45 Anderson Street; Raritan, NJ 08869 • Tel. (908) 725-1008 • Fax (908) 707-1915 St. Ann School: 29 Second Avenue; Raritan, NJ 08869 • Tel. (908) 725-7787 • Fax (908) 541-9335 St. Ann Convent: 29 Second Avenue; Raritan, NJ 08869 • Tel. (908) 725-2256 THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT—DECEMBER 13, 2015 M S: Daily: Monday -Friday: 7:00am and 7:00pm Saturday: 9:00am Weekend: Saturday Vigil: 4:00pm Sunday: 7:30am, 9:00am, 10:30am, and 12 Noon C: Saturday: 9:30am -10:00am & 3:00pm - 3:45pm P R: Any new family who has moved into the parish, or adult children 18 and over, are invited to register at our parish af- ter any Sunday Mass or visit the rectory 8am to 4pm Monday through Friday. Also, please notify us if you move. S. A S R - Pre-K to 8th grade: Our dedicated and experienced faculty are committed to provid- ing a quality education focused on Faith, Family and Community. Call us at 908-725-7787 for more information, to visit our school or to register your child(ren). P R E P (PREP): Grades 1-8: Monday: 6:15pm to 7:30pm Grades 1-7: Thursday: 6:15pm to 7:30pm Special Needs PREP: Grades 1-8: Tuesday: 6pm-7pm For more information and Registration packet, please call Sr. Phyllis in the rectory. E G: St. Ann’s offers parishioners the opportunity to make Online Church contributions! Log onto www.stannparish.com, then scroll down, and click on St. Ann Parish Online Donation Sys- tem. You will be connected to a secure site where you may enter your information. Thank you for your continued support! R.C.I.A.: We welcome all individuals who wish to become members of the Catholic Church as well as baptized Catholics who never received their First Communion or Confirmation and are interested in becoming full participants in the Catholic faith to contact M: The common policy of marriage requires that arrangements be made at least One Year before the date of marriage and before any social plans are made. Bride or Groom must be a parishioner. Please do not make any arrangements until you have met with the pastor, Msgr. Corona, and the wedding date has been approved. B: First Sunday of the month at the Noon Mass, as well as the second, third and fourth Sunday at 1:30pm. Instruction for new parents takes place on the second Saturday of the month at 10am. Arrangements are made with the rectory. S G: Must be 18 years old, registered as an adult and be confirmed in the Catholic Church. If you are married, your marriage must be recognized by the church. This is especially important if you wish to be a sponsor for Confirmation or a Godparent for Baptism. It takes 6 months of attending Mass to be eligible for both of these privileges. L" M#: Lazarus Ministry contacts and helps families of deceased parish- ioners. Providing greeters at funeral liturgies, preparing meals and house sitting are several ways parishioners assist families. Also, a Mass of Remembrance is held every November for those deceased that year. M# S$: Parishioners who are homebound are visited on the first Friday of each month by our Deacons & Religious. If you know of a parish- ioner that is seriously ill or hospitalized, please call the rectory. “L$ ” F($: Please join us on Facebook . Our Church Facebook page includes important information concerning activities and special dates. Please LIKE US at The Catholic Church of St. Ann-Raritan, NJ.” P M S Inspired by the Holy Spirit, we the Catholic Parish of St. Ann embrace all as family & continue Christ's mission by exemplify- ing the love of God & neighbor as stewards of God's gifts to us. Rev. Msgr. Michael J. Corona, PA, KCHS, Pastor Rev. John J. Werner, Parochial Vicar Deacon John R. Pacifico, Permanent Deacon Deacon Conrad Paulus, Permanent Deacon Deacon Roy Rabinowitz, Permanent Deacon Sr. Dolores Toscano, M.P.F., Superior / Pastoral Associate Sr. Mary Klersey, M.P.F., Principal Sr. Phyllis Vella, M.P.F., Director of Religious Education www.stannparish.com Email: [email protected]Rejoice Rejoice Rejoice Rejoice
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RejoiceRejoice Email: info@stannparish 13, 2015.pdf7pm JOSEPH & J OSEPHINE MIZIA by daughter, Terry Mayewski SATURDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2015 9am PAOLA AND SERAFINA DEFINA by Anna and Nicola
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From early December until January every year a huge Christmas tree stands in Rockefeller Center, New York. In almost every city, town and village throughout the country, in the windows of shops and houses, Christmas trees with their lights, stars and tinsel exude joy and happiness.
