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The Grace and Peace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you!
St. John Church is staffed by Franciscan Friars
(Order of Friars Minor Conventual). The founder of the Friars, St.
Francis of Assisi, lived from 1182 to 1226. His era was an exciting
time of cultural change. Similar to our times an Ecumenical Council
(Lateran IV) had taken place and Francis and his friars sought to
bring Christ and his church closer to the lives of the people by
implementing the Council decisions
I’m
happy you found our Web Site. Saint
John Parish is a Catholic community of over 1400 families, located
on route 372 East in Cromwell, CT.
If you are new to Cromwell or are looking for a church in the
area, we invite you to come and join us for a weekend liturgy.
To register in the parish call the parish office (860
635-5590) or to set up an appointment with one of the priests.
If you are already a member of St. John Parish,
we thank
you. Your sincere
commitments, your living faith and your willingness to get involved
create our Catholic community in the spirit of the Gospel.
We are grateful that you generously share your time, talent
and treasure, your love and your prayers.
The collective efforts of many make wonderful things happen
in our community... all to the glory of God and service of others.
Fr. Mark L. Curesky, OFM Conv.
Pastor
This coat of arms has been the
symbol of the Franciscans for many centuries. The image of the two
crossed arms, each with a nail wound in the hand, represent both
Christ and St. Francis who received the Stigmata (the wounds of
Christ) in his body two years before he died.
The cross behind the arms is
actually the letter 'T' or 'tau' which is the last letter of the
Hebrew alphabet.
Francis was very fond of the
passage in the prophet Ezekiel (9:4) which refers to the faithful of
God all being signed on the forehead with the letter 'tau'. Francis
often signed his letters with this symbol.
Pope Innocent III used this image from the
prophet Ezekiel for the theme of the opening homily of the Fourth
Lateran Council (1215).
Pope Innocent III
opened the Council on November 11, 1215, with these words: "I
have desired with great desire to eat this Pasover with you."
(Luke 22-15.) Innocent announced that for him, for the Church, and
for every Catholic at the time, the symbol they were to take as the
sign of their Passover was the Tau Cross.
He incorporated
into his homily the statement from Ezekiel (9:4) that the elect, the
chosen, those who are concerned will be marked with the sign of the
Tau. He explained that this Passover is a three-fold Passover.
Every Catholic must
be involved in this triple Passover: A Corporal Passover, a
Spiritual Passover and an Eternal Passover.
These
became some of the most precious themes of Francis' preaching. He
must have taken them so deeply to heart that when Pope Innocent III
ended his homily with "Be champions of the Tau", Francis
evidently took that as a personal statement and made the Tau his own
symbol: a symbol for his order, his signature, painted it
everywhere, and had great devotion to it for the rest of his life.
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