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 

As most of you all may or may not know, I’m a welder, have been for over 30 years now. Most of the time I’m working in the shop fabricating, but once in a while I get to go on the road to install the railings that I or someone else in the shop made. Most of the time when I go to install the rails, things go pretty well, sometimes though things don’t go that well. Sometimes the rails don’t fit, because either they were measured wrong, or there was a mistake in fabricating them.
 
Most times when this happens to us the customers are pretty understanding to us, unless they been waiting a long time. In that case they can get very upset which is understandable. There have been some times when I and some of my coworkers haven’t been spoken to very nicely. I’ve had to bite my tongue a few times and not say anything back to them, but sometimes it’s really very hard thing to do. Now there have been occasions when some of my former coworkers have said something back to a customer who is complaining about a problem with the job. Notice how I said former coworker.
 
 In today’s gospel, Jesus explains to us how to deal with people like this. Jesus says to his disciples to  offer no resistance to one who was evil, when someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other one as well. Or in my case and my former coworkers case, don’t say anything back to the customer who was complaining. When Jesus says to his disciples, “do not resist an evil doer”, he doesn’t mean becoming a doormat to angry people. It doesn’t encourage us to “give the nod to” our own humiliation and pain. It rather discourages repaying evil for evil, or in our case arguing for arguing. Because really what good does that do anyone?
 
 So, what are the alternatives that we might have in dealing with situations like this? How does it go beyond an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth? Well, we can as Jesus says turn the other cheek, this will tell the person who yells at you, or gives you a “backhand” that their attempts to shame you have indeed failed.
 
When someone is bad mouthing you, yelling and screaming, instead of retaliation, pray for them. Show them love, as we are all called to do. It’s very easy for us to love those who love us and to hate those who hate us. We need to do like Jesus tells us to do in today’s gospel, to love your enemies. Universal love is an imitation of our heavenly Father. We are called to love everyone, even those who might yell at us on the job site or anywhere. After all, our heavenly Father’s sunlight shines on everyone, the good and the bad. Just the same, his rainfalls on the just and the unjust. This is the perfection of our heavenly Father. We as children of our heavenly Father are called to imitate him. The message is clear, love one another as Jesus loves us.
                                                                     ~ Deacon Dave
 

As many of you know, Ray Anderson, our long-time music director at St. James, after many years of faithful service to the Stoughton Catholic community, resigned in late November as the St James music director to pursue other opportunities. We remain deeply grateful to him for all that he did in his time here and continue to value his friendship. We began a diligent search soon after Ray’s departure to find a replacement. Typically in parish collaboratives, there is one music director for both parishes. The role of the music director is not necessarily to play at every Mass in the collaborative but to make sure there is coverage for every Mass in the collaborative (as well as do long-term planning regarding music, plan liturgical events, etc.) The logical choice for this position would be our current Immaculate Conception Music Director, Robin Cedrone. She is from the community and knows both parishes well. (As many of you know, her family owns and runs the  beloved Denneno’s Pizza, right here in Stoughton.) I am delighted to announce that she will be the new Music Director for the Catholic Parishes of Stoughton! Again, this does not mean that Robin will be playing and conducting the music at both parishes but will  coordinate the playing and conducting. Once Robin’s position was settled, our hope was that we might find a permanent replacement for Ray in terms of playing both the organ and piano at the Masses at St. James. This would be beneficial not only for our wonderful choir but for the greater community as well. I am delighted to  announce that Reena Bates will be the new head organist at St. James! Reena has been filling in on Sundays since Ray’s departure and has been doing a great job. Our choir has developed a wonderful relationship with her and our cantors as well. Reena lives in nearby Easton, is a faithful and practicing Catholic and brings a wealth of experience and expertise to the position. A short biography of Reena will appear in the bulletin in the next few weeks so that you can get to know her as well. Glad to have you on board, Reena!