Source and Summit

First Holy Communion Parents Meeting

2012-01-03T07:29:00.000-08:00

This is a friendly reminder that the First Holy Communion Parent Meetings are scheduled for The following dates and times. You may choose ONE meeting to attend. All First Communicants must have one parent attend one of these MANDATORY meetings.

Tuesday, January 17 at 3:45 PM (during CCD classes)
Wednesday, January 18 at 7:00 PM (during CCD classes)
Thursday, January 19 at 1:20 PM (just before St. John School dismissal)

Scheduling First Holy Communion 2012

2011-12-16T12:45:00.000-08:00

Following are the available dates for alternative First Holy Communion Masses at St. John's. Please contact Amy Giglio if you would like to schedule your child for one of these Masses.

April 22 at noon
April 29 at 10:30 AM
May 6 at 10:30 AM

Dates and times current as of 1/3/12.

Please note:
1. All classroom-based first communicants are scheduled for a 3:00 PM Mass by default. If you would prefer to keep your son or daughter at the 3:00 Mass (4/22 for St. John School, 4/29 for Monday and Wednesday CCD, 5/6 for Tuesday CCD), you do not need to do anything.

2. All homeschooling families have the option of a 10:30, noon, or 3:00 PM Mass. You must contact Amy Giglio as soon as possible to schedule your child's First Communion Mass as there is not a default Mass for homeschoolers.

3. First Holy Communion Masses at 10:30 or noon will not have a professional photographer or videographer present.

4. Practice for First Holy Communion Masses will be during the week before the Mass. Amy Giglio will contact you 2 weeks before the Mass to schedule the practice.

Please call Amy Giglio with any questions: (908) 376-6223 or email: agiglio at sjanj dot net

First Reconciliation Reminders

2011-11-28T06:07:00.001-08:00

The children from St. John the Apostle School are receiving the Sacrament of Reconciliation this Saturday, Dec. 3 at 11 AM. The children need to be in the hallway outside of the gym downstairs from church at 10:45. The penance service should be finished by 12:30. Parents and other family members are welcome to make individual confessions at the service as well.

2011-11-28T06:04:00.001-08:00

The noon Mass on May 6 for First Communion is now full. You can still schedule your child for the following dates and times if you like: 4/22 at noon, 4/29 at noon, and 5/6 at 10:30 AM. Please contact Amy Giglio directly to sign up for one of these alternative dates. If you would like your child to receive First Communion with their class, you don't have to do anything.

Visa support letters

2011-11-22T10:02:00.001-08:00

Occasionally, a family will ask the RE Office for a letter to the US Consulate so that a family member who is a citizen of a foreign country has an easier time getting a visa to visit the USA for their child's First Communion or Confirmation. The RE Office is happy to help. Please contact Amy Giglio if you have a family member who is in need of such a letter.

Parent meeting packet

2011-11-07T12:56:00.000-08:00

The meeting content for the First reconciliation parent meeting can be found here. Please read the purple boxes and the black and white text under them. Sometimes the black and white text is small. Please use the magnifying glasses on the top left part of the screen to zoom in and out if you need to.

Please remember to register your child for First communion by completing the form here. Please register your child(ren) by November 14.

Make-up meeting and Magnifikid!

2011-11-03T09:52:00.000-07:00

I am not able to schedule a make-up meeting for First Reconciliation due to time and space availability constraints. I will send a packet home for parents to read and there will be a form for them to sign and return that acknowledges receipt of the packet and a promise to read its contents. You can expect that to come with your children next week.

Re: Magnifikid! The CCD Office accidentally distributed the December issue of Magnifikid! this week. I imagine that the Nov. 27 issue is in that packet because it is the first day of the new translation. I spoke with the publisher. They received our subscription renewal form too late to get the November issues out to us and now they have none left. There will be no Magnifikid! for the weeks of Nov. 6, 13, or 20. I apologize for any inconvenience this causes your family.

Please practice "Come To Jesus" (see YouTube video below) and the formula for confession.

~~ Amy Giglio

Alternative First Communion Mass Dates and Times

2011-10-27T09:47:00.001-07:00

The following choices have been added for First Communion Masses at St. John's. Please note: there is a limit of 6 First Communicants per Mass; there will NOT be a professional videographer or photographer at these Masses; the children will not sing a Communion Meditation hymn at these Masses.

Sunday April 22: noon
Sunday April 29: noon
Sunday May 6: 10:30 and noon.

Homeschool parents: please choose any Mass (3:00 or 10:30 or noon) for your child's First Holy Communion. Please let Amy know by MArch 1, 2012 via phone or email (agiglio AT sjanj DOT net) if your child will be switching from the group Masses to one of the regularly scheduled Masses.

