Catechists in parishes around the Diocese were encouraged to continue imparting the faith to their young people “with joy and enthusiasm” during a Eucharistic Retreat given in English on June 11 in the Evangelization Center at St. Paul Inside the Walls ion Madison.

El pasado sábado, en St. Pope John Paul II Center, Clifton, se llevó a cabo el retiro diocesano Eucarístico para líderes, catequistas, y ministros de la diócesis, organizado por la oficina de Ministerio Hispano, la oficina de Catequesis y el editorial Sadlier. El objetivo central de este evento era renovar nuestro amor, entendimiento por la Sagrada Eucaristía, y hacer de ella algo fundamental para nuestra vida. Tuvimos la participación de personas de la mayoría de nuestras parroquias donde hay presencia de Ministerio Hispano.

This Sunday, June 19, is an important date in the life of the Church in the United States. It is not only the date of the Feast of Corpus Christi, it is also the date when the National Eucharistic Revival will start. The Feast of Corpus Christi is the beginning of a three-year grassroots revival of devotion and faith in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, culminating in the first National Eucharistic Congress in the United States since 1975. The congress will take place in Indianapolis in 2024.

La promesa que Jesús nos hizo de quedarse con nosotros hasta el final de los tiempos se hace realidad en la Eucaristía “donde se contiene todo el bien espiritual, es decir, Cristo mismo, nuestra Pascua y Pan vivo, que por su Carne vivificada por el Espíritu Santo, da vida a los hombres” (Presbyterorum Ordinis, 5).

Throughout this Year of the Eucharist, we are asked to consider the great gift of the Eucharist in the Church and reflect on the appropriate response to this great gift. Gift and Response: When someone receives a gift, we rightly have expectations for that person. As a college student who received a scholarship, I was expected to work hard in school and achieve success. When commissioned as an Army officer, I was expected to work hard and share the suffering of soldiers in my command. In his Eucharis­tic gift, God makes himself small for us, so that we can grasp him, and he can make his love a part of us. How are we expected to respond to this unearned gift of love? God calls us to acknowledge our sins and change.

At center stage in St. Anthony School in Hawthorne, Amelia Mallory, 13, portrays St. Mary Mazzarello as she faces a crisis, before establishing the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, a religious order. Suffering from typhoid, she worries about beating the life-threatening illness. St. Mary Mazzarello also wonders how to answer the Blessed Mother’s call in a vision for her to teach the poor girls in her Italian village. Her response led her to found her religious community, also known as the Salesian Sisters of Don Bosco.

Members of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal (CCR) celebrated the feast of Pentecost at a vigil Mass June in the St. John Paul II Center in Clifton. Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney was main celebrant of the Mass to mark Pentecost, often called the “Birthday of the Catholic Church.” Father Yasid Salas, pastor of St. Therese Parish in Paterson and director of the Hispanic Charismatic Renewal, coordinated the event with the Diocese’s team. Spanish-speaking Catholics from around the Diocese attended the celebration of Pentecost.

Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney served as main celebrant of the annual Serra Club Mass to honor seminarians, newly ordained priests and retiring priests, held in St. Gerard Majella Church in Paterson May 31. The evening liturgy was followed by a dinner at the Brownstone, also in Paterson.

Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney, who will mark the 25th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood on June 28, will be the principal celebrant of the annual diocesan Jubilee Mass for diocesan and religious priests who are also marking significant milestones in the priesthood. The Jubilee Mass was celebrated on Thursday, June 9, in St. Gerard Majella Church in Paterson to honor those priests celebrating 65th, 60th, 50th, 40th and 25th anniversaries of their priestly ordinations this year.

Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney made a pastoral visit on Pentecost Sunday to St. Paul Parish in Clifton June 5. During his visit, he administered the Sacrament of Confirmation to young people of the parish, who prepared for the sacrament through the parish’s Confirmation program.

On June 4, a former Vatican official for the New Evan­geli­zation helped inspire participants of the Pentecost Project faith-formation series at the Cathe­dral of St. John the Baptist in Paterson to live as “missionary disciples.” He issued this challenge to them: “Today, more than ever, it is our duty to be agents of evangelization for others.”

