On Easter, the Catholic Church in the Philippines will inaugurate a yearlong celebration to mark 500 years of Christianity in the country. The theme of the jubilee celebration is “Gifted to Give.” For Filipinos in the Paterson Diocese, this celebration has brought joy and excitement as several events are planned to coincide with the jubilee year. On Easter, Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in Rockaway will be the site of the official kick-off of the celebration with a Filipino Mass at 1 p.m.

Bishop Kevin Sweeney was homilist and main celebrant, with priests of the Diocese as concelebrants, at the Diocese’s annual Mass of Chrism March 29 in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Paterson. During the Mass, priests of the Diocese renewed their priestly promises before the Bishop and received the prayers and support of the people of God, who attended and watched through livestream since in person attendance was limited due to the pandemic.

With the celebration of the great feast of Easter just days away, kindhearted Confirmation candidates found a way to bring Easter joy to senior citizens confined to local nursing homes during the pandemic. At Our Lady of the Lake Church in Sparta, the teenagers teamed up with the parish’s “Adopt-a-Family” ministry for a special parish-wide project.

Father Jayke Parinas, parochial vicar at Our Lady of the Mountain and St. Mark parishes in Long Valley, came with questions about canon law and marriage on March 23 to Loyola Jesuit Center in Morristown. There, he and a group of his fellow new diocesan priests got expert answers to their questions on the subject from the judicial vicar of the Diocese of Scranton, Pa., during the second monthly live session of a new program in Paterson: Ongoing Forma­tion of Newly Ordained Priests.

As we begin the Sacred Triduum today on Holy Thursday, our eyes can now become fixed on knowing that after the Passion and death of Jesus comes Easter, the greatest feast on the Church calendar, when Jesus is raised from the dead. The Resurrection of Jesus carries the promise that death cannot separate us from God. Christ lives and so will we.

Since Christ accomplished his work of human redemption and of the perfect glorification of God principally through his Paschal Mystery, in which by dying he has destroyed our death, and by rising restored our life, the sacred Paschal Triduum of the Passion and Resurrection of the Lord shines forth as the high point of the entire liturgical year. Therefore, the pre-eminence that Sunday has in the week, the Solemnity of Easter has in the liturgical year.