St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Parish is here for you.  Sunday Mass is at 12:00 noon at St Francis of Assisi Independent Catholic Chapel: 195 Ridgewood Avenue Glen Ridge, NJ.  Please call the parish office to arrange for the sacraments and please join us at our weekly mass.

“So that none might be Lost.”

 

4th Sunday of Easter
April 25, 2010

Opening Prayer

Dear God, I am humbly in your presence.
Please open my heart and my mind
so that I may dwell
in your Spirit
in the midst of your assembly.

Second Preparation

I take a moment to remember
and look forward to Sunday

I think of the place where I will worship on Sunday.
I recall its many aromas…
I feel myself within it...

I listen…
I look...

I see
the presider
the readers
the people around me

We will be together, before God, in our faith

MEDITATION:

Greet Him

If you and I pay attention, we can learn a lot about animals and their humans.

Think of the endearing way domestic beasts recognize their owners. Dogs collapse into a frenzy of delight when you come home, even if you have been gone for a half hour. The new heaven has arrived in their midst, and hysterics are the least they can do.

Somewhere there may be a cat like this, but most of them have an opposite reaction from the heartsick dogs. “Oh it’s you again,” they seem to say.

I know one exception. My cousin’s cat always models indifference with most people, but when I walk into the house it makes a quiet bee-line to where I am sitting, making no secret of how it enjoys being petted by me. I have never been sure whether to be complimented or not, nor can I explain it. There might be months between visits and still this cat makes its way to the petting machine, with both dignity and craving.

Judging from his stories, Jesus too paid a lot of attention to animals and their humans. He watched shepherds and sheep many times in his trips through the lands and he observed the kinship. Not cat-like or dog-like, but heartfelt in a different way. Shepherds made the sheep safe, guarded them, led them to food and drink. Jesus even compared a milling crowd of people to “sheep without a shepherd.”

I have been told that in the Jerusalem of Jesus’ day various flocks would arrive along with their respective shepherds, but that there was only one sheepfold. So all the shepherds sent all the sheep into it. This made for a rather large herd, and there wasn’t any practice of branding or marking in order to tell one from the other. What's more, sheep, unlike dogs, do not rejoice themselves into knots when their shepherd walks in. Then how could each shepherd reclaim own sheep?

Two ways. One, the shepherd knew them by heart. Sometimes he had a special name for each character in the flock. And second, the sheep themselves recognized their master’s voice immediately. When he called out, they simply got to their feet and came with him, through the sheep-gate.

Jesus refers to this familiarity in Sunday’s short Gospel. “My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me,” he says. Have you ever longed to hear the voice of someone who could make things alright, who could lift the burdens from your shoulders? Someone who knows you by name and loves you? Jesus says he is that someone.

You “shall never perish,” he adds, as he holds you in his own hands. It is the Father who has given you to Jesus. Who could revoke that gift?

I have a hunch that you do recognize Jesus’ voice when you hear it. Your feelings move when you hear trustingly a certain Gospel, for instance. Or when you receive the bread of everlasting life and the cup of unending salvation—not as a stranger might, but as a member of the well-fed and greatly cared for flock.

What about trying, Sunday, to notice whether your spirit inclines to Jesus? Maybe you settle into his lap for petting. Your soul seeks him always.

And finds him.
 

Greetings and Peace!

Hello and Peace!

I hope everyone is having a great week and we look forward, as always to seeing you this Sunday!

This Sunday IS the last Sunday of the month, which can only mean that it is TIME FOR OUR MONTHLY PARISH BRUNCH!!!!! So please bring your favorite dish and a huge appetite! Our monthly brunches have been a success and such a joy to our community. Lets keep the tradition going!!!!!

Remember that on Wednesday, May 12, our first gathering of “Holy Grounds” at Eclectic Café (444 Bloomfield Ave, Montclair) is scheduled for 7 pm. So if you can, please join us in an enjoyable evening of spirituality!

During the week of July 28 to July 31 my Religious Order will be gathering for our summer Chapter and retreat, entitled “Turned to the Lord”. I want to take this opportunity to invite and encourage all of you to join us for some or part of the retreat. It will be held in at St. Francis Retreat Center, 3918 Chipman Road Easton, PA. During the retreat Anthony and Geety will be clothed in the habit of our Order, the Franciscan Community of Mercy. The clothing will be followed by a celebratory meal, and it would be nice if we could, as a parish, support Anthony and Geety. I will let you know the date and time of the Clothing.
 
We are preparing to launch our new website. Geety has been working very diligently on developing a “new” look for our parish community. The new website has a menu listing our ministries. We need your help in suggesting copy for the following: Children’s Educational Program, Social Ministry and ???
 
Janet has offered to help us with a Mother’s Day fundraiser by selling the beautiful jewelry she crafts. Janet will be able to do this on the two Sundays preceding Mother’s Day.
 
YOU MAY ALSO NOTICE …. Our chapel now has a fresh new look!!!! This Sunday when you join us for mass, you will be walking down a beautiful new carpet. This is just one of the things we are able to do to show our appreciation of being blessed with a home for our Parish.

In the parish where I grew up it was customary for one of our priest's to make a "visitation" to each of the homes of the parishioners of the parish. My family always looked forward to the day when Fr. Daly or Fr. Griffin, or Msgr. Murphy would be coming by. The visiting priest would stay for about twenty minutes and bless our home, and in general check in on our spiritual well being. I would like to revive this custom in our parish. In order to do this I will need to ask you to help me coordinate the effort, so if you would like me to visit we can create a schedule for this to happen. We can talk more about it at our brunch.

So enjoy the Spring weather, and we’ll see everyone on Sunday!

Blessings,
Most Rev. Dr. George Lucey,  DD, FCM
Presiding Bishop of the American National Catholic Church

A parish community of the American National Catholic Church Jurisdiction