Please note: Calendar submissions must be emailed to calendar@stjoescoopersburg.org for prior approval.

Upcoming Events

Forty Hours

Sunday, October 10th -- Noon to 7:00 P.M.
Benediction – 7:00 P.M.

Monday, October 11th -- 8:30 A.M. to 7:00 P.M.
Benediction – 7:00 P.M.

Tuesday, October 12th – 8:30 A.M. to 7:00 P.M.
Solemn Procession and Benediction at 7:00 P.M.

For three days, our parish family will be praying in a special way to Our Lord present in the Most Blessed Sacrament. These are very special times of grace for all of us, individually and as a parish family. There are several ways you might participate as a family at prayer:

1. A simple, brief visit throughout the day to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.
2. A private Holy Hour.
3. Participation in the Benediction Services at 7:00 P.M.
 

A Brief History

The Devotion of Forty Hours has been reverently celebrated in the Church for over 700 years. Originally, this pious practice of venerating the Blessed Sacrament, publicly exposed, was associated with the last days of Holy week – the Forty Hours commemorating the time in which Our Lord’s Body was in the tomb.
Here in the United States the Forty Hours Devotion was first introduced on a diocesan basis in 1853 by St. John Neumann, C.SS.R., Bishop of Philadelphia. Bishop Neumann hesitated at first in this decision.
These were the unfortunate times of violent religious bigotry in America and more than one church had been burned recently in his own Episcopal city of Philadelphia. Was it not possible that public exposition of the Blessed Sacrament would only encourage the arsonists once more?
Late one evening the bishop sat at his desk writing letters. Exhausted from the day’s labors, he fell asleep. A few minutes later, the papers on his desk were ignited by a drowsy candle. The slowly rising flames abruptly aroused the bishop. Quickly he extinguished the fire and knelt down to utter a prayer of thanksgiving. Suddenly he noticed that, although the letters were badly charred, every word he had
written remained perfectly legible! Pondering this strange fact, he became conscious of a voice speaking to him, “As the flames are burning here without consuming or injuring the writing, so shall I pour out My grace in the Blessed Sacrament without prejudice to My honor. Fear no profanation, therefore; hesitate no longer to carry out your design for My Glory.”
Bishop Neumann realized that strange heavenly voices and even stranger fireproof letters would receive a skeptical reaction from “modern Americans.” But friends of God listen not to the voice of the skeptic but to the voice of God. His decision was immediate. The Forty Hours Devotion was instituted in his diocese and extended by the Plenary Council of Baltimore in 1866 to the entire United States. Today this
devotion holds a pre-eminent place in the prayer life of every parish in the United States.
This revised version of the devotion, in keeping with the decrees of the Second Vatican Council, is but another page in the long and glorious history of this divinely-favored prayer in the liturgy of the Church.

SAVE THE DATE - Registration will open soon!

Catholic Charities Chew Street Soup Kitchen

Catholic Charities purchases food through grants, as well as through Second Harvest Food Bank, food drives and personal donations. Monetary donations to purchase food are much appreciated. Please make checks payable to "Catholic Charities", memo line "for food for Chew Street Soup Kitchen." Please mail to: Catholic Charities -Attention: Robert Nicolella 900 S. Woodward Street Allentown, PA 18103. 

Annual Events

*All events currently on hold, or being scheduled in a different manner*

• Night at the Races (Saturday before Ash Wednesday )
• Children’s Mission Sunday Carnival (Sunday before Ash Wednesday)
• Children’s Easter Egg Hunt (Saturday before Palm Sunday)
• Palm Sunday Breakfast
• Annual Golf Outing (May)
• Welcome Summer Festival (June)
• Forty Hours (October)
• Family Fall Celebration (Last Weekend in October)
• Altar & Rosary Society Advent Reflection (Sunday before Thanksgiving)
• Parish Family Christmas Buffet (Held on a Sunday in Advent)