St. Peter's Church, Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey

St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Church in Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey is staffed by the Conventual Franciscan Friars. With Friar Curt Kreml as pastor, the church provides a wonderful example of how Franciscan values can be reflected in 21st century America.

St. Peter’s is after all more than just a building where one attends Mass. St. Peter’s Church is a community that lives its faith. On its website are listed countless opportunities of how parishioners and for that matter anyone who visits the church’s website and lives in the area can live their faith by serving others.

St. Peter's has a very active community

Two of these opportunities involve the actual act of reaching out to our fellow brothers and sisters. Those persons who are sick or frail sometimes cannot take care of tasks that the rest of us find simple. A visitor from St. Peter’s who has a few hours to spare every week can therefore make an enormous difference in the life of a person whose mobility is limited. Plus, the benefit of a little bit of companionship to someone who might spend most days alone is immeasurable too.

Being able to connect to fellow human beings is important

This sort of companionship is also often helpful to persons confined to hospitals. St. Peter’s Church needs Eucharistic ministers to visit sick Catholics. These individuals who are unable to attend Mass are reenergized by the Eucharist. With their faith strengthened, they find that weathering their illnesses becomes a little bit easier. Knowing that they are not alone helps a great deal too.

(Source for all related photos on the webpage and homepage: www.franciscans.org.)