IN OUR THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS

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MASS INTENTIONS IN OUR THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS First Sunday in Lent • February 21, 2021

* Indicates Live Streamed Mass

Saturday, February 20

4:00 pm Silvestre Cascio (Anzalone Family) Sunday, February 21

9:00 am Steven Drozd

(Ciro & Ada Trematerra)

*11:00 am Dan Sweeney (Mary Boyd) Monday, February 22

9:00 am Available Tuesday, February 23 9:00 am Ed & Janet Cullen (Piacentino Family) Wednesday, February 24 9:00 am Available Thursday, February 25 9:00 am Available Saturday, February 27

4:00 pm Stacia Hanley (Kaba Family) Sunday, February 28

9:00 am Hope Finnerty

(John & Caroline White)

*11:00 am Andy Yglesias

(Bereavement Ministry)

To secure your intentions, please contact the Parish Office.

READINGSFORTHE WEEK – FEBRUARY 21, 2021

Monday: 1 Pt 5:1-4; Ps 23:1-3a, 4, 5, 6; Mt 16:13-19

Tuesday: Is 55:10-11; Ps 34:4-5, 6-7, 16-17, 18-19; Mt 6:7-15 Wednesday: Jon 3:1-10; Ps 51:3-4, 12-13, 18-19; Lk 11:29-32

Thursday: Est C:12, 14-16, 23-25; Ps 138:1-2ab, 2cde-3, 7c-8; Mt 7:7-12 Friday: Ez 18:21-28; Ps 130:1-2, 3-4, 5-7a, 7bc-8; Mt 5:20-26

Saturday: Dt 26:16-19; Ps 119:1-2, 4-5, 7-8; Mt 5:43-48

Sunday: Gn 22:1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-18; Ps 116:10, 15, 16-17, 18-19; Rom 8:31b-34;

Jackie Wilson, Diane Black, Micki Smith, Annette Petercsak, Joyce Picon, Peter Laudati, Joanne Baldachino, Vera Dzumyk, Carol Atherton, Beth Kujawski, Paul Gallo, Rosemarie McNab, Chuck Smith, Toni Hetteroth, Brian Scott, Frank Trimboli, Dianne Smith, Douglas Merwin, Kathleen Gillespie, Cheryl Bottega, James Picon, Stephen Trimboli, Tony Catapano, Bert Bumbera, Paul Wilson, Jr., Joann DiCapua, Evelyn Manvell, Joan Myhal, Carol Spezzano, Carol Sabine, Baryt Schone, Victor Mota, Fran DeLuca, Nick DeLuca, Dorothy

Palumbo, Frank Diolosa, Theodore Dunyak, Theresa Debiak, Andy Sabine, Elaine

Giblock, Barbara Holst, Baby Tripp

Ravenfeld , Marie Gould, Cindy Andolora, Christopher Diolosa, Steve Andolora, Wayne Calsetta, Doris Garbarino, Bettina Morell, Melissa Staiger, Bonnie Holton, John Jennings, Arlene Toth, Judi Reed, Deborah MacInnes

Call the Parish Office to let us know of anyone to be remembered in prayer, so we way include them or, if they can be removed.

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Church of Saint Monica, Jackson, New Jersey Page 3

2021 Calendars & Bulletins are available to take with you as you exit Mass

FINANCIAL STEWARDSHIP

COLLECTIONS

FEB 1 - FEB 7, 2021 Weekly Collection $1,442.00 Building Maintenance $ 136.00 Online Giving $1,569.00 Total $3,147.00

Thank you for your contributions as we support the ministries, programs and facilities of our parish.

One of the best ways to honor someone's memory is to have the sacred Mass offered for their intention. To secure intentions, please contact the Parish Office at 732-928- 0279.

In order to be fair to everyone, no individual Mass Intentions will be taken for Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, Mother's Day, Father's Day or All Saints.

To dedicate a Sanctuary Candle in memory of a loved one, please call the parish office 732- 928-0279. The donation is $25.00.

