remember a loved one

altar flowers

Parishioners are invited to donate a floral arrangement, to be displayed on the altar of any of our churches in memory of, or in honor of, a loved one. The requested donation for an arrangement is $40, and the dedication will be published in the weekly bulletin. Please note that we require a 2-week notice for your order.

IMPORTANT TO NOTE:
Flowers are not allowed in the church sanctuary during the Lenten Season.

lamps

At any of our churches, you can request that the sanctuary lamp burn In Memory of a loved one. St. Margaret also has two additional lamps—the Blessed Mother Lamp and the Sacred Heart Lamp. The stipend for any of these lamps is $25, and your dedication will be published in the bulletin. PLEASE NOTE that the scheduling of your intention requires a 2-week notice.
- St. Mary Sanctuary Lamp, located to the left of Tabernacle, as you face the altar
- St. John Sanctuary Lamp, located to the right of Tabernacle, as you face the altar
- St. Margaret Sanctuary Lamp, located on the tabernacle side of the church
- St. Margaret Sacred Heart Lamp, located on the right hand side of the sanctuary, as you face the altar
- St. Margaret Blessed Mother Lamp, located on the left hand side of the sanctuary, as you face the altar

memorial Mass

If you would like to request that a Mass be celebrated for a specific intention or person, please call the parish office. A donation of $10 per intention is suggested to be made at the time that you schedule your intention, and it/they will be published in the bulletin. PLEASE NOTE that the scheduling of your intention requires a 2-week notice.

THE BELOW GUIDELINES APPLY TO MULTIPLE MASS WEEKENDS, which are earmarked for the first and third weekends—Friday through Sunday—of every month. If your intention request falls within this timeframe, we ask that you please familiarize yourself with the following guidelines before calling to schedule.
- Up to 7 intentions will be scheduled per each of the following Masses…
  - Friday 7 am St. Mary; 8 am St. Margaret; and 9 am St. John daily Masses
  - Saturday 4 pm and Sunday 11 am St. Mary weekend Masses
  - Saturday 4 pm and Sunday 9:30 am St. John weekend Masses
  - Saturday 4 pm and Sunday 10 am St. Margaret weekend Masses
- The following Masses are not available as they are strictly reserved for the People of the Parish
  - St. Mary Sunday 7 am Mass
  - St. Margaret Sunday 7:30 am Mass
  - St. John Sunday 6 pm Mass
- There is no stipend required for these Mass intentions

missal memorial

Throughout the year, we offer up Mass intentions, dedicate flowers, light candles and ring bells in memory of loved ones. Through these actions, we are asking our community to pray for them. We are, in fact, Praying for the Dead. As we continue to call attention to this teaching, we would like to re-introduce you to another beautiful way to remember your loved one(s) and include them in the prayers of our community.

Over the past year, you may have noticed a label on some of our missals bearing the inscription “Please Pray for the Soul of..." Last year, we undertook this endeavor in order to engage our community to pray for each other. A missal with this inscription is the donor’s way of asking you to pray for their loved one; it is even their hope that you will pray for them at home!

These missals are rotated through our churches on a quarterly basis for an entire year, beginning on the First Sunday of Advent and extending to the end of the liturgical year. This has the potential of 52 different people/families praying for your loved one! WOW, what a beautiful way to build community through the powerful grace of prayer! This is the kind of community that feeds into our vision... “That we become a community built on an intimate and loving relationship with Christ”

We cannot have an intimate and loving relationship with Christ without loving our neighbor. Christ said so himself when He answered the question “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” with “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind” and “Love your neighbor as yourself.” When we pray for others, we are loving them. With the first Sunday of Advent around the corner—December 1st—this is the perfect time to re-introduce this memorial with a few updates.

1. The labels have been re-designed this year, including an increase in size
2. You can have your memorial placed at one, two or all three of our parishes
3. The donation amount has decreased; $100 to $50 per name.

If you wish to have a loved one remembered in this way—with a label requesting the prayers of the person using the missal—you can do so by completing a simple online form—or calling Christine at (978) 254-4406—alongside a minimum of $50 per name. Once we receive payment, the label will be affixed to the missal and placed in the church(es).

Please make your check payable to the parish in which you are registered and note MISSAL DONATION along with the name of your loved one on the memo line so we can cross reference the payment with the request. Your check can be mailed to the parish offices, ATTN: Christine Trznadel/ Missal Memorial; or you can place in an envelope addressed to Christine Trznadel/ Missal Memorial and drop it into the offertory, any of our secure black drop boxes, or hand-deliver it to the Parish Offices.

renewal and renovation fund

If you wish to remember a loved one with a gift for any of our churches, we ask that you prayerfully consider a donation to this fund. Monetary gifts will be used to purchase sacred vessels, vestments and other sacred furnishings, which will enhance the Sacred Liturgy and beautify the worship space. Funds may also be used for property renovations, as needed. If you are interested in making a gift towards this fund, please contact the parish office.

spirituals

St. Mary, St. John the Evangelist and St. Margaret of Scotland parishes offer a combined Spiritual Bouquet. This is an enrollment into the Spiritual Society is given to the family for Masses to be celebrated in memory of, or in honor of a person.

A deceased loved one is enrolled for a period of ten years, during which time a monthly public Mass is celebrated for all members of the Spiritual Society. The stipend for this enrollment is $20.

Additionally, you may enroll a LIVING INTENTION for a period of one year. These intentions are included in the above Masses, and the stipend for this enrollment is $10.

These Spiritual Society Masses are celebrated as a collaborative. They are celebrated on the first Monday of the month, on a rotating basis among our three churches. Until we all get used to this new schedule, we have included the remainder of the 2022 schedule below...
- June 6: St. Margaret of Scotland
- July 4: St. Mary
- August 1: St. John the Evangelist
- September 5: St. Margaret of Scotland
- October 3: St. Mary
- November 7: St. John the Evangelist
- December 5: St. Margaret of Scotland

steeple bells

*THIS OPTION IS AVAILABLE AT ST. MARGARET OF SCOTLAND ONLY

The steeple bells at St. Margaret toll daily at 12 noon and 6 pm, followed by the ringing of the Angelus bell and 2 hymns. At 3 pm, they play 2 hymns, and 15 minutes prior to each weekend Mass, the bells toll a 'call to worship.' If you would like to dedicate the Ringing of the Bells In Memory/In Honor of someone, please contact the parish offices. The stipend is $25, and your dedication will be published in the weekly bulletin. PLEASE NOTE that the scheduling of your intention requires a 2-week notice.