Recently I learned that the Christmas tree tradition first came to England through Queen Charlotte, the German wife of King George III, who in 1800 decorated a yew tree and illuminated it with small wax candles for a family party at Windsor. The custom was not taken up by the general population, until after Queen Victoria’s husband Prince Albert introduced spruce trees from his homeland in 1840. In England, Christmas trees were late arrivals in churches. Until then, churches had been draped in garlands of evergreens with holly and bay, sometimes so heavily decorated that one young woman wrote to The Spectator magazine in 1712 to complain that she found it impossible to catch the eye of a certain young gentleman, though they sat only three pews away, because the church looked “more like a greenhouse than a place of worship”. She feared that unless something was done she would grow “a very awkward creature at church” and soon have little else to do there but say her prayers. Imagine that!
Today’s Scripture Lessons proclaim joy in the near presence of God. Yet each is set against a background that militates against joyful expectation. The Old Testament Lesson from Zephaniah was written in the seventh century BC at a time when Israel was surrounded by hostile nations. Zephaniah does not mince his words. His main message is the coming day of universal judge-ment, “a day of wrath… of distress and agony… of ruin and of devastation… of darkness and gloom”, as the prophet says earlier in his book---images hardly brimming over with joy. The call to rejoice because the Lord is in the midst of his people is almost unexpected, as it is in contrast with everything preceding it.
St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians, our New Testament Lesson, was written when he was in prison because of his missionary work. In Philippi he had established his first European church and he called the community there “my joy and my crown”. Though he is impris-oned and facing the possibility of execution, joy and peace are prominent in the letter, culminating in St. Paul’s wish for their happi-ness in the Lord and for the peace of God that is beyond our comprehension while on earth.
When St. John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness and called the people to prepare a way for the Lord, and to receive a baptism of repentance, they were under Roman occupation with a Roman procurator and a Jewish subordinate ruler, King Herod. The tax collectors had bought their positions from the Roman authorities. The soldiers gave armed protection to the tax collectors. They were in need of some protection, because they were hated by both Jews and Gentiles. So, the people were attracted to the Baptist and his message. They went to him for baptism, and all, tax collectors and soldiers included, asked what they must do. He answered that they must act justly towards others. People living under a regime of occupation---with some benefiting from it, others oppressed by it---are brought together into joyful expectation. But St. John the Baptist does not allow their expectancy to be centred on him. Ra-ther, he directs it to the nearness of God and to the one who is to come.
From our Scripture Lessons we can see how John the Baptist, Paul and Zephaniah dispelled oppressing darkness with the light that shone from God’s nearness. It seems to me that Christmas trees with their glimmering lights and other decorations, which now illumine the period leading to the celebration of our Savior’s birth, can be seen as symbolising that same light of God’s near presence among us.
If we return to that young woman in church, faced with an overpow-ering array of greenery that thwarted her plans, we see that she met her troubles with humor. But when the troubles of life are so hard that nobody and nothing seems able to help, so acute that we are tempted to cry out that God is absent---what then? May we never forget that Emmanuel, God who is with us, is in our midst. Christ, the Morning Star, who comes to us in Word and Sacrament, will dispel our darkness.
In your charity, pray for the sick and the lonely—visit them if you can. Please remember to pray for all who have wandered from the Faith and all who have died, especially Bruno Riga, Teresa Riga and Anna Mae Gratalo. Also, pray for the souls of the faithful departed of our Parish family. May God always be pleased with us!