On f th b t t h n r m n ' MASS INTENTIONS

PLEASE NOTE

The Lenten Penance Service will take place

on Wednesday, February 24 at 7:00 p.m.

s you exit Mass

&

Our sanctuary candle this week burns for a

Special Intention

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First Sunday in Lent • February 21, 2021

Looking to find peace and healing from divorce, whether separated, considering divorce, or already divorced? The “Surviving Divorce: Hope &

Healing for the Catholic Family” program will help you to discover how to work through

emotions and pain, and experience personal healing and hope. Join us on this powerful journey to hope and healing! This 12-week program will be held on Tuesday nights beginning in March at St. John’s Parish in Lakehurst.

All details will be explained at an in-person Information Night on Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2021 from 7:00--8:30 pm in the Parish Hall of St. John’s, located at 619 Chestnut Street in Lakehurst.

All are welcome! For questions and to sign up, email Michele Coppola Wilson,Director of Divorce Ministries, at [email protected]

Stream the Stations with Bishop O’Connell this Lent Bishop David M. O’Connell, C.M., will lead a special, multimedia experience of the Way of the Cross, which will be available for stream- ing on the Diocese of Trenton’s YouTube channel beginning Friday, Feb. 19. The presentation will feature the watercolor portrayal of the 14 stations by popular 19th cen- tury French painter James Tissot, one of Bishop O’Connell’s favorite artists. After experiencing a spiritual vision while visiting the Church of St. Sulpice in Paris, Tissot ded- icated his artistry to portraying the life of Christ in 350 watercolors based upon the Gospels – 14 of which depict the Stations of the Cross. The entire collection was pur- chased by and remains on display with the Brooklyn Museum of Art.

Bishop O’Connell observed that the Stations’

portrayal has been “selected to help us

prayerfully envision the Passion and Death of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Leading prayers first composed by St. Al- phonsus Liguori, the Bishop invites the faithful to join him in commemorating the Way of the Cross this Lent. To stream the Stations, visit: youtube.com/trentondiocese

A message from Bishop O’Connell:

The value of our Catholic media February is Catholic Press Month. Here in the Diocese of Trenton we are blessed to have many good “Catholic Press” venues to keep in touch with our Catholic faithful in Burlington, Mercer, Monmouth and Ocean Counties. Our diocesan websites and social media, as well as our monthly Monitor Maga- zine and video-messaging are carefully de- signed to keep you informed about happen- ings in the Church and Diocese, to provide live-streamed prayer and worship and to be a source of evangelization and catech-

esis. They are also a primary means for me, as Bishop, to encourage, instruct and main- tain contact with the faithful of the Dio- cese. Please take advantage of and support all that the “Catholic Press” of the Diocese of Trenton has to offer you. Keep in touch with us so that we can keep in touch with you!

(For more information on how to access the Catholic media produced by the Diocese of Trenton, visit:

www.DioceseofTrenton.org www.TrentonMonitor.com www.Youtube.com/trentondiocese and follow us on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram.)

Lenten Offerings

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CALENDAR The Annual Catholic Appeal – In Action!

Please wear your mask and observe social distancing in Church. In-Church limit of 100 people.

* Indicates Live-streamed Mass @

saintmonica.com & Audio Only on Radio 87.9 FM in the parking lot

Sunday, February 21 First Sunday of Lent 9:00 am Mass

*11:00 am Mass Monday, February 22 9:00 am Mass Tuesday, February 23 9:00 am Mass

Wednesday, February 24 9:00 am Mass

Thursday, February 25 9:00 am Mass

9:30 am Rosary in Sanctuary Saturday, February 27

3:15 pm Confession 4:00 pm Mass Sunday, February 28 Second Sunday of Lent 9:00 am Mass

*11:00 am Mass 12:00 pm Baptism Monday, March 1 9:00 am Mass Tuesday, March 2 9:00 am Mass Wednesday, March 3 9:00 am Mass

9:30 am Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament Thursday, March 4

9:00 am Mass

9:30 am Rosary in Sanctuary Saturday, March 6

3:15 pm Confession 4:00 pm Mass Sunday, March 7 Third Sunday of Lent 9:00 am Mass

*11:00 am Mass

Catholic Education Administration Catholic schools in Burlington, Mercer, Monmouth and Ocean counties welcome over 16,000 Catholic and non‐Catholic students from many different cultural backgrounds.

