If you have attended a Mass or any kind of sacramental celebration and subsequently test positive for the Coronavirus, please notify the parish office or call to speak to Father Prince as soon as possible following your test result.  Your identity will be kept confidential.

 

The Parish Office is open from 9am to 1pm daily, however we request that you first try to handle all church business over the phone or by email if possible.  If you need to come in for any reason, we welcome you, please make an appointment before doing so. Thank you in advance for your cooperation with this request.  

Phone:  203-438-7292

Email:  stsetonparish@comcast.net

Please disregard any email that you may have received from Father Prince requesting help of any kind, such as the assistance with the purchase of gift cards. This is a scam. 

It is with great gratitude that we announce we have successfully reached our 2020 Annual Catholic Appeal goal. The parishioners of Saint Elizabeth Seton raised 214 gifts worth $94,517 from 176 donors bringing the parish to 100.02% of its $94,500 goal.  

A famous Christian preacher was asked by his bishop to deliver a sermon in a huge cathedral.  Long before the sermon was to begin, more than three thousand people had filled the cathedral to capacity.  Loudspeakers were hooked up so that the sermon could be heard by thousands more standing outside.  “Just look at the crowd,” said the bishop to the preacher.  “How many disciples would you say are out there?”  “Three or four, perhaps!”  replied the preacher.  What really moves a person to answer the Lord’s call?

In today’s gospel lesson, Jesus selects his very first disciples, Simon, Andrew, James and John.  Perhaps it seems a little strange that Jesus chose his disciples in this way.  He didn’t call a meeting.  He didn’t ask for resumes.  He didn’t advertise saying, “Disciples wanted.”  Rather, he spoke to them about moving from fishing for fish to fishing for men and women.  In other words, he recognized them for who they were, fishermen, and what they were doing with their lives – fishing.  By acknowledging where they were then, Jesus was able to instill in them a lively sense of where they would be going as his disciples.  So it is with Jesus and us.  Jesus seeks us out where we are, and teaches us what we could become by following him.

Almost everyone has had the experience of riding on a merry-go-round or carousel.  They are still the standard attractions in most carnivals and seaside boardwalks.   The interesting thing about the carousel is that we climb aboard a painted wooden horse and off we go.   There is much rattling and vibrating and jarring music and, of course, the sense of movement.  Round and round we go and finally the ride comes to a stop.   And when it does, we find that we have arrived at precisely the same place we started from.  In spite of all the dizzying movement, noise and excitement, we have not advanced even an inch.  For many of us, life is like a carousel.  We expend energy, make lots of noise and imagine we are getting somewhere only to realize that we’ve just been going around in circles.

In many rural areas of the country, even today there are still many unpaved roads outnumbering the paved ones.  Worn by the wheels of traffic over time, deep grooves are formed in the compacted earth of the road’s surface.  Once an automobile has steered into one of these tracks in the road, a driver will find it very difficult to steer out of it.  On one such dirt road in Iowa, there is posted a warning sign that reads, “Choose your rut well, you’ll be in it for the next twenty miles.”  When I hear the call to “Follow me,” on the adventurous spiritual journey, Jesus exhorts us, “Get off the carousel, stop going around in circles, get out of that rut you’ve chosen not after twenty miles, not even after twenty minuets, but now and follow me.”

“Jesus said to them, ‘come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.’”  (Mk 1:17)

We wish to thank all of our parishioners who have been mailing in or dropping off their donations, and those who have signed up for Online Giving.  We appreciate your generosity and desire to continue to support the parish.  

Please note that we have upgraded our Online Giving Platform.  It is very user friendly.  If you shop or do your banking on-line please consider this format for your donations.  You have the option to make a one time gift or set up a recurring cycle that suits your timing and budget  You can visit the site by clicking the button below.

If you would like to make a one time donation to our Sunday Collection, please click on the button below.  

 This weekend's Second Collection is for the Church in Latin America

If you would like assist a family in need and add a gift to our Family Assistance Fund, you can do so by clicking the link below.