The Catholic Parishes 

of Stoughton 

Peace be with you! 
 

Welcome to the Catholic Parishes of Stoughton. We are a Roman Catholic community of faith, nourished by the Eucharist and committed to living out our faith in service to others. It’s our hope that no matter where you are on your life’s journey, you will find a home here. Please join us as we worship our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the source of all our faith, hope, strength and joy.

              Peace and blessings!
              Fr. Joe Mazzone
              Pastor of St. James & Immaculate Conception 

Peace be with you! And I pray you are having a fruitful and meaningful Lent. Again, thank you for all your prayers, cards and good wishes. My hope is to be back at Immaculate Conception and St. James for Holy Week, starting with the Palm Sunday liturgy. I have been responding fairly well to physical therapy and if I keep improving, I think I will be able to celebrate the Masses. I certainly hope so. I have missed you all quite a bit. As I will not be here this weekend, I did want to check in with you and update you on a few things.

1. Thanks to all of you who have been able to contribute to the Catholic Appeal so far. As you know, St. James and Immaculate Conception have typically been in the top 5% of parishes in terms of reaching both our assessment and our goal. We have personally benefited from the Appeal in several ways. For starters, the Appeal funds so many of the programs and services of the Archdiocese that we use all the time. (It even helps pay for the nurse who checks in on me!) Also, since we typically exceed our goal, we have received a fairly large rebate the past three years, usually exceeding $10,000 at each parish, sometimes significantly more. As you know, these are much-needed funds. You have always been so generous to the Appeal. I know this has been a difficult year. It encourages me to know that so many of the efforts being made to cleanse and renew our church are originating right here in our own archdiocese. I humbly ask you, if you have not yet given to the Appeal to please consider doing so. If for whatever reason you cannot or choose not to, I ask you to kindly consider filling out one of the envelopes located at the entrances of the church. This will help us reach our “in-pew” goal. Indeed, we need to reach that goal for us to receive the rebate. Again, thank you for your understanding and generosity. If you have any questions, please contact our Development Director, Erika Thornton, at the main office.

2. As many of you know, the celebration of the Lord’s Resurrection begins with the Easter Vigil. Since we observe Jesus’ Passion and Death on Friday and His Resurrection on Saturday, many people have asked me over the years, “How can we say Jesus was in the tomb for three days when we only separate Good Friday and the Easter Vigil by one day?” Good question! Simply put, the Jewish day starts at sundown. It is our belief that Jesus died on the cross before sundown on Good Friday: Day One. From sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday is Day Two. Day Three begins after sundown on Saturday. It is for this reason that churches are instructed to wait until sundown on Saturday to begin the Vigil service. Easter, as you know, falls relatively late this year. In fact, it is one of the latest possible dates for Easter. The days, as we all know, are already getting longer. In order to be faithful to the traditions of our faith and of the Church, the Archdiocese has instructed parishes to begin the Easter Vigil service no earlier that 8:30pm. I understand this is later than we usually begin the service and it may take a little adjusting. I ask for your patience and understanding and I look forward to celebrating Easter with you.

Again, thank you for all your prayers and I hope to see you soon. May God bless you and your families. I am looking forward to praying with you personally in our two beautiful churches before too long.

Peace,
Fr. Joe

 ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________