Monsignor Michael
OUR SCRIPTURE LESSONS REMIND US:
…that Christmas trees with their lights and decorations give joy and happiness at this time and during the entire season
of Christmas which ends after Epiphany, not December 26th;
…that today’s Scripture Lessons are all set against backgrounds of hardship and suffering. Zephaniah, Paul and John
the Baptist have their sufferings to bear but they are sustained by their belief that God is in their midst;
…and that God who comes to us in Word and Sacrament, is always close to us, especially in the darkest times of our lives.
May God always be pleased with us. Amen!
THE CATHOLIC CHURCH OF ST. ANN, RARITAN
Pat Adamo David Alves Luzminda Anthony Patrick Bliss Yolanda Bontempo Michael Brennan Chester Butkiewicz Joanmarie Carlone Anna Carra Albert Charles Bruno Cirianni Mark Cusati Harold D’Alessio Michele D’Angelo Angela DeFina Joseph De Lucia Mary Ann De Maio Ann Descoteau Raymond Descoteau Maria M. Desiderio Lydia DiGiuseppantonio Catherine (Trina)DuMont
Leah E. Sage Escalante Mike Faccone Carmela (Millie) Fasano Mary & Richard Felice
MONDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2015
7am VICTORIA MELITSKY by Carol and Basil Smith
7pm NANCY & ANTHONY DIGRAZIANO by niece, Antoniette Gianni
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2015
7am CARMELA AND BRUNO ADORNADO by Sr. Dolores Toscano
7pm LUCY SIMONETTI by family
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2015
7am CARMELA SENA by Jim and Rosemarie Condo
FRANCESCO BARBIERI by family
7pm NO MASS — ADVENT PENANCE SERVICE
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2015
7am DOMENICA RUFFA by Lina and Raffaele Cirianni 7pm JAMES PACIFICO by John and Linda Pacifico
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2015
7am ROSE AND JOSEPH SANSONE by children
7pm JOSEPH & JOSEPHINE MIZIA by daughter, Terry Mayewski SATURDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2015
9am PAOLA AND SERAFINA DEFINA by Anna and Nicola DiBetta
4pm ANTONIA GRECO by Mr. and Mrs. D. Natale
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2015
7:30am ANN OLIVERO by Joe and Jennifer Olivero
9am PEOPLE OF THE PARISH 10:30am GIOCOMO GRECO by wife, Vincenza
12 noon GIOVANNI AND ANNA FALZARANO by Joe & Lena Iannetta
Mike Fogorty Susan Foti Maria Fusca Teresa Galaini Anthony Gambino Madison Gara Elizabeth Gecik Eleanor Giraldi Rosemary Gonzales Harold Grasso Leonard Grasso, Sr. Ruth Gulick Melanie Heim James Holmes Doris Kelco Joseph Kowalski Bernadette Laggini Barbara Langon Eric M. MaryAnn Mangiaracina Frank Marrone Rosalie Marrone Giovanna Martini Louis Mattei Pauline Mengak Jack Merwin Nancy Natale Nicoletta N. Margaret O’Donnell Olga Orlando Dottie Pacifico
Frances Peebles John Peiffer Carol Pepere-Occhiato Frank Ratkowski Angie Romano Loni Rose Cosette Ruh Marianne San Filippo Sanbeda Santos Phyllis Serafin Raffaela Simonetti Mary Shallanberger Cathy Stinziano Frank & Lucille Sudano Immaculata Suriano Dolores Talamini Eva Terlizzi Tommarie Tibaldi Anthony Tomaro Gianna Torgrimsen Anthony Tracchio Carolyn Trepiccio Marie Vale Maria Varvaro Richard Vetack Vincent Viscariello Carmella Vitale Emily Vokes Ron Wyka Antonia Y. Lisa Yoder
7:30am A���� S������: Peter DeSan=s and Joey Sause
R����: Rob Sause
E��������� M��������: Mary Lou Cirianni & Tom DeSan-
=s
9am A���� S������: Morgan Hill
R����: Jane Fidacaro
E��������� M��������: Jim Werner and Jim Fidacaro
10:30am A���� S������: Evan Berry, Brendan McNulty, & Sarah
“Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition,
with thanksgiving, make your requests known to
God.” (PHILIPPIANS 4:6-7) St. Paul reminds us that our God is an abundant God, the ultimate giver of gifts. He promises to give us all that we need. When we trust that God will take care of us, it is easier for us to share what we have been given.
THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT—DECEMBER 13, 2015
AMAZON SMILE
Amazon will donate 0.5% of the price
of your eligible AmazonSmile to St. Ann
School whenever you shop on Ama-
zonSmile.
Website: h�ps://smile.amazon.com/ch/221610843
Help St. Ann School to help you by purchasing Scrip Gi�
Cards from us for making your purchases at stores and
shopping on the internet. We receive a percentage of
MARDI GRAS MADNESS Stop by the school or rectory to enter into a drawing, held at our
Wine Tasting on February 6.
For a donation of $5 per ticket to win either a:
60 inch 4K Ultra HD Smart LED LCD TV
~~~~~~~~~~AND/OR~~~~~~~~~~~ 50/50 RAFFLE
For either, winner need not be present.
All proceeds go to support St. Ann School Technology Upgrades.
For more info call 908-725-7787 (school) or 908-725-1008 (rectory).
GREAT CHRISTMAS GIFTS
LAST CHANCE FOR TICKETSLAST CHANCE FOR TICKETSLAST CHANCE FOR TICKETSLAST CHANCE FOR TICKETS
Total: ??..?? $ 10,168.54
Envelope Offerings: $ 7,920.50
Net Charge Offerings: $ 1,502.04
Loose Offering: $ 746.00 Poor Box: $ 75.74
Thank you for your generosity to our parish. “...where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” Luke 12:34
Let Us Remember...In our prayers, the men and women serving in our Nation’s Armed Forces.
May God bless them & keep them safe.
Pray for the souls of those who have given their lives in service to our country.
(Please advise the Parish Office if your family member’s military status or rank has changed, or if a name should be included on our list.)
Major Michael A. De Cicco; U.S. Army Victor Dulay, Jr.; U.S. Marine Corps L Cpl Matthew John; U.S. Marine Corps PFC Gavin John; U.S. Marine Corps CW4 Michael Lopez, Jr. PFC Vincenzo Mattei; U.S. Army Major Michael Morella; U.S. Army Sgt Dan Neville; U.S. Marine Corps
SPC Keith Ressa; U.S. Army PFC Daniel J. Salvo; U.S. Marine Corps
Corp Jonathan Schultes; US Marine Corps Major Louis P. Simon; U.S. MarineCorps
PFC Jerome C. Sunga; U.S. Army Jack Vara; U.S. Marine Corps
Sgt Janet Wyka; U.S. Army
OUR MILITARY
THE CATHOLIC CHURCH OF ST. ANN, RARITAN
BISHOP’S ANNUAL APPEAL—BLESSING
May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who has
loved us and given us everlasting encouragement and good hope
through his grace, encourage your hearts and strengthen them in
every good deed and word.- 2 Thes 2:16-17
WINE TASTING
Menu
Appetizers ~~ Salads
Jambalaya ~~ Shrimp Etoufee
Penne Vodka ~~ Chicken Rollatini
Eggplant Rollantini ~~ Sliced Brisket
St. Ann’s Wine Cellar St. Ann School Cafeteria;
29 Second Ave; Raritan, NJ
Saturday,
February 6, 2016
7-10pm
St. Ann’s Community presents...