"Come to Jesus"

2011-10-05T08:28:00.001-07:00

The children will sing this song at the First Reconciliation penance service. They will practice it in class, but please go over it with them at home. It will help them feel more relaxed on this big day.

New Translation of the Roman Missal

2011-09-26T06:20:00.000-07:00

Over the last year or so, you have probably heard that there is a new translation of the prayers that we pray at Mass coming on the First Sunday of Advent, November 27, 2011. Here at St. John's, we have already started singing the new translation of the Sanctus, or Holy, Holy, so that we all get acclimated to the new songs.

It's important to know how these translations came to be and why the Church has decided that we needed a new translation. These videos, produced by Lifeteen, are a great way to start understanding the who, what, where, when, why, and how of it all. These videos are all between 7 and 10 minutes long. Please take some time to watch them and to share them with your families and friends. The more we all know, the easier it is for all of us to understand.

For Middle School Youth:

New Roman Missal for Middle School Youth - Word for Word by Life Teen from Life Teen on Vimeo.

For High School Teens:

New Roman Missal for High School Teens - Word for Word by Life Teen from Life Teen on Vimeo.

For Parents:

New Roman Missal for Parents and Adults - Word for Word by Life Teen from Life Teen on Vimeo.

Candle Mass is still ON

2011-02-02T09:44:00.000-08:00

The Candle Mass scheduled for tonight (2/2) at 7 pm will go on as scheduled. Hope to see you there!

2011-02-01T06:15:00.001-08:00

CCD Classes for Tuesday Feb. 1 are cancelled due to the weather forecast. Let's be careful out there!

snow cancellation

2011-01-26T06:36:00.000-08:00

The CCD parent-teacher conferences scheduled for tonight (Jan. 26) are cancelled. The tutor class for First Communion scheduled for tonight at 6:00 is also cancelled.

Help for group Masses still needed!

2010-03-09T13:17:00.000-08:00

We still need altar servers and ushers for the group First Communion Masses on April 25, May 2, and May 16. If your child's father, grandfather, teenaged brother or male cousin would like to help, please call Amy in the Religious Ed. Office at (732) 388-1253. Altar servers must be parishioners. We will have a training for any men who would like to help as ushers.

reminders

2010-03-01T06:41:00.001-08:00

Please submit your child's wallet-sized photo for the First Communion Banner by March 31. Please put your child's name and class on the back.

Also, if you would like to change First Communion dates or time, please call Amy Giglio at (732) 388-1253 by March 31.

A First Holy Communion register form will go home with your child the week of March 7. Please return this form to your child's teacher by March 31.

Recap:

Due March 31, 2010:
1. Wallet-sized photo of your child (Child's name and class on the back)
2. Changes to First Communion date/time
3. First Communion register form

Thanks so much!

Candle Mass

2010-02-01T11:29:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow, February 2 is the First Communicants' Candle Mass. Please meet in the Church at 6:45, sitting in the reserved seating at the front of the church. Everyone will sit in these reserved pews and will get a candle at the church. The First Communicants will NOT process in at all, but they will light their candles at the front of the Church in their pews. Mass begins promptly at 7, so please be there at 6:45 in the reserved seating section. Please call the RE Office if you have any questions. See you tomorrow!!!!

Parent meetings next week

2010-01-13T10:45:00.000-08:00

Just a friendly reminder that the First Holy Communion Parent Meetings are next week at the following dates and times. All meetings are going to be held in the Cafeteria. Choose ONE:

Tuesday January 19 at 3:45 PM
Wednesday January 20 at 7:00 PM
Thursday January 21 at 1:20 PM

The meetings will last about an hour. See you then!

Don’t forget!

2009-12-01T11:00:00.000-08:00

First Reconciliation is coming up on Saturday December 5 at 11:00 and Saturday December 12 at 11:00 and 2:00. You may drop off your child in the hallway outside of the gym at 15 minutes before the start of the service.

Dress code is “Sunday Best.” Girls should wear a dress or skirt/slacks with a blouse and dress shoes. Boys should wear trousers with a nice collared shirt or sweater and dress shoes. Ties always look nice.

Your child will sit with you during the Penance Service, so check the seating chart outside of Church to see where your child’s assigned seat is.

The service will last about an hour. You are free to stay afterward to take pictures if you wish.

For Monday and Wednesday RE families

2009-11-30T16:32:00.000-08:00

REMINDER

Next week we will practice for the First Reconciliation Service on December 12. Please meet at the church at 5:15 so we can start practice on time at 5:30.

If your child will be making their first confession on December 5, please contact me to make sure I have your child’s name down on the list. The children from St. John School will practice Tuesday and Wednesday (Dec. 1 and 2) at 1:00 in the church.

