In tonight’s Pulse of the Parish, we introduce you to the resident wreath maker at St Joseph’s Church in Astoria.
The Tablet is now more than halfway to its goal for its Bright Christmas campaign.
You can see a bit of Christmas in Times Square thanks to a new billboard.
Something worse than the Grinch has ruined Christmas at St Helen Church in Howard Beach, Queens.
Do you also want to give to someone in need this holiday season? Well at one church in Manhattan, it’s as easy as buying a soda or a bag of chips.
Church of Our Saviour in Murray Hill has installed a “giving machine,” allowing passersby to purchase much-needed supplies for families in need like diapers or a hot meal.
In just two weeks, the machine has raised 31 thousand dollars for various organizations including Catholic Charities of New York.It’s also raising holiday spirits for all those who can give.
“This is a way that I at least get to have the opportunity to, you know, share what I’ve been working towards with somebody else, make sure that, you know, we remember that Christ is the center of Christmas and and share the love around the world,” said Jonattan Alarcon who donated through the giving machine.
“We want them to be the current day lights of Bethlehem star. We want them to light this Christmas, just as that star brought the wise men bringing gifts to Jesus. We’re bringing gifts to the children of God in all parts of the world,” said Monsignor Kevin Sullivan, director of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York.
100 percent of the donations go to the nonprofits. The machine at the Church of Our Saviour will be there until January 1st.
by Katie Vasquez
New York City shelters and food pantries are struggling under the migrant crisis this Christmas season,
but the pantry at one queens church has some extra help, thanks to some student volunteers from St. Francis prep.
On the menu for one particular week, baked chicken, baked ziti, salad and fruit. The soup kitchen at Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Jamaica, Queens has been feeding the hungry for almost 40 years and helping them for almost half that time, students from St. Francis Prep.
The extra hands are greatly appreciated and needed. A few years ago the kitchen would feed about 150 people per week, but now that number has doubled as the migrant crisis currently overwhelms New York City shelters and food pantries.
Even at Presentation, the line for food starts forming hours before the kitchen opens. For the church, they feel it’s their duty as Catholics to help.
“It is a blessing that the Lord may help us, you know, on one hand, you know, to give back to the people, even though it is not that we have many resources in our church,” said pastor at Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Father Victor Manuel Bolaños.
For the St. Francis Prep volunteers, it puts a face to poverty.
“We talk about the gospel with our students and we want to show them this is the gospel in action,” said the director of campus ministry at St. Francis prep, Christian Sullivan.
“I didn’t realize how many little kids were going to be here as well, so it was kind of sad. but at the same time, I knew that it was helping them coming here,” said St. Francis Prep student, Lori Melville.
“I guess it, in a way, humbles me because, like, it makes me like, actually see what’s going on. like, outside of just like, you know, luxury and stuff like that,” said St. Francs Prep student, Benjamin Liu.
A few weeks ago the food pantry at Presentation served 500 people, and they actually ran out of food.
The church and the St. Francis Prep volunteers are going to do as much as they can to help their community.
When you sing, you pray twice.
Michael Zabrocki knows there’s more to it.
“I arranged everything, used samples of strings, violin, flutes wind,” Zabrocki said. “I had to lay down all of the vocals; some tracks have 36 background vocals.”
He recently released his 7th album titled “Consecration: Hymns And Prayers To The Sacred Heart of Jesus.
“Jesus was a human being,” Zabrocki said. “He walked as a man, he can relate to us so he loved. That’s the important part about the message of the Sacred Heart that we’re supposed to see Christ in each other.”
When Zabrocki’s not at the switchboard in his home recording studio, he’s the music director at Holy Trinity Church in Whitestone.
When churches closed during the pandemic the Brooklyn Visitation Sisters had no way to let the public pray along with their annual 9 day novena to the sacred heart.
Zabrocki and former pastor Father Joseph Gibino stepped in and prerecorded the masses for them.