On June 3, 100 days have officially passed since the Ukrainian-Russian conflict began. As the war rages on and the destruction of cities and countless deaths continue to mount, an effort to pray for peace and to show solidarity to those impacted by the war is ongoing through the St. Joseph’s Apostolate for the Sick and the Dying. The Apostolate is now reaching out to young people to get involved in its outreach to the people of Ukraine.

June 3 marked the 100th day of the war in Ukraine. According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, since Russia’s invasion began on Feb. 24, 4,183 Ukrainian civilians have been killed, of whom 268 are minors. In addition, 5,014 people have been injured, including 427 minors.

We are currently compiling the responses and input that we received during the diocesan phase of the Synod on Synodality. Father Paul Manning, vicar for evangelization, and Maria Moncaleano, director of our diocesan Office of Hispanic Ministry, who serve as the co-chairs of our Diocese’s Synod Steering Committee, are leading the process of organizing the information we have received. By the end of this month, we will have a document summarizing all that we have “heard” during this stage of the Synodal process. We will send that document to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and we will publicize the document to make it accessible to all.

Como cristianos, es importante que podamos constantemente recordar, hacer memoria, volver a comenzar y qué mejor que regresar a donde todo comenzó, a Galilea, donde Jesús después de ser bautizado por Juan El Bautista proclama su primer discurso y allí nos da los fundamentos de lo que será su ministerio: “[…] El Reino de Dios está cerca, conviértanse y crean en el Evangelio” (Marcos 1:15). Mas adelante, en Jerusalén, que es la tierra donde se cumplen todas las promesas del Señor, Pedro después de haber celebrado la pascua con Jesús y haber presenciado su muerte y resurrección, estaba con los otros once apóstoles y un grupo de personas entre las cuales sobresalían los judíos y al terminar su discurso los que estaban allí presentes muy afligidos le preguntan a Pedro ¿Qué debemos hacer entonces?, a lo que él les contesta: “Conviértanse y bautícense” (Hechos 2:38). Estos dos momentos tan importantes de nuestra historia de salvación, el primer discurso de Jesús y el primer discurso de Pedro después de Pentecostés, nos dejan ver la importancia que tiene la conversión y que sin ella no podemos emprender nuestro camino de Fe. En un mundo en el que pareciera que los valores y la moral están pasando a un segundo plano o que, peor aún, estamos esperando que sean muchas veces las corrientes actuales las que nos den las pautas para vivir, debemos tener muy claro la conversión cristiana.

Food for the journey is a term often associated with viaticum, the communion that we may receive when we are very near death. The image of the Lord feeding us one more time before we pass from this life is profoundly beautiful and loving, but Food for the journey also brings to mind the unique story in Luke’s Gospel, the Road to Emmaus. The Risen Lord accompanies two disciples who are leaving Jerusalem. They are quite troubled over all that happened with Jesus, and as they journey, Jesus opens their minds to the ways in which Scripture foretold everything that must happen to him in order that he could accomplish our salvation. The travelers only recognize Jesus when he breaks the bread at supper, blesses it, and gives it to them. In this wonderful story, Jesus feeds their minds and their spirits even before they invite him to eat a meal with them.

Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney has announced clergy assignments and clergy retirements effective in June.

On this past Tuesday, we were made painfully aware of another horrific act of violence and the tragic loss of innocent human life that followed. The school shooting in Uvalde, Texas repeated an all too familiar scene that pours salt in a wound that never seems to heal. As we pray for all the victims, especially the 19 children and 2 teachers who were killed, we must constantly pray for their families that will never be the same and for healing in our country that desperately needs the peace that comes from God. We must also ask ourselves the questions, “How can this happen again (and again and again)?” This tragic killing, with the use of a deadly weapon, comes less than two weeks after another person with a gun targeted an African-American Community in Buffalo and killed 10 innocent people.

Students at St. Gerard Majella School in Paterson came together with high-school seniors at Villa Walsh Academy in Morristown for a field day May 17 on the grounds of Villa Walsh.

The women who visit the Passaic Neighborhood Center for Women in Passaic consider it their second home. Since it first opened its doors in fall 2013, the center has seen more than 17,000 visits from women living in Passaic, who come to the Center for English classes, quilting and crocheting classes; to grow fruits and vegetables for their families and to become connected with community resources to fulfill their needs. The Center has served as a place for women by offering them a safe, peaceful and welcoming environment.