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200 MONMOUTH ROAD, ELIZABETH, NJ 07208 + 908-351-4444
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CAFÉ GENEVIEVE
The communal experience of Mass is continued downstairs in the church hall at Café Genevieve. Please come down after the 9:00 and 10:30 Masses to enjoy coffee, tea or juice and a bagel, roll or pastry with your family, friends, and future friends.
Children of all ages are invited to enjoy games, puzzles, coloring pages, craft projects and other activities during Café Genevieve in Karen’s Corner. These supervised activities are provided after the 10:30 Mass until noon each week. Please join us!
KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS
The Knights of Columbus is a fraternal organization for Catholic men. All men of the parish are invited to join. For information please contact : Council 253 at (908) 355-2253 or Chris at (908) 351-4444.
CONFIRMATION 2024
Next Sunday, April 21, 2024 The Sacrament of Confirmation will be celebrated at the 12:00 noon Mass. Bishop Elias Lorenzo, O.S.B. the Regional Bishop for Union County will be joining us for this wonderful celebration.
During the upcoming days, please keep our 23 candidates for Confirmation, their sponsors and their families in your prayers. All are welcome to join us for this parish celebration.
HELPING HANDS
Food Collection Helping Families
St. Genevieve’s Helping Hands Group is seeking food and paper product donations to support local families in need. Note: If you are a person or family in need, we can help you. Please connect with one of our Priests or call the Rectory (908) 351-4444 for confidential assistance.
Donations of checks/ food gift cards also accepted. Checks payable to: St. Genevieve Helping Hands and sent to the Rectory.
Thank you.
BECOMING CATHOLIC
If you (or someone you know) is interested in joining the Catholic Church, or was baptized Catholic but never received Confirmation or First Communion and would like to find out how, please contact the Rectory at (908) 351-4444. Thank you!
A VOYAGE TO ANTIQUITY!
Are you ready for summer vacation yet? If you are starting to plan one, why not consider joining my travel group for a wonderful program to the lands of antiquity: Greece and Turkey. From August 5-18, 2024, I am offering the opportunity to visit such wonderful places as Athens, Istanbul, Ephesus, Mykonos, Rhodes and much more on a fabulous 10 day cruise. While this is new to St. Genevieve’s, I have been running programs like this for over 25 years. A full color brochure is available by calling or stopping in the parish office. Please speak to me for more details.
Recovering the Full
Celebration of the Liturgy
Liturgical Ministers
Liturgical ministers ought to discharge their office therefore with the sincere devotion and decorum demanded by so exalted a ministry and rightly expected of them by God’s people. Consequently they must all be deeply imbued with the spirit of the liturgy.
Sacrosanctum Concilium, 29
Liturgical celebrations require the functioning of a variety of ministries in order to project a rich, full expression of the very nature of the Church-a microcosm of the Body of Christ. At Mass in particular, a priest presides, often with the assistance of a deacon. Acolytes serve; readers proclaim the word of God to the assembly; extraordinary ministers of Holy communion assist with the distribution of the Body and Blood of Christ.
Ushers and greeters welcome the people of God as they assemble and assist with the gifts and the collection. Cantors and instrumentalists support the singing of the assembly while choirs add beauty to the liturgy with trained voices.
The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy tells us that, “servers, readers...and members of the choir also exercise a genuine liturgical function.” In other words, these ministries are a necessary part of the liturgy, not just “add ons” to help the priest. The plurality of ministries in the liturgy should reflect the lived reality of the Church: all are needed to serve and celebrate.
During the recent pandemic, many liturgical ministries of the church were minimized or eliminated. A minimalist liturgy makes for a service that is meager and wanting-a weak image of the Church! Altar servers were replaced by book stands; lay readers were replaced by clergy; musical elements were reduced as if unimportant.
Now that the full liturgy has been restored, a moment of grace lies before us calling parishes to revitalize their worship; to invite back ministers who stepped down during the pandemic and to install additional ones where needed.
Now is the time to restore the parts of the Mass and the function of ministers required for a rich, full celebration of the liturgy.
With properly prepared ministers assisting at worship, the faithful are better able to encounter Christ in the Assembly, the Word and the Eucharist. The Church cannot afford to minimize its experience of prayer when so many need the presence of Christ in their lives. With the full use of clerical and lay ministries, worship will come alive again.
FAMILY LIFE MINISTRY
We are happy to announce that we are once again preparing the annual tradition of honoring those couples in the Archdiocese who will be celebrating five, twenty-five and fifty years of valid marriage for the Catholic faithful in 2024!
These anniversary liturgies will be held in the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark. They will be celebrated by Cardinal Joseph Tobin.
June 2 12:00PM 50 years
May 5 12:00PM 5 & 25 years
It is our desire that every couple in the Archdiocese deserving of such recognition be present at the appropriate liturgy. To register please call the Rectory at 908-351-4444. Also, any couple who would have celebrated their Silver or Gold Anniversary in those years stunted by covid restrictions may still join us . Again, please call the rectory for details.
SAFE ENVIRONMENT
The Archdiocese takes very seriously any and all allegations of sexual misconduct by members of the clergy, Religious and lay staff of the Archdiocese. We encourage anyone with knowledge of an act of sexual misconduct to inform us so that we may take appropriate action to protect others and provide support to victims of sexual abuse. Call the Coordinator for the Office of Accompaniment in the Archdiocesan Department for the Protection of the Faithful at 201-407-3256
SAVE THE DATE: MAY 5
PANCAKE BREAKFAST
On May 5, after the 10:30 Mass, the Helping Hands Group will host a Pancake Breakfast for parishioners! Fresh pancakes, coffee, tea and other breakfast items will be served. This event is open to all parishioners. More info will be available in future church bulletins
FIREWOOD RETURNS TO WEBBY’S
WOODSHED
Do you need firewood for your chiminea, fireplace or wood-burning stove? You can get well-seasoned split hardwood logs right here at St. Gen’s for less than what you pay in the supermarket. And you will be supporting the camping program of Boy Scout Troop 23, including funding that helps send scouts to summer camp. Help yourself from Webby’s Woodshed, located
behind the rectory. Follow the directions on the envelopes provided to make a donation thank you for your support.
WE’RE SCOUTING FOR UNIFORMS
Do you have a Cub Scout or Boy Scout uniform hanging in your closet that is not used anymore? Please consider donating it to the uniform exchange Through this uniform exchange, the Scouting program at St. Gen’s helps to ease that burden for its member families. Scouts are often able to find a shirt, pants, belt,
hat, neckerchief or neckerchief slide that has been donated by a former member, or by a current member who has outgrown the uniform. Donations can be placed at any time in the American flag retirement box next to Webby’s Wood Shed, behind the church Rectory. For more details please contact Dan Bernier, Scoutmaster at (908) 451-1948 or webfoottroop@gmail.com
