Everyone in the Essex Catholic Community was invited to the Sept. 18 St. Pius X Parish family picnic after Mass.

The 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time was also Catechetical Sunday so prayers were offered for parents, students and teachers involved in the religious education program.  “Today, in the Epistle, St. James identifies the ultimate sources of conflict as jealousy and selfishness.  The instigators in the first reading attack the just one out of jealousy,” noted Edmundite Father Charles Ranges, pastor. “In the Gospel, Jesus reminds his disciples, ‘If anyone wishes to be first, one shall be the last of all and the servant of all.’  Let us pray that we might be good followers of Jesus always putting the good of others first.