Our Diocese is in the midst of the Year of the Eucharist, which Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney officially launched on Jan. 9, the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. The Bishop declared the yearlong celebration to encourage local Catholics to deepen “their appreciation of Jesus — Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity — in the Eucharist.

During the course of Jesus’ revelations to St. Faustina on the Divine Mercy, he asked on numerous occasions that a feast day be dedicated to the Divine Mercy and that this feast be celebrated on the Sunday after Easter. The liturgical texts of that day, the Second Sunday of Easter, concern the institution of the Sacrament of Penance, the Tribunal of the Divine Mercy, and are thus already suited to the request of Our Lord. This Feast, which had already been granted to the nation of Poland and been celebrated within Vatican City, was granted to the Universal Church by Pope John Paul II on the occasion of the canonization of Sister Faustina on April 30, 2000. In a decree dated May 23, 2000, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments stated “Throughout the world the Second Sunday of Easter will receive the name Divine Mercy Sunday, a perennial invitation to the Christian world to face, with confidence in divine benevolence, the difficulties and trials that mankind will experience in the years to come.” These papal acts represent the highest endorsement that the Church can give to a private revelation, an act of papal infallibility proclaiming the certain sanctity of the mystic, and the granting of a universal feast, as requested by Our Lord to St. Faustina.

The eighth-grade class at St. Gerard Majella School here reenacted the Stations of the Cross, a tradition at the school every Lent, on April 8. Some seventh-graders also participate.

Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney celebrated Palm Sunday Mass at the Morris County Correctional Facility in Morristown April 6. The Bishop concelebrated the Mass with Father Owen Moran, pastor of St. Luke the Evangelist Parish in Long Valley and the Order of Malta’s prison ministry chaplain; and Father Alex Nevitt, parochial vicar of Notre Dame of Mount Carmel Parish in Cedar Knolls.

Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney made a pastoral visit to St. Brendan/St. George Church in Clifton April 10 where he celebrated the 10:30 a.m. Mass on Palm Sunday.

Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney served as the main celebrant and homilist at Mass on Palm Sunday April 10 at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Paterson.

In the state of New Jersey, Gov. Phil Murphy, who has Catholic roots, recently signed a bill he promoted, codifying the right to an abortion into state law. With abortion now more accessible than ever, the consequences from an abortion are often ignored by pro-abortion lawmakers, who consider it a simple procedure and a fundamental woman’s right. However, the effects of abortion for so many women, and even men, are traumatic and tragic with the death of an unborn baby.

Considered one of the most thoughtful of gifts, flowers can brighten up anyone’s day. And for seniors participating in the senior day program of Catholic Family and Community Services (CFCS) here, their days are definitely made brighter, thanks to a weekly donation of flowers from Trader Joe’s in Wayne.

With great joy the Religious Teachers Filippini of the Province of St. Lucy Filippini officially opened their year-long observance of the 350th birthday of their founder, St. Lucy Filippini, April 9, in part by walking through a Holy Door, newly blessed at their motherhouse chapel in Morristown to symbolize that Jesus is the only door — or way — to God.

When the doors open to the worship space of St. John the Baptist Ukrainian Catholic Church in Whippany on a clear day, the light of God’s love bursts forth. Sunlight streams through the many colorful stained-glass windows around the church and reflects off the golden icons of Christ, Mary, and the saints and a large golden altar screen. No doubt a group of 30 parishioners of Notre Dame of Mount Carmel in Cedar Knolls had experienced firsthand that light of love from God — plus a warm welcome — during a visit to St. John’s on April 2.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has organized an ecumenical initiative, “Pray for Dobbs” as the nation awaits a Supreme Court decision in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organiza­tion case that could lead to Roe v. Wade being overturned. “We’re at this pivotal moment,” Arch­bishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City stressed, regarding the imperative to pray and fast for a positive Supreme Court outcome.

One of my favorite passages in the Bible is the story known as the “Road to Emmaus” (Lk 24:13–35). This encounter with Jesus on Easter Sunday, “that very day” (v. 13), after he had risen from the dead, is all the more meaningful as we are participating in the Synod on Synodality and having a Year of the Eucharist. By means of the Synod on Synodality, Pope Francis is calling on the whole Church to reflect on the ways in which we “journey together” and the ways in which we encounter and listen to one another (and to the Holy Spirit) on our shared journey.

Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney was the main celebrant of Mass March 30 in Christ the King Church in New Vernon as part of the parish’s Wednesday Night Lenten Mass Series. Every Wednesday during Lent since March 9, the parish has had a guest priest celebrate Mass at the New Vernon church.

Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney made a pastoral visit to St. Brendan/St. George Church in Clifton where he celebrated the vigil Mass marking the Fifth Sunday of Lent, April 2. During the Mass, young people received the Sacrament of Confirmation administered by the Bishop.

On the Fifth Sunday of Lent, Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney consecrated a new outdoor altar at Our Lady Queen of Peace Parish here April 3. This altar marked a special milestone at the area, which had been the location of an outdoor Mass for last two years. During the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the parish community attended outdoor Masses during the time church buildings were closed for the public celebration of Mass. In steady rain, the consecration took place, followed by Mass with the Bishop as the main celebrant.

At the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Paterson, the ever-growing parish community has recently upgraded its parish database from excel files to GabrielSoft, a church management software programmed connected to eCatholic. From accounting to the ministry work of a parish, GabrielSoft is an information hub that is meant to build relational ministry.

In the glow of the worship space in St. Lawrence the Martyr Church in Chester, a five-piece band of young adult musicians gently sings a popular hymn, “Holy God, we praise thy name and adoring, bend the knee, while we own the mystery.” On April 3, faithful in parishes in the Southwest Morris Deanery gathered in St. Lawrence to kneel in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament during the “True Presence Night,” lifted up by the heavenly-sent melodies and often a strong back beat of faith of a contemporary band, The Vigil Project.

Six young adult volunteers prepared 420 bottles with three different Holy Oils on March 26 in the Evangelization Center at St. Paul Inside the Walls in Madison for the upcoming diocesan Chrism Mass. Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney will bless and consecrate the Oil of Chrism, and bless the Oil of the Sick and the Oil of Catechumens during the Diocese’s annual Chrism Mass on Monday, April 11 at 6:45 p.m. in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Paterson.

Every day, the Father English Center prepares more than 1,000 bags a food for the many people who line up in front of its doors on Main Street in the city of Paterson. In record numbers, the food pantry, which is part of diocesan Catholic Charities, has witnessed an endless flow of people in need of assistance for basic living expenses due to COVID-19 pandemic and now the exorbitant rise in prices of essentials such as food, housing, and gas due to the highest inflation rate in 50 years.

Many prayers, hymns, religious practices, art, and architecture from the medieval Church — from the “Hail Mary” and Stations of the Cross to Gothic-style churches and stained-glass windows — continue to form our Catholic identity today, said Msgr. Raymond Kupke, pastor of St. Anthony Parish in Hawthorne and diocesan archivist. On March 30, Msgr. Kupke, an adjunct professor of Church history in the School of Theology at Seton Hall University in South Orange, spoke to a group of parishioners in St. Anthony Church on “The Med­ieval Church.”