“It became an all encompassing thing for me,” Zabrocki said. “I learned how to sleep faster to get through those days. The sisters were wonderful about it.”
“Knowing Mike, knowing the sisters and knowing the experience that brought us together was very meaningful for me.”
A new devotion to the Sacred Heart quickly became Zabrocki’s creative muse, and he got to work on consecration.
when the superior of the Visitation Sisters Mother Susan Marie Kaspersyk heard the very first track she was in awe.
“That’s a special prayer to us and to have heard it in music written especially for that consecration prayer,” Mother Marie said. “I said ‘you could sing the consecration now.’”
Timing issues brought on by the loss of Zabrocki’s twin brother and music partner ron delayed the release of the album, but it was no coincidence that it would be heard by the world at the start of the 350th Jubilee of the Apparitions of the Sacred Heart to St. Margaret Mary.
“It just happened that he has finally completed the album and those kind of things show me its divine providence,” Mother Marie said.
“Divine Providence is what it is a lot of things,” “There was a timing issue with everything with this album and it really became obvious as the product continued.”
The goal of the album is to usher in a new era of devotion to the Sacred Heart, one Father Gibino says is desperately needed.
“In a time of war and civil unrest, the unity of the heart of Jesus is so important,” Father Gibino said. “So right now we need more than ever. We need a sign of hope and healing, and better than the heart of Jesus.”
An Zabrocki wants to set the record straight.
“They’re not hearing Mike Zabrocki,” he said. “It’s not about bringing the attention to you, you have to be John the Baptist and point to Christ.”
he’s not in it for the praise of himself but the worship of him.
You have a chance to see Zabrocki perform songs from his album live.
He will be singing at a prayer service for the start of the Sacred Heart Jubilee celebration on December 27th at 7 p.m. at the Visitation Monastery, located at 89-02 Ridge Boulevard in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.
You can also buy it on his website MICHAELZABROCKI.COM.
As New York City deals with a migrant crisis Catholic churches are stepping in to help.
The Church of Our Saviour in Manhattan has installed a giving machine.
Michael Zabrocki just released an entire album about the sacred heart of Jesus, hoping the devotion can touch others the way it touched him.
For another year, Pope Francis celebrated his birthday with children from the Casa Santa Marta dispensary — the Vatican center that offers pediatric services to families in need. It currently treats about 450 children.
The pope was welcomed with great enthusiasm and he dedicated these words to everyone present.
“Good morning to all of you and thank you very much, to see all of you, so many little girls and boys all here,” Pope Francis said. “Thank you so much and we have to get ready for a big party, which will be next week: Christmas. Now, each of you think: What am I going to ask Jesus? In silence. Close your eyes and think.”
The celebration proved to be festive with clowns and acrobats. But the main event was the cake.
As he does almost every year, Pope Francis encouraged the children to taste the cake.
The 87-year-old pope appeared lively with the children, who left the Vatican with smiles from ear to ear.
We’ll hear from two people, a current parishioner in the Diocese of Brooklyn and a former one to find out why they donate every year.
Students at Our Lady of Snows in Floral Park are doing their part to make sure their peers have a Merry Christmas, just like they do.
Christmas in the Holy Land is basically canceled.
The man behind Bright Christmas joins Currents News to discuss The Tablet’s annual Christmas campaign.
By Jessica Easthope
Like many of the things you see on display at Settepani in Williamsburg, it all starts with a snowfall of flour.
But among the croissants, cookies, and cakes, panettone is their shining star.
Pastry Chef Bilena Settepani is the manager at her family’s bakery.
“We don’t just make it for Christmas, we make it all year round,” Bilena said. “My mom often says that she married my dad for his panettone.”
Her father, owner Nino Settepani, has been making the sweetbread for decades but Bilena brings a modern flavor to the traditional treat, adding Nutella and candy and helping create a panettone Advent calendar.