More info about when to be here on the day of First Reconciliation will follow next week. Please also check the website for updates: http://stjohnsfirstholycommunion.blogspot.com

Amy Giglio
(732) 388-1253
agiglio(at)sjanj(dot)net

Some food for thought

2008-12-16T08:10:00.000-08:00

This is a homily that I saw on Fr. Austin Fleming's website, A Concord Pastor Comments and I thought you might like to read it (cross-posted at The Upper Room, the Confirmation website). I hope that the rest of your Advent is fruitful and that your Christmas will be blessed! ~~Amy Giglio

Homily for the Third Sunday of Advent
December 14, 2008
Isaiah 61:1-2a, 10-11
1 Thessalonians 5:16-24
John 1:6-8, 19-28

I’m usually pretty good about not opening
Christmas presents until Christmas day–
no matter early I receive them.
But I was recently presented with
a gift from a group of folks who insisted I open it right then and there,-
and rather than disappoint them - I gave in.

And the gift was a TomTom:
a remarkable global positioning device for my car–
and a most amazing piece of technology
with a screen for visual mapping
and a speaker for voice prompts along the way.

The TomTom is amazing!
It immediately knows exactly where you are–
even if you don’t know where you are!

You tell it where you want to go -
and it maps your trip for you.
It knows every highway and street you might take
and provides you with the most direct route
so that you can get there with the least amount of difficulty.

It constantly records the speed at which you’re traveling,
telling you if you’re going too fast or too slow.
The visual neither speeds ahead of you nor lags behind,
it always knows just where you are and stays with you.
It indicates the location of gas stations and other services
to provide fuel and assistance for you on your trip.

Although it shows you every side street along the way
a big bold arrow always points you in the right direction.
The visual map gives advance notice of
when and where and how soon you’ll need to make a turn,
and the voice gives you audible cues to keep you on the correct path:
“400 yards ahead, turn right, then bear left, then stay left…”
And then, in case you weren’t listening or paying attention,
the voice repeats the cue to remind you.
If you make a wrong turn it immediately revises your directions
to get you going the right way.

And it doesn’t scold you when you make a wrong turn;
its only interest is to get you back on track,
to get you to your destination – the place you want to end up.
And no matter how far off you might wander,
no matter how much you ignore the directions,
it always knows how to get you back just where you need to be,
right where you belong…

Wouldn’t it be great to have something like that for our life's journey?
A full set of directions for every leg of our journey, mapped out by:
- someone who always knows exactly where I am –even if I don’t know where I am myself.
- someone who knows all the streets and turns – and never gets lost;
- someone who wants me to reach my final destination safely;
- someone who is by my side all the time, riding right next to me;
- someone who can tell me when I need to slow down
and when I need to get moving;
- someone who knows the best route for me to take
avoiding the shortcuts that might get me lost;
- someone who always knows if it’s a left or a right I should take;
- someone who, when I insist on making a wrong turn,
knows just how to get me going in the right direction
–and who doesn’t say, “I TOLD you not to go that way!
- someone who will follow methrough miles and years of wrong turns
and is always there to gladly steer me back to the right path?

But we have all that – don’t we?
We do have “someone” just like that.
(And just like my TomTom,
you knew where I was heading in this homily!)

John the Baptist echoes Isaiah today when he says,
“Make a straight highway for the Lord.”
Clear the roadway! Follow the directions!
Life is too great a journey to undertake
if you don’t know where you’re going - or how to get there.

Our problem is often that we’re foolish enough to think
that we know the way, the road, better than God does.

But the Lord knows the way perfectly and wants to guide us:
wants to help us avoid short-cuts that get us lost;
wants to help us make the right decision at every fork in the road;
wants to tell us to slow down when we’re moving too fast
and to give it some gas when we’re holding up traffic;
and wants to redirect us every time we get lost
on the highway that leads to him, his truth and his love.

Our GPS device as Christians isn’t a techno-toy:
it’s the scriptures that show us the way;
it’s the Church constantly reminding us of our destination;
it’s the guidance of prayer that keeps us turning back to God;
and it’s the company of others who, by many varied routes,
are all heading to the same destination.

This is what Advent and Christmas are all about,
especially in times like our own
with their problems and our anxieties.
These are seasons for:
making sure we know where we’re going;
that we're on the right highway;
that we’re making the correct turns;
that we’re following the map the Lord has made for us;
that we’re heading in the right direction.