Parents, as the primary educators of their children, work in partnership with teachers to develop their children’s potential in becoming life‐long learners.

Donations to the ACA help to ensure that curriculum and performance standards and development of educators continue at high levels within our 27 Catholic elementary schools.

Last year your gift helped with reaching out to more than 78,000 alumni who have been given the opportunity to give back so that other students can succeed in our schools.

Evangelization ‐ Ministry to Families, Youth and Young Adults

Every person belongs to a family. Families are the foundation of the Catholic parish. In the midst of the family and the parish community, people encounter Christ and learn to be his disciples. Family and Parish are the primary environments in which evangelization takes place.

Together in Mission is a tool to support these evangelization efforts. Your gift promotes individuals and family life.

Youth events and service opportunities, young adult gatherings, Marriage prep, Baptismal prep, Ministry to separated and divorced per- sons are just a few of the services offered.

The Annual Catholic Appeal – In Action!

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1st Sunday of Lent—February 21, 2021 REPENT AND BELIEVE

Do you ever have the experience of hearing one of the stories from the Gospels for the hun- dredth time and suddenly realizing how strange it is? Often, we have heard these stories since we were children, and that they can go in one ear and out the other without much notice. We can go our whole life without realizing how strange Jesus really was.

This Sunday we have one such Gospel reading. Every Lent we hear this story of Jesus going to the desert for forty days to be tempted by Satan. But isn’t this an odd thing for Jesus to do? Why would he in- tentionally go out into the desert like this?

In her wisdom, the Church gives us this reading at the beginning of Lent because Jesus is giving us an example of what the season of Lent is meant to be for us. Lent is a time to remember the reality of our life on earth. In the way that Lent prepares us for Easter, our life on earth is meant to prepare us for heaven – the eternal Easter. We are battling against evil in the desert of this world, with the hope of the resurrection on the other side. Lent draws us into this reality and prepares us for this battle.

PRAYER

Consider the Gospel story for today. Imagine Jesus’s life for those forty days, and his love for you that drove him into the desert in the first place. Then think of the moment when he emerged and began to announce his Kingdom was at hand.

Take a word that comes to mind and reflect a moment on what it means to you personally.

For example, you might have been drawn to the words, “Repent, and believe in the gospel.”

Ask yourself what they mean in your own life. How is Jesus calling you to repentance this Lent so that you can believe more deeply that the Kingdom of God is here?

RESOLUTION

It takes courage to admit our sins and our weaknesses. We long so deeply to be loved, and we are often afraid that our imperfections make us unlovable. This fear often prevents us from admitting our sins keeping us enslaved to Satan and our hearts closed off from the Lord’s mercy.

Recall Jesus’s words to St. Faustina, “Always fight with the deep conviction that I am with you.” When we remember that God is with us in our fight against sin, and that he will always love us, repentance becomes effortless. His “perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18). This week, call to mind the sins and weaknesses that you are ashamed to show even to God. Try to fight with the deep conviction that he is with you, and bring these things to the confession- al with true repentance in your heart. Be sure to pay attention to the faith that grows in your heart as you repent. formed.org

PRAYER TO ST. JOSEPH

Hail, Guardian of the Redeemer, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

To you God entrusted his only Son; in you Mary placed her trust;

with you Christ became man. Blessed Joseph, to us too, show yourself a father and guide us in the path of life. Obtain for us grace, mercy, and courage, and defend us from every evil.

Amen.

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