541 Washington Avenue • Kenilworth, New Jersey 07033

PHONE: (908) 272-4444 -:- FAX: (908) 272-4424

MASS SCHEDULE:

Saturday Vigil 5:30 pm | Sunday 9:00 am - 10:30 am - 12:00 pm - 5:00 pm

Daily Services: 7:00 am - 9:00 am | Saturday 9:00 am ONLY | Monday 6:30 pm

Italian Memorial Mass, First Friday - 6:30 pm

Divine Mercy First Sunday of the Month after 12:00 pm Mass

Holy Days of Obligation Schedules will Appear Separate

The Church of Saint Theresa

St. Theresa Parish © 2026 BLH-Graphic Design
 Privacy | Site Information

PLEASE REMEMBER TO VISIT OUR “ON LINE GIVING” PAGE

The third of seven children, she was born in 1890 in Corinaldo, Italy, to a poor family. When Maria was nine, her father died, and her mother and siblings threw themselves into work to feed the family. Like many of the poor, the Gorettis could not afford a home of their own, so they shared living quarters with another family, the Serenellis. And like many young girls in similar circumstances, Maria was the victim of unwanted sexual advances on the part of Alessandro, the Serenellis’ 20-year-old son.

In 1902, 11-year-old Maria was sitting on the steps mending a shirt when Alessandro grabbed her and dragged her into the house. He held an awl and threatened to stab her if she refused him again. Maria did just that.. “No,” she cried as he tried to choke her, “It is a sin! God doesn’t want it!” She struggled and tried to run for the door. He caught her, and when she said that she would rather die than give him what he wanted, he stabbed her fourteen times with the awl before running away.

She knew she was dying now, and so still more came to her with astonishing clarity. There was someone who needed something from her, indeed, who needed the greatest gift she could give before dying. Alessandro Serenelli needed her forgiveness, and the forgiveness of God. She told the police the name of the man who had harmed her, but she added, “I forgive him, and I want him with me in heaven!”

Alessandro took a long time to accept that forgiveness. Sentenced to thirty years in prison, at first, he showed no remorse. Years later, he had a dream, which he recounted to a bishop who came to visit him in jail. He saw the little girl he had killed handing him lilies she had gathered, but they burned in his hands. He woke up and he knew that the forgiveness she had given him was a power mightier than he could conceive, and that this power was at work in him. Alessandro’s heart broke open, and he began to accept the forgiveness of God.

Twenty-seven years after Maria’s murder, Alessandro was released from prison. He went straight to Maria’s mother, Assunta, and begged her forgiveness. Who was she to refuse, the mother said, what her daughter had given so readily? The next day, they went to Mass together as if they were mother and son. Alessandro became a Franciscan lay brother, working in the garden of a monastery until his death.

In 1950, Pope Pius XII canonized this “20th century St. Agnes” in the presence of her mother, her siblings, and her erstwhile neighbor, who had killed her only to discover in her an intercessor, a sister and a friend.

https://www.vaticannews.va/en/saints/07/06/st--maria-goretti--virgin-and-martyr.html

NO BINGO
FRIDAY JULY3rd

THE OFFICE WILL BE CLOSED

FRIDAY, JULY 3, 2026

(in Observance of July 4th)

Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, C.Ss.R., Archbishop of Newark, has shared a letter with the faithful providing an update on We Are His Witnesses. The letter invites us to reflect on our shared mission and future together as the local Church of Newark.

You can obtain copy of the letter at the Church’s vestibule or by clicking here.

ST. MARIA GORETTI, VIRGIN AND MARTYR – JULY 6