“Our family is one of the first families to be making panettone artisanally in the United States,” Bilena said. “Panettone doesn’t always have the best reputation and I’m here to change that.”
Their product is nothing like the boxed panettone you can buy at a store. Made with the best ingredients they can get their hands on, producing the Christmas classic isn’t for the faint of heart.
“It takes a lot of tender love and care to make it. It is not for the weak,” Bilena said. “I work right beside my father and our team, it’s a three-day process to make one batch.”
“It doesn’t last a year, it only lasts four to six weeks maximum and when you get it, it’s nice and fresh, it’s moist,” Nino said. “There’s a lot of aroma that comes out.”
It’s clear Nino and Bilena take their baking seriously, but what’s more important to the Divine Mercy parishioners is their faith and how they mix the two together.
“Faith for us is really part of our everyday lifestyle,” Bilena said.“ Giving back to our community and that people are less fortunate is really important to us and we don’t just say that, we mean it with everything that we do.”
Settepani hires from their own community, and has training internships for those in need, helping build skills that will put them on a path toward a brighter future. Donations to churches and hospitals are what keep them going on busy days during the Christmas rush.
“Christmas is the time to give and of course it’s great to receive gifts but to be able to give to someone who needs something is so much more powerful,” Bilena said.
“I feel like that’s the only way to do it because you cannot run a business where you only take,” Nino said. “You have to run a business where you balance and share the love and share the peace that should come with the coming of Christ.”
They bake with precision and control and package with a firm hand, but at Settepani, their panettone is all love.
By Jessica Easthope
As quick as it is to turn a newspaper page, Matt Schiller is taken back in time.
The Tablet’s business manager from 1973 to 1993 can point to the place where it all started. Sixty years ago a homegrown giving campaign was born with the hope that it would change lives.
“There’s a couple of charities that I really believe in, but Bright Christmas is probably the biggest one, it’s because I know it’s in good hands.”
At a time when The Tablet was first digitizing its operation and mailing list, Bright Christmas had a humble beginning, but its reach was anything but.
“It was a huge difference for those families to have a little money to buy Christmas presents to do other things, or get a dinner basket or something,” Schiller said. “It was something that I personally saw the impact of, and it really resonated with our readers. People love the idea that they were doing something for people close to home.”
And it has stayed close to home. Over the decades, the fund has made Christmas bright for thousands of children and families and agencies helping those less fortunate. Schiller said in the early days, Bright Christmas was evidence that generosity came from the heart, not the wallet.
“They would do these Bright Christmas stories, and those generated all kinds of interest,” Schiller said. “People donated money, they quilted blankets, they would donate clothes. They wanted to take care of the people in Brooklyn and Queens and it’s great that they were responding to The Tablet. They were reading those stories, and they were understanding, and they were moved to action.”
Now as tens of the thousands of newly arrived migrants count on the Church for help, the Bright Christmas campaign continues to evolve right along with the needs of the Diocese of Brooklyn.
“Bright Christmas as far as I know has never had a goal where they’ve said we’ve had to raise this much,” Schiller said. “The important thing is how many people are giving and is it coming in in those $2 and $10 donations, are more people responding because that’s how you know you’ve connected with people that’s a connection to me that is unbreakable.”
But in an ever-changing diocese in an ever-changing city, Schiller hopes the goal of Bright Christmas never changes.
Schiller and dozens of other donors are already helping kids have a Bright Christmas this year.
U.S. bishops are asking for more security for houses of worship.
In a recently released letter to congress, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the head of the USCCB’s Committee for Religious Liberty, asked leaders for at least $200 million in federal funds for the “nonprofit security grant program.”
It provides funding support to nonprofit organizations that are at a high risk of a terrorist attack.
John Lavenburg, the national correspondent for The Tablet and Crux, joins Currents News to talk more about how Cardinal Dolan and the U.S. bishops are speaking up to protect the faithful.