online donation, or leave your donation in the basket at mass labeled “Christmas Decorations”.

Thank you for your generosity of time, talent, and treasure!

Deacon Tom's Homily for Sunday, November 19th; 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

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OPEN OUR HEARTS, LORD, HELP US to love like You. Open our hearts, Lord, help us to love.

GOD IS LOVE – TOTAL, SELF-GIVING Love!

WE CAN ACTUALLY SEE God-on-the-Cross pouring Himself out totally…for us. Jesus holds nothing back.

HIS HEART IS PIERCED; IT IS completely open. He gives every drop of blood, every inch of Himself for us.

TODAY, WE PRAY FOR A HEART LIKE Jesus’ heart - the natural heart we once had a long time ago, before we first sinned.

JESUS-ON-THE-CROSS IS THE blueprint for our daily life. He tells us: “Love one another as I have loved you.”

WE EMULATE HIM BY POURING ourselves out for others.

THE GRACES, THE BLESSINGS THAT we receive, we, in turn, pour out on those around us – beginning with our family and friends.

WE SHOWER HIS COMPASSION EVEN on the stranger in the Shop-Rite who blocks our way with his cart and on the jay-walker who deliberately crosses right in front of our approaching car.

JESUS COMMANDS US: “BE compassionate as your heavenly Father is compassionate.” The forgiveness God is showing us, we are to show to those who hurt us.

LIKE THE WORTHY WIFE IN TODAY’S first reading, we reach out our hands to the poor; we extend our arms to the needy.

EACH DAY, THE PATIENCE AND THE love God is pouring out on us, we pour out on everyone we encounter.

ONE DAY, OUR MASTER WILL return. He will require an accounting from each of us of all the gifts He has poured out on us – the forgiveness, His compassion, the patience, and all the love,

ARE WE PAYING THEM FORWARD? Are we giving His gifts with an open heart to those around us?

OR ARE WE HOARDING THEM, keeping them to ourselves? Are we ignoring His gifts, burying them in the ground?

SO TODAY, WE PRAY: OPEN OUR hearts, Lord, help us to love like You. Open our hearts, Lord, help us to love.

Christmas Pageant Sunday, December 17th at 1:30pm

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The 2023 Christmas Pageant will take place on Sunday, December 17th at 1:30pm. Join the youth of the parish as they reenact the Gospel account of Jesus’ birth through story and song.

Admission is free. Attendees are kindly asked to bring a non-perishable item for our church’s food pantry.

If you have a child between the ages of 3-12, you may sign them up before November 26th via Google Form only. Please click here to be taken to the online form.

2023 Advent Giving Tree begins Saturday, November 25th

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The Saint Thomas the Apostle Rosary Confraternity is once again sponsoring our Annual Advent Giving Tree.

The gift selections will be split between the trees in the Church near the reconciliation rooms and online.

  • Gift Tags will be available the weekend of November 25th/26th. All gifts must be returned no later than the weekend of December 9th/10th.

  • Please do not wrap gifts – place items in gift bags or plastic bags. Original gift tags must be attached to the bags.

  • Gift cards (with the gift tag and $ value attached) should be placed in the collection basket or dropped off at the Parish Center.

  • Click here to be taken to the online gift signup registry.

  • Click here to be taken to the AGT ministry page which contains extra details and instructions, or to contact the volunteer team.

We appreciate your spirit of generosity and look forward to another successful year!

Meet & Greet with Fr. Jonathan A. Yabiliyok Sunday, November 12th

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The Holy Name Society is sponsoring a “Meet & Greet” with Fr. Jonathan A. Yabiliyok, our periodic visiting priest on Sunday, November 12th after the 10 a.m. Mass in the Parish Center.

Fr. Jonathan will give a short presentation on “Nigeria – Living the Catholic Faith: It’s Joys & Challenges” followed by an open Q&A.

Refreshments will be provided by our Hospitality Ministry.

A request will be made by the Holy Name Society for you to consider a free-will offering to him for essential furnishings for his congregation’s church worship space – which, for circumstances beyond its control, is currently not protected from the weather.

2023 Christmas Pageant Signup Now Open

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Signups are now open for the 2023 Christmas Pageant! It will take place Sunday, December 17th at 1:30pm. The pageant is ideal for children ages 3-12 and is open to all children of the parish. Signups this year will be conducted via Google Form now through 11/26. Please click the button below to access the form.

We hope to see your child included in this treasured STA tradition!