Dear Friends: Thanks for joining us in our virtual community this past Sunday for the live-streamed celebration of the Eucharist. We had about 150 people with us live and several hundred watch the celebration later on Facebook or on our website. Please join us again this Sunday, March 29, at 11:00am, and every Sunday until we can resume the public celebration of Mass, for the live-stream on Facebook at "St. Peter the Apostle University and Community Parish". The video will be uploaded to our website as well, following the live-stream broadcast.

ONLINE BIBLE STUDY
Deacon Helmut Wittreich is preparing an online Bible Study beginning on April 1 from 7:00-8:00pm . The series will be held on the Zoom platform, providing an interactive, face-to-face, experience from the comfort of your home. The topic of the study is "Mary; Virgin, Mother, and Queen" using materials developed by Rev. Mitch Pacwa, SJ. You are invited to an online Zoom informational meeting this Thursday, March 26, 2020, at 7:00 pm, when Deacon Helmut will be introducing the event. It will also be an opportunity for us to get together for some much-needed online fellowship. The event is open to our parishioners, members of Petros, our young adult ministry, and any RU students still in town. To log on to the information night, please click on the link below a little before 7PM on Thursday evening: https://zoom.us/j/738423223?pwd=a1JRcUpMSm1TUFhXTXFUKy83aEVnZz09
 
ONLINE GIVING
If I may bring up a sensitive but serious issue. The effects of COVID-19 will be far-reaching. One of those effects will be financial. People's livelihoods will be threatened and many places of worship and non-profit community service organizations will be negatively impacted by it as funding begin to decline.

We have just passed our first weekend without a Sunday offering. The coming weeks will create a serious financial hardship for our parishes, including our own, as the offerings we depend on to fund the parish and its ministries dramatically decline. We've already seen our collection drop to half of what it usually is over the past two weeks. Our finance council will be addressing this in more detail soon, In the meantime, I urge you to please use our online giving platform to support our parish during this difficult time. Online giving provides an easy to use, secure, and reliable means of supporting the parish.

To sign up all you need do is go to our parish website at stpeternewbrunswick.org and scroll down to find the button, “Online Giving”.
 
Click on it and it will take you to the page to create your online giving account. Set a username, password, the amount you want to give and the frequency (weekly, biweekly, monthly, etc.) of the gift. It’s that simple. You can always go back to update your information or donation amount and schedule at any time. Automated giving can also be set up through your bank or credit card company. Finally, if you set up your online account through a credit card, please make sure the information is correct, including the security code and expiration date of the card. If you chose, you can receive a weekly notification by email of the donation and an alert when you credit card is about to expire. If you prefer using the envelope system, please remember to mail them in every week. I also ask out students and young adults to remember to support us using Venmo.

If you cannot provide financial support to the parish at this time, then please lift us up in prayer, that we never lack what we need to serve our mission in the city and university community. Commit yourself to one "Hail Mary" each day for this intention. Thank you for all you do to make mission and ministry possible at St. Peter!

A REQUEST FROM POPE FRANCIS
Lastly, tomorrow, March 25, is the Solemnity of the Annunciation. The Holy Father has asked all Christians to pray the "Our Father" at 12:00pm Rome time, 7:00am our time to pray for an end to the pandemic and to intercede for the sick, the dying, and the dead. Set a reminder with your alarm in the morning. If you rise later than 7:00am begin the day with the Lord's prayer and unite your intentions to our Holy Father's.

Ora pro invicem
Let us pray for one another.

Servus,
Msgr. Joseph G. Celano Pastor