Welcome RBC faculty!

Tomorrow, November 1, we welcome the faculty and staff of Red Bank Catholic High School to Saint Anselm.  The faculty will be having their annual spirituality day with us.  After breakfast, there will be a presentation on humor in the spritual life, followed by a presentation by Msgr. Sam Sirianni and myself on the implementation of the new Roman Missal.  I'll reserve comment on the juxtaposition of these topics until after the presentation......

Basically, we'll be presenting to the faculty the same information we shared at our parish meeting on the new Roman Missal.  Just a reminder, you can view that powerpoint presentation by visiting the Saint Anselm website...www.stanselm.com...so check it out!

A great time at EPCOT

After the Stewardship Conference ended with the final concelebrated Mass, I joined some of my colleagues in an afternoon and evening at EPCOT.  I have never been there before, so I was very excited about the trip.  All I have to say about the trip was WOW!  I had no idea it would be so fun and so cool!  I think I had as good a time as did all of the little kids and families that were roaming the park.  I think that I will return to this magical place again.

Tomorrow I fly home to Jersey.  It will be good to be home.

International Catholic Stewardship Conference

I'm currently enjoying a great conference on Catholic Stewardship.  The conference is being held in Orlando, Florida, at the Lake Buena Vista Palace hotel....just across the street from Disney World!  It's a beautiful place for a conference, the weather is great (79 degrees F) and I'm learning and re-learning lots of great stuff.  The exhibitors are top-notch, and I've even re-connected with some long-time friends from around the country. 

Look out St. Anselm!  I'm coming home with lots of good ideas, and exciting thoughts about rejuvenating our parish practices regarding stewardship!  It's going to be moved to the front-burner!

A new Nuncio for USA!

Just heard that Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano has been named by the Pope to be the new Nuncio (ambassador) to the USA.  Let's pray for him, and for his ministry!

Rest In Peace, Fra Pietro

Late this evening came word of the death of Archbishop Pietro Sambi, the Vatican Nuncio (Ambassador) to the United States for the past 6 years. The Archbishop had been suffering from a lung condition and was being treated at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. Earlier in the week, his family had been called to his bedside, and dioceses throughout the U.S. had asked the faithful for prayers for him.

Archbishop Sambi was a good priest, an eminent diplomat, and very interested in the vibrant pastoral life of parishes in the United States. I had the wonderful occasion to meet him at the "Enthronement" of Bishop Gerald Dino of the Eparchy of Van Nuys a few years ago. Bishop Dino is a longtime friend, and so I was thrilled to be invited to his Enthronement. Archbishop Sambi who "recommended" Bishop Gerald to Pope Benedict XVI to be made bishop, was very much present at the ceremonies, and the wonderful eparchial reception afterward. I was very impressed at how, as I said at the time, "He worked the room like a Jersey City politician!" He went to every table of lay people, priests, deacons, et. al. I'm not sure that he actually ate any food, he was so busy greeting everybody! Even after the reception, he came down to the lounge in the hotel where most of us were staying, and continued visiting with all of Bishop Gerry's friends and family members.

I will remember this very friendly priest, Archbishop, ambassador, and man at Mass tomorrow. Let us pray for each other!

A new Archbishop for Philadelphia

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia will announce tomorrow that Pope Benedict has appointed Archbishop Charles Chaput, OFM as the new archbishop of Philadelphia. He succeeds Cardinal Justin Rigali, who reached the mandatory retirement age of 75 last year.

Archbishop Chaput is coming to the East Coast from Denver, Colorado. He has a very big job ahead of him, especially in the area of healing hurts from the massive mishandling of the clerical sex abuse crisis. Hopefully, the Lord will aid the new archbishop with Grace to heal the massive wounds that the people of Philly are suffering. Let us pray for the people of Philadelphia.

The New Missal????

I just saw this image on another blog, and couldn't resist posting this. I welcome all humorous comments!

Holy Thursday preparations

Just got word that Bishop John M. Smith, the retired Bishop of Trenton, will be coming to St. Anselm parish for Holy Thursday, for the celebration of the Evening Mass of the Lord's Supper. He knows how we have the practice of washing everyone's feet. And he's looking forward to a parish celebration of the Lord's Supper that truly lives out the vision of "Full, conscious, and active participation of all of the faithful" in the Holy Thursday liturgy. Yes, we will wash lots of feet, yes, we will sing the Liturgy as much as possible, yes, we will process in song and movement, with the Blessed Sacrament, to the Altar of Repose. We will sing in modern and ancient languages, and we will proclaim by our celebration of this liturgy, that we are all partakers of the Priesthood of Christ because of His gift of the Eucharist. Let us continue to pray for one another! FYI: The Evening Mass of the Lord's Supper begins at 8:00 p.m. on Holy Thursday evening. After Mass, we will watch in prayer in our chapel until 10:00 p.m., with the singing of Night Prayer, and the closing of the church for the night. Please note, children are welcome to attend, and to participate in the Mass of the Lord's Supper! All are welcome.