Once a week, our spiritual GPS leads us down Main Street
to this church and to this table, to the Eucharist,
where the One who maps all our paths
pulls us over to the side of the road here
to reorient us and to feed us for the journey.
Let us rejoice that Christ himself makes that journey with each of us
and will always guide us safely on the path that leads us home.
-ConcordPastor

First Reconciliation News

2008-12-01T08:35:00.000-08:00

First Reconciliation will be celebrated at St. John the Apostle Church over the next two Saturdays: December 6 at 11:00 (St. John School) and December 13 at 11:00 a.m. (Monday and Wednesday RE) and 2:00 p.m. (Tuesday RE) Here are some reminders for that day:

1. Please make sure your children are here 15 minutes before their scheduled penance service in the hallway outside of the Religious Ed. Office and the auditorium. We will begin promptly at your scheduled time. Your child will probably have a few butterflies that day. Please don’t make them feel nervous by bringing them late.
2. Dress code for the penance service (not Mass) is Sunday Best: Boys: collared shirts, slacks; Girls: dress or skirt or slacks with a blouse. No jeans or sneakers.
3. The children will process in and after the opening song they will sit with their families. Each family will have half a pew marked with your child’s last name. Siblings will sit together with their parents in a full pew. Each half pew holds about 7 adults plus your child.
4. During the penance service the children will receive the sacrament first; then any adults or older children who are present will have the opportunity to receive the sacrament.
5. The penance service should last about an hour and a half.
6. If you have not completed the green form (handed out at the parent meeting) which asks for how you would like your child’s name spelled on the First Reconciliation Certificate, please get us this information by noon on Tuesday December 2 (for SJS children) or December 9 (for RE children). You may return the green form or email Amy Giglio (agiglio@sjanj.net) or call the RE Office at (732) 388-1253 with the spelling. If we do not have this information by noon on December 2 or 9, your child’s first and last names ONLY will appear on the certificate. Certificate reprints will be issued only if the RE Office has misspelled your child’s name.

This information is coming home in paper format and has been emailed to all parents for whom we have an email address.

First Communion at regularly scheduled Sunday Masses

2008-10-27T06:59:00.000-07:00

If you are interested in having your son or daughter recieve First Communion at a regularly scheduled Sunday Mass, you may choose from the following dates and times:

Sunday April 19, 2009 at 9:00 AM.

Sunday May 3, 2009 at 10:30 or 12:00 (noon)

Sunday May 17, 2009 at 10:30 or 12:00 (noon)

We have room for up to 10 children to make their First Communion at each of these Masses. If you would like to schedule your child for one of these days and times, please call the Religious Ed. Office (732) 388-1253 or email Amy Giglio: agiglio at sjanj dot net (replace the "at" with @ and the "dot" with a . and remove spaces. I type it out this way so I don't get spam).

Reprint of letter home attached to Magnifikids

2008-09-24T14:15:00.000-07:00

Dear Parents of First Communicants,

Welcome to the preparation period for your child’s First Holy Communion. This is a very special time for your child and for you to grow closer to Our Lord, Jesus Christ, as your child gets ready to receive Him in the Eucharist. This year is an extra special year for me since my oldest son will receive his First Communion this spring. What an incredible time for all of us!
I would like to invite you to attend one of our First Reconciliation Parent Meetings so that we can discuss this important sacrament and the requirements for First Holy Communion. You have your choice of one of three different dates: Tuesday October 21 from 3:45-4:45 PM, Wednesday October 22 from 7-8 PM, or Thursday October 23 from 1:20-2:20 PM. If you have an older child who received First Eucharist in 2006, 2007, or 2008 you are exempted from this meeting, however, we are doing some things slightly differently this year and I would strongly encourage you to attend one of these meetings even if you have been excused.
This fall, I started a blog for First Communion Sacrament Preparation called Source and Summit (http://stjohnsfirstholycommunion.blogspot.com). I will update it regularly with information and reminders and there will be some articles on the website for your information that will be exclusively online. You can sign up for a feed to have any updates automatically emailed to you as well so that you don’t have to remember to check the page.
Attached to this letter is Magnifikid!, a wonderful resource that we have been able to obtain for the children. Magnifikid! is a weekly missal which has the entire Mass reprinted inside. It also includes: daily prayers (which follow the Liturgy of the Hours), puzzles, games, and a fun comic. We have decided to buy Magnifikid! to help the boys and girls to pray well and to learn the Mass better. I encourage you to take the missal with you to weekly Mass so your child can follow along and learn the responses.
It is so crucial that you take your family to Mass for every Sunday and Holyday of Obligation. In the Third Commandment, God requires us to keep His day (Sunday) holy. The way that we do that is by coming to Mass and participating in the liturgy with other Catholics. Your child is preparing to receive Jesus in the Sacrament of the Eucharist for the very first time. It is the beginning of your son’s or daughter’s deeper relationship with Christ. Please encourage and develop this relationship for your kids. If you and Jesus aren’t as tight as you used to be, now is your time to nurture and develop your own relationship with Him. Please accept Jesus’ invitation to become more deeply involved in your life.
I look forward to seeing you at one of our parent meetings. Please feel free to call me or to email me with any questions you might have. God bless you!

Welcome!

2008-09-24T07:04:00.000-07:00

Welcome to our blog! Please check back here frequently for updates, or subscribe to our feed and get emails when we update the page. God bless you!