| The first "church date" scheduled for me was in Howell, New Jersey where I was to speak at St. Veronica Church. It is a parish founded in the early 1960s that now has about 5,000 families. |
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| St. Veronica Church has six masses on a weekend, one on Saturday evening, four on Sunday morning, and one on Sunday evening. The masses reflect a variety of spiritual and musical styles. On the front of the church is a new narthex or gathering place for the worshipping community to use on weekends. |
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| On Saturday evening, after the 5:00 PM liturgy, all the St. Veronica priests and I were invited to a parishioner's home for a celebration of the pastor, Fr. Brendan Williams (standiing, right). |
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| After the third mass of the morning, at 10:30 AM, Fr. Williams offered a blessing to a group of parishioners preparing to depart for a mission trip to Jamaica where they will work with people in a local parish there in various poverty projects. |
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| The church is quite large and speaking was a little awkward for me because i tend to walk up and down the aisles, showing various objects I use for illustrating points. Normally that is not a problem, but the body microphone normally used for that was away being repaired so I really had to raise my voice to be heard when out of the pulpit. |
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