Feast Date:
The date the parish is decreed.

Mary met many crossroads in her own life:

•she met with fear and trepidation as the Angel Gabriel announced to her that she would be the Mother of the Savior. •she felt anxiety and humility as she visited her cousin Elizabeth. •she felt shame when she had to face her parents and Joseph, fearing a misunderstanding of how she was with child. •she was troubled as she heard Simeon announce that a sword would pierce her heart. •she felt helpless as she walked the way of the widow after Joseph died. •she experienced crushing pain that only a mother can feel as she sees her son beaten and ultimately killed. •she felt the loneliness and a broken heart as she lived the longs days that followed Jesus’ death.

Though we, the Diocese of Camden and each merging parish, are experiencing a sadness in crossing roads, we, too, will be strengthened by the God of Love who gave Mary the strength and courage that she needed during the crossroads of her life. We will have a New Beginning.

Feast:
Began his Papacy on October 16

John Paul II will be remembered as the Pilgrim Pope. He travelled to more places in the world and spoke to more people than any other pontiff in the history of the Roman Catholic Church. He revolutionized the modern papacy. Where previous pontiffs remained distant, never straying far from the Vatican, John Paul maintained a busy travel schedule. He completed 102 pastoral visits outside of Italy, and 144 within, visiting almost 130 countries during his 26 years as Pope. He logged more kilometres of travel than all other popes combined. Elected at only 58 – on Oct. 16, 1978 – John Paul II was the youngest pope of the 20th century, and the first non-Italian pope since the 15th century. His charisma - people who met him described it as a "luminescence" - and common touch drew adoring crowds wherever he went. On March 14, 2004, John Paul became the longest-serving pope after Pius IX and St. Peter, when his pontificate overtook that of Leo XIII.

Feast: November 1st
(similar to All Saints)

The Church celebrates all the saints: canonized or beatified, and the multitude of those who are in heaven enjoying the beatific vision that are only known to God. During the early centuries the Saints venerated by the Church were all martyrs. Later on the Popes set November 1 as the day for commemorating all the Saints. We all have this "universal call to holiness." What must we to do in order to join the company of the saints in heaven? We "must follow in His footsteps and conform [our]selves to His image seeking the will of the Father in all things. [We] must devote [our]selves with all [our] being to the glory of God and the service of [our] neighbor. In this way, the holiness of the People of God will grow into an abundant harvest of good, as is admirably shown by the life of so many saints in Church history" (Lumen Gentium, 40).

Feast: Decmber 28

The Massacre of the Innocents is an episode of mass infanticide by the King of Judea, Herod the Great, that appears in the Gospel of Matthew 2:16-18. The author, traditionally believed to be Matthew the Evangelist, reports that King Herod ordered the execution of all young male children in the village of Bethlehem, so as to avoid the loss of his throne to a newborn King of the Jews whose birth had been announced to him by the Magi. Like much of Matthew's gospel, the incident is introduced as the fulfillment of passages in the Old Testament read as prophecies: Then was fulfilled that which was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet, saying, A voice was heard in Ramah, Weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children. The infants, known in the Church as the Holy Innocents, have been claimed as the first Christian martyrs. Traditional accounts number them at more than ten thousand, though more conservative estimates put their number in the low dozens.

Feast: October 16

When he was born, he was given the name Gerard. He was the son of a tailor who died when Gerard was twelve, leaving the family in poverty. His mother then sent him to her brother so that he could teach Gerard how to sew and help the business. During this time, he was abused by a man whom his uncle sent to help him. He kept silent, but soon his uncle found out and the man who taught him resigned from the job. He loved to be like Jesus Crucified and tried at all costs to suffer. He tried to join the Capuchin order, but his health prevented it. When falsely accused by a pregnant woman of being the father of her child, he retreated to silence. She later recanted and cleared him, and thus began his association as patron of all aspects of pregnancy. He was reputed to have bilocation and read consciences. His last will consisted of a small note on the door of his cell saying, "Here the will of God is done, as God wills, and as long as God wills." He died on October 16, 1755 in Caposele of tuberculosis. He was aged 29.

Feast:
Parish Celebration on Pentecost

The Lord chose these holy men for their unfeigned love, and gave them eternal glory. Their message goes out through all the earth. Through all the earth their voice resounds, and to the end of the world, their message. We praise you, O God, we acclaim you as Lord; the glorious company of Apostles praise you. Alleluia, alleluia. Jesus went up to the mountain to pray, and he spent the night in prayer with God. When day came, he called his disciples to himself, and from them he chose Twelve, whom he also named Apostles: Simon, whom he named Peter, and brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called a Zealot, and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.

Jesus Christ chose the twelve Apostles. He chooses us too to a sacred calling. His mystical body, His Church, which consists of all members of the human race, albeit, two-thirds of the population of the world are not officially Catholics, are part of His Church through the power of the Holy Spirit. That implies that through divine providence, that God permits each of us to experience, we receive the direct means and cause of our calling and vocation. All are called by God to be holy by the Holy Spirit regardless of religion, race or creed. We are all God's children, created and called to be sanctified.

The Apostles started the process from an established ecclesical perspective and we are a continuation of that same process and calling. Sanctification in itself had no beginning for God is holy from eternity and has always been sanctifying all creation outside of himself starting with the angels to humankind.

Feast: October 11

The 21st ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church, convened by Pope John XXIII and continued under Paul VI. Its announced purpose was spiritual renewal of the church and reconsideration of the position of the church in the modern world. The most spectacular innovation of the council, which convened October 11, 1962, was the invitation extended to Protestant and Orthodox Eastern churches to send observers; the meetings were attended by representatives from many of those churches. Another obvious feature was the diversity of national and cultural origins shown among those who attended from all over the world.

One of the announced aims of the conference was to consider reform of the liturgy, primarily to bring the layman into closer participation in the church services and therefore to encourage some diversity in language and practice.

Feast: Parish Celebration on Corpus Christi

Luke tells the story of that first Easter afternoon when the risen Christ appeared to the two disciples who were walking together along the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus. Like Christians and churches who are blinded by preoccupation with their own immediate difficulties, these two disciples' sadness and hopelessness seemed to prevent them from seeing God's redemptive purpose in things that had happened. And yet, the risen Christ "came near and went with them," opening the disciples' eyes to his presence and lighting the fire of God's love in their hearts. As they walked to Emmaus, Jesus explained to them the meaning of all the scriptures concerning himself. When they arrived in Emmaus, Jesus "took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them," and their eyes were opened. They recognized him as Jesus, the risen Lord, and they remembered how their hearts had burned within them as they talked with him on the road. Within the hour, the two disciples left Emmaus and returned immediately to their friends in Jerusalem. As they told stories about their encounters with the risen Lord, Jesus visited them again with a fresh awareness of his living presence.