A great night at the Waldorf-Asotria in NYC

Coach Brian Kelly, and his wife, Paqui Kelly,

Coach Ara Paraseghian

Heisman Trophy winner, and Presenter, Tim Brown, ND 1988

Coach Lou Holtz

Regis Philbin, ND class of '51

Last night, I was privileged to attend a great dinner in New York City, at the Grand ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria hotel. It was the inaugural celebration for "Irish Eyes Dinner to Remember" to benefit the Kelly Cares Foundation. A great night, hosted by ND's class of '51, Regis Philbin.

The entire Waldorf environment was spectacular, and very welcoming.

It was a wonderful night for old friends, classmates, and new members of the Notre Dame Family to gather and rekindle old relationships.

The dinner itself was superb, and featured not only great speeches, but wonderful music from Hayley Griffiths, lead singer from "riverdance" and "lord of the dance."

Overall, a great way to raise awareness for Breast Cancer awareness, and to start a proper celebration of St. Patrick's Day!

Go Irish!

A Great Liturgy Committee Meeting tonight

Tonight we had a great Liturgy Committee meeting. We decided how to handle several issues, and I informed the Committee of our plan to implement our Diocesan plan for the implementation of the Roman Missal. I shared the many resources for the implemenation of the new Roman Missal, especially some very good webistes and bulletin inserts to use in our catechizing for this implementation. I'm very happy to be working with this very talented group of Liturgy Committee members, who are so very talented and resourceful, and loyal to the teachings of the Church. We all seek to put into place a loyal, faithful, and a pastoral celebration of the Church's liturgy.

Our Parish Liturgy Committee has already received some very awful, and almost violent comments from some of our parishioners.....saying things like: "I'm not going to accept any of these changes..." Well, I encouraged the Liturgy Committee to pass on any negative comments to me, and I'll be glad to handle them.

I truly believe that this time is a chance to educate our Catholic Faithful about the real, deep, and true meanings of our Liturgy, and its meanings. We didn't do this after Vatican II, and now, with this new translation, we have a golden opportunity.

Yet, we will have to face our members who will stupidly ask: "Why do we have to change?"


It's up to us to lead the rest to more deeply understant the beauty of the Liturgy and how it shapes, forms, informs, and leads us into the Christ-Life.

Blessed Sacrament Choir tonight!

Tonight we hosted the choir from Blessed Sacrament/St. Charles Borromeo parish in Newark, NJ at our 5:30 PM Liturgy. They all sang beautifully, and we really rocked the church.

Afterward, our Parish Life Committee hosted a covered-dish supper for the choir. More than 200 people showed up, to fill our Learning Center. It was very, very tight.

I'm overall very pleased with our Parish Life Committee, and how they hosted our guests. However, in assisting the committee members who were doing all of the work, I heard of several stories of parishioners who were downright rude, too demanding, who were disrespectful of our guests, and now I'm writing this with knots in my stomach considering whether we should ever do this event again, if it's going to cause such divisions and dissension.

Our Parish Life committee hosted a great event, and donated hundreds of hours trying to provide a great event. Yet the complaints that I heard from parishioners who give absolutely nothing to our parish who were demanding service at this event.....It was really disheartening. I have to tell you....I'm thinking of cancelling this event for next year.

While I really love having the choir from Blessed Sacrament parish here to sing our Liturgy in Gospel style, I am very, VERY, disappointed with the nasty parishioners that abused our Parish Life Committee this evening. Once again, I'm very dissapointed....let the word go forth!

The view from my window these days

Thanks to Mike McElroy for this great image of life at the Jersey Shore these days. I, for one, have had enough of the white stuff.

Let's pray that this is the last of the winter storms. January is NOT supposed to look like this in New Jersey.

An evening at Carnegie Hall

Last evening, I went to a great concert in New York, at the world-famous Carnegie Hall. For me, it was my first time there. And what a night it was!

The featured artist was John Angotti, who was backed up by a Catholic Choir of 330 people! Singing in the choir were our own parishioners Cindy Buck and Mike Zorner. They were joined by many other choir members from all over the Diocese of Trenton. We had a Party Bus for 30 from Saint Anselm, and we had a great time. I'm sure that this won't be the last bus trip to NYC for an event like this.

Thanks to Dr. Jerry Galipeau and other friends at World LIbrary Publications in Chicago, I think artists like John Angotti will continue to come to great venues like Carnegie Hall, and gather with many other Catholic musicians to bring the message of God's love to the world.

Celebrating Theophany

Last night, I joined my good friend, Fr. Michael Mondik of St. Thomas Byzantine Catholic Church in Rahway for the vigil celebration of Vespers and the Divine Liturgy for the Feast of Theophany. This was my first time concelebrating as the sole concelebrant for a Byzantine Liturgy. Fr. Michael was very gracious, and very patient with me, as I tried to sing the parts of the Liturgy that he gave to me. I was especially honored when he asked me to take the Blessing of Water at the end of the Liturgy. (It takes almost 20 minutes to bless the water in this Liturgy.) It was a great, and very moving evening for me. I think that I may ask my bishop for permission to begin studying the Byzantine Liturgy with the hope of gaining bi-ritual faculties.