Masses are on Saturday at 5:30 PM and 8:00 PM  and Sunday at 8:00 AM, 10:00 AM, and 12:00 Noon.

Readings for the Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Live Stream on Saturday, February 11, at 5:30 PM and available for playback afterward.

Second Collection is for Archdiocesan Assessment

Online Giving is available at https://secure.myvanco.com/L-YVYY/home.

Our bulletin is available on our website at http://www.stvalentinechurch.com/

Snacks after masses this weekend in Valentine Hall.

There will also be a slideshow of pictures from the past year.

You will also be able to write down what you love about the parish.

We will have a table where you can write Valentine's notes to those in a nearby nursing home.

We are entering into our 124th year as a parish.  There will be a table of historical information that you can look at.  Stop by if you are interested in joining the 125th celebration team, which we hope will include producing a commemorative book..

Saint Valentine - Feast Day February 14
Saint Valentine was a bishop and is thought to have been a physician.  He was arrested for giving aid to Christian prisoners awaiting martyrdom.  While imprisoned, he converted the jailer by restoring sight to the jailer's daughter.  Saint Valentine refused to deny Christ before Emperor Claudius in the year 280 and won the jeweled crown of martyrdom through his faithful witness.  The feast of Saint Valentine was first established in 496 by Pope Gelasius I.

Prayer to Saint Valentine
O Saint Valentine, lover of Christ and of the Church, we ask your intercession that we may learn how to love God above all things and to love one another selflessly.  O glorious Saint Valentine, pray for us that we, too, may have the steadfast faith of the martyrs.

The Statue of Saint Valentine is in the vestibule of our church.

Your patron, Saint Valentine, was a martyr in the early Church and has become the symbol of caring and love in our society.  The legend goes that from his prison cell, he wrote to his followers and always signed his letters "Your Valentine."  I believe Saint Valentine continues to address his letters of concern and showers his intercessory love on your parish, invoking his intercession and wishing you God's blessing in the future.
-- Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, the Auxillary Archbishop of Newark in 1999

First Reconciliation: Wednesday, March 8, 2023, 6:00 PM in Church

First Communion Practice: Thursday, May 4, 2023, at 5:30 PM in Church and Friday, May 5, 2023, at 5:30 PM in Church

First Communion: Sunday, May 7, 2023, at Noon Mass

Confirmation Notes: Mandatory Retreat Friday, March 10, 2023, 6-9 pm @ Saint Thomas the Apostle Church, Bloomfield

Ash Wednesday

Mass at Noon in Church
Prayer Service at 7:00 PM in the Church

Stations of the Cross are Fridays in Lent.

Sunday, March 19, 2023, at 2:00 PM.

Eat in or take out.  Fish and Chicken options.

More details coming soon.

The Roman Catholic Community of Saint Valentine is called to be a visible sign of God's presence in the world.  Through the celebration of the sacraments, especially through reconciliation and the Eucharist, we are sent out to proclaim and witness the Gospel by our lives.

We are therefore dedicated to serving others within our church, local communities, and throughout the world.  By loving God, neighbor, and self, we deepen our response to the Lord and announce the Good News of salvation through Jesus Christ.

At a meeting held in the Jan Lewandowski Meeting Hall on April 26, 1898, a resolution was passed to establish a Roman Catholic Parish in Bloomfield to be named "Saint Valentine." Permission was granted to form a Roman Catholic Parish in Bloomfield under the patronage of Saint Valentine, priest, and martyr.

In the meantime, on February 16, 1899, Saint Valentine Roman Catholic Church was incorporated at a meeting in the rectory of Sacred Heart Church, Bloomfield.

Images of the original church and rectory.  Image of the laying of the cornerstone of the current church.

Our Lady of Lourdes - The first of these is the apparition of 11 February 1858, when 14-year old Bernadette Soubirous told her mother that a "lady" spoke to her in the cave of Massabielle while she was gathering firewood with her sister and a friend.
The stained glass window is from our Church.

A prayer by John Paul II to our Lady of Lourdes.

Hail Mary, poor and humble Woman, Blessed by the Most High! Virgin of hope, dawn of a new era, We join in your song of praise, to celebrate the Lord’s mercy, to proclaim the coming of the Kingdom and the full liberation of humanity.

Hail Mary, lowly handmaid of the Lord, Glorious Mother of Christ! Faithful Virgin, holy dwelling-place of the Word, Teach us to persevere in listening to the Word, and to be docile to the voice of the Spirit, attentive to his promptings in the depths of our conscience and to his manifestations in the events of history.

Hail Mary, Woman of sorrows, Mother of the living! Virgin spouse beneath the Cross, the new Eve, Be our guide along the paths of the world. Teach us to experience and to spread the love of Christ, to stand with you before the innumerable crosses on which your Son is still crucified.
Hail Mary, woman of faith, First of the disciples! Virgin Mother of the Church, help us always to account for the hope that is in us, with trust in human goodness and the Father’s love. Teach us to build up the world beginning from within: in the depths of silence and prayer, in the joy of fraternal love, in the unique fruitfulness of the Cross. Holy Mary, Mother of believers,
Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us. Amen.

Saint Matthias the Apostle - Feast Day February 24
www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-matthias