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MASSES CANCELLED

ALL PUBLIC MASSES ARE CANCELLED!!!!

By order of the Bishop of the Diocese of Metuchen, all public Masses in the Diocese have been cancelled until further notice. There will be no Holy Week or Easter Mass celebrations with congregations; all will be available LIVE STREAMED on the Diocese of Metuchen Website at https://www.stfranciscathedral.org/

This extreme action is being taken in order to contain the Coronavirus pandemic. Your Parish Priests will offer private Mass for the intentions which were requested.

The Parish Office will be closed until further notice. In case of true Catholic emergency (Anointing) please call the Emergency phone 732-710-8558. Please visit our website for updates and notices at stjamesonline.org.

Until further notice St. James Church will be open to all for private prayer from 8:00am to 2:00pm, allowing time for disinfecting. There will be no confessions or Adoration at this time.

Please check our website for Mass Online with Bishop Barron’s Chapel and at the Cathedral. The Pope has requested to say the Rosary daily for the World, the lives lost, the sick and an end to this pandemic.

Dear People of God at St. James Catholic Community:

Boy, do I really miss you all and long for the time when we can all pray again together!  We are truly living through a period of extraordinary stress. The anxiety of the Coronavirus, COVID-19, pandemic is effecting all of us. While social distancing is very necessary in order to contain the outbreak, as the Bible says, “it is not good for man to be alone.” Keeping that in mind, given the everyday technology that we have at hand, it is important for us to pick up the phone and call our families and friends, letting them know that they are not alone. Thank you to all who have called or texted me.

As you know, based on the Governor’s order, Bishop Checchio has said that there are to be no public Masses until this health crisis is over. Your parish priests continue to offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass for the intentions requested and for you. We do not have WiFi in St. James Church in order for me to live stream the Mass, but we will be recording the Sunday liturgy starting April 19th, which is Divine Mercy Sunday so you can pray with your parish family. It will be posted on our website by 5:30pm Saturday night, April 18th and every weekend until we can gather again in church as a community of faith.

The diocese will be live streaming Bishop Checchio’s Holy Week services on the Cathedral website: https://www.stfranciscathedral.org/. Here is the schedule for the live stream Holy Week schedule:

• Palm Sunday, April 5, 2020 10:30am (blessed Palms are not to be distributed under any circumstance at this time by order of our Bishop, but may be made available for distribution at a later date!)
• Holy Thursday, Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper, April 9, 2020 - 7:30pm
• Good Friday, Celebration of the Lord’s Passion, April 10, 2020 - 3:00pm
• Easter Vigil, April 11, 2020 - 8:00pm - Holy water fonts are to remain empty. RCIA sacraments will be re-scheduled.
• Easter Sunday, April 12, 2020 - 10:30am.

I will be celebrating these services privately on those days. I do plan to bless palms but they will be distributed once restrictions are lifted.

I have been asked “what about funerals”? Given Governor Murphy’s executive order, the State Funeral Directors Association has said that viewings and ceremonies are not to be conducted. All diocesan and parish cemetery office personnel will work from home. While the cemeteries will be closed to the public, the funeral directors have their guidelines. Once the health crisis has passed, if families would like to have a memorial Mass for the deceased person, our parish will make every effort to honor that request.

With all that is going on, I really wish I did not have to bring up this next topic. Given that we depend entirely on donations, the parish is facing financial setbacks. Your weekly contributions are essential for the good of the parish. Your sacrificial giving is of great importance with meeting the cost of employee salaries and benefits, utilities, etc. I ask your help in this difficult time. The easiest thing to do is to go the parish website, www.stjamesonline.org. and sign up for Online Giving, the electronic donation service we use. Otherwise you can mail your envelopes to the Parish Office, 148 Grenville Street, Woodbridge, NJ 07095.  Our parish does not have much in way of savings and it will take some time to recoup when this crisis is over. Church employees are not eligible for unemployment benefits, so your continued financial support is crucial.

Our Food Pantry remains open, your help there to replenish supplies is always welcome. It is open with regular hours, as the Governor has declared it is an essential operation.

Know that I am praying for all of you everyday. I guess that is the one silver lining in this stay at home situation, we have plenty of time to pray for each other. Be safe - I love and miss your smiling faces. We three priests are fairing well and pray for your peace and serenity.

Blessings and Grace,

Monsignor Charles W. Cicerale
Pastor

PS. Please visit www.diometuchen.org to see our Bishop’s full statement for the Diocese of Metuchen’s Holy Week and Triduum 2020 schedule, and it will give updated information during the pandemic.