Mardi Gras Soiree of Wine & Food
$50/pp advance purchase by 2/1/2016 ~~ $60/pp after 2/2/2016
(St. Ann School families receive 50% =cket price towards Fundrais-
ing Credit) **A bottle of Red, A bottle of White… is what you’ll receive if you reserve a
Wine ~~ DJ Baskets Raffles ~~ 50/50
60” TV Raffle (4K Ultra HD Smart LED LCD)
Tickets: call our school at 908-725-7787. Questions email Cindy Haddad at [email protected]
TICKETS ARE NON-REFUNDABLE
SHEPHERDS or GAUDETE SUNDAY The third Sunday of Advent is called Gau-dete Sunday, the day when we light the pink candle on the Advent wreath (hence the ‘pink candle’ Sunday). Rose vestments are worn to emphasize our joy that Christmas is near. Gaudete means “rejoice”. This day reminds us of the joy that is to come, and serves, amid this season of penance, as a kind of ‘break’ when we recall the hope we have because of the coming of Our Lord Jesus.
3rd Candle: (pink) CANDLE OF JOY
or GAUDETE SUNDAY
The angels sang a message of Joy! (Luke 2:7-15) BREAKFAST WITH SANTA
An Event for the Whole Family ~ December 13 ~~ 8-12noon ~
Stop by St. Ann’s Church tonight and enjoy all our Music Ministry has to offer as we foretell the coming of the Savior, with short scripture passages and beautiful music from our St. Ann
Choir (adult & children) and Bell Choir.
LESSONS & CAROLS WITH OUR CHOIR & BELL CHOIR
4-H CHRISTMAS DINNER
Presenting the Somerset County 4-H……
2015 4th Community Holiday Dinner December 25 ~~ 2-4pm
Join our 4-H family for some good company and an
excellent meal on Christmas Day!
Ted Blum 4-H Center; 310 Milltown Rd; Bridgewater
~~HANDICAP ACCESSIBLE~~
This dinner is at no cost to those who a�end, but you
must have reserva=ons to be seated. We also have
take out if you prefer.
RSVP by December 22 at 908-526-6644. Seating is limited!
Has your marriage become unloving or uncaring — your relationship grown cold, distant—thinking about a separation or divorce? Are you already separated/divorced but (both of you) wish to try again—then the Retrouvaille program may help you. RETROUVAILLE (Rediscovery) sponsored by the Family Life Offices/Diocese of Metuchen consists of a weekend experience for couples (no group discussions) with six follow-up sessions.
The next program begins the weekend of February 5-7, 2016. All inquiries are confidential.
For information call the Family Life Office (days) 732-562-1990 x.1705; Rich & Annette Colasuonno 732-236-0671; or
Tom & Pat McTague 732-583-4468 (evenings).
Dear Friends of St. Ann School,
Pope Francis gave a homily in which he indicated that Advent was a season of tenderness. I love that image and thought about how I could communicate the idea of growth in tenderness to our students.
My opportunity came the very next day. Three second graders came to me in the cafeteria to tell me a fellow classmate was about to cry. My impulse was to rush over and solve the problem. But the Spirit had other ideas. I asked the threesome what they could do about it? They repeated the problem. “But you can be Jesus for her. What would He do?” They raced back to the table. One rubbed the back of the “almost crying” friend; another talked to her, and the third looked at her with compassion. After a few minutes they came to report their success. “She is better. She wants to handle it by herself,” was the agreement between the triad.
So how does St. Ann School teach tenderness? We live in a world and society which does not value tenderness. In fact, it is often portrayed as a weakness.
Our philosophy reminds us that we partner with parents who are the primary educators of children. It is the parent (and the parish) who first teach the faith by their words and actions. It was a parent who taught about that gentle back rub, the compassionate eyes, and the soft caring conversation. The parishioners model this further at Church when a little one wails in the middle of Mass and they shake a baby’s hand or offer a little hug and smile of encouragement.
Thank you to all who continue to be a source of tenderness to our school.
God bless you,
Sr. Mary Klersey, MPF Principal
THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT—DECEMBER 13, 2015
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2015
M"##: 7:30am + 9am + 10:30am + 12N
2nd Collec+on: Christmas Flower Memorial
8-12noon: Knights of Columbus Breakfast with Santa