In just two weeks, we will be in the midst of Holy Week. And when we attend the celebration of the Lord’s Passion on Good Friday in our churches, Catholics in the Diocese and around the world will be asked in a collection to be taken up to give their support to the Holy Land, where Christ lived, died and rose from the dead.

Call it the rite of Spring as a bee buzzed around outside a new greenhouse at St. Anthony School in Hawthorne with the students considering it a sign that spring has finally arrived. This past weekend at a ribbon cutting ceremony, the school’s new greenhouse, located between St. Anthony Church and the convent, officially debuted. The greenhouse will enhance — or in gardening terms, cultivate — a new learning experience for the school’s STEM program

Bishop Serratelli presided at the annual Acies of the Legion of Mary March 24 at Ss. Cyril and Methodius Church here, with members of the Legion of Mary from all across the Diocese and beyond in attendance. The Legion of Mary is a worldwide organization in which men, women and youth join in prayer and in the apostolic work in union with the Blessed Mother and under the guidance of a priest.

Bishop Serratelli made a pastoral visit to Our Lady of Mount Carmel (OLMC) Parish here where he celebrated the vigil Mass for the Third Sunday of Lent. During the Mass, the Bishop administered the Sacrament of Confirmation to young people of OLMC parish and Ss. Cyril and Methodius Parish here. The confirmandi prepared for the sacrament for the past two years through their parish’s confirmation program, which began in their freshman year of high school.

Parishioners of Holy Cross here welcomed Bishop Serratelli on his pastoral visit to the parish on March 24 where he celebrated Mass for the Third Sunday of Lent.

Preparations are moving forward for the special program commissioned by the five Catholic Dioceses in New Jersey that will compensate eligible victims who were sexually abused as minors by clergy. In the months since the Independent Victims’ Compensation Program was announced by the New Jersey bishops, the program’s Administrators have set up a dedicated website (NJDiocesesIVCP.com), posted a draft protocol delineating how the program will operate and opened a month-long comment period, which is currently in progress.

It seems rooted in their nature that men spend their energies striving to be “men of action” — focused on “getting things done” in their daily quest to achieve higher and higher levels of success in their professional and personal lives. Yet this Lent, the rector of the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, Paterson, is urging Catholic men to think about being less concerned with what they do in life and more concerned with what they become — men, who sacrifice for others in their mission to participate in God’s redemption of the world.

U.S. Merchant Marine Capt. Leonard LaRue peered through his binoculars on Dec. 23, 1950 and surveyed a heartbreaking scene from the deck of his ship. Thousands of Koreans — men, women and children — their eyes filled with fear — were crammed onto the docks of the City of Hungnam, desperate to flee the invading Chinese communist forces that were closing in quickly during the early months of the Korean War.

On the surface, the Equality Act, which was reintroduced in Congress this month and would add anti-discrimination protections for sexual orientation and gender identity to existing protections for race, color, national origin, sex, disability and religion, seems innocuous enough to many Americans. However, in a letter to members of the U.S. Senate, three bishops warned that while the proposed Equality Act purports to address issues of discrimination, it would actually create new problems and threaten fundamental freedoms.

Parishioners of St. Therese in Succasunna welcomed Bishop Serratelli, who led a Lenten presentation at the parish on “The Divine Presence in the Holy Eucharist” March 12. About 50 people attended the reflection. Afterward, Bishop Serratelli greeted parishioners at a reception that followed his presentation.

Bishop Serratelli made a pastoral visit on Sunday, March 17 to Corpus Christi Parish in Chatham Township where he celebrated Mass for the Second Sunday of Lent. During the Mass, the Bishop officially installed Father T. Kevin Corcoran as Corpus Christi’s new pastor.

St. Lawrence the Martyr Parish in Chester has taken a big step in the past year to help its community of believers grow in spirituality toward a closer relationship with Christ and each other with help from a national initiative. The initiative takes its cue from Jesus’ personal style of ministry — calling together a small group of Twelve Apostles in “missionary friendship” to form them and ultimately to challenge them to spread the Gospel to the world.

Bishop Serratelli made a pastoral visit to St. Bonaventure Church in Paterson and celebrated Mass for the First Sunday of Lent March 10.

Bishop Serratelli made a pastoral visit to Good Shepherd Church in Andover where he celebrated the vigil Mass for the Second Sunday in Lent on March 16.

Last fall, a caravan of thousands of migrants from Central America heading to the Mexican border with the United States, made headlines in the United States bringing up conversations from both sides of the political spectrum about immigration reform, the border wall and homeland security. Looking beyond the politics to directly meeting with the people affected, Sister Janice Jolin, a Missionary Sister of the Immaculate Conception (SMIC) living here, joined 75 faith leaders on March 18 on a ‘reverse caravan’ to Honduras to discuss the plight of so many around the world who flee homelands riddled by violence, political corruption and other human rights offenses.

Afua Agyekum and Joseph Korab, both sophomores at diocesan Catholic high schools, took time from their studies last week to “dream big” about their future plans — she as a pediatrician and he as a Catholic priest. On March 13, Agyekum, 15, of Pope John XXIII Regional High School, Sparta, and Korab, 16, of Morris Catholic High School, Denville, along with 24 fellow students at their high schools, got to think more about that big question — “What do I want to do with the rest of my life?” — during the “Discovering Your Call” vocations-awareness event at Mallinckrodt Convent in Mendham.

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) recently gave the movie, “Unplanned,” which will open in theaters March 29, an R-rating. According to the MPAA, “an R-rated film may depict adult activity, hard language, intense graphic or persistent violence, sexually oriented nudity, drug abuse or other elements. Parents are counseled to take this rating very seriously. Children under 17 are not allowed to attend R-rated films unaccompanied by a parent or adult guardian.”

Like many of the more than 400 Catholics, who traveled to St. Cecilia Church in Rockaway on the evening of March 7, Amy Welsch, a faith-filled married mother of six, came with a mission: to find a saint to become her new spiritual companion. A parishioner of St. Cecilia’s, she was looking for some help through a tough time — her 17-year-old daughter, Alexis, recently had been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease.

’Twas a grand day for Notre Dame of Mount Carmel Parish as parishioners marched through the streets of Morristown on March 9 in the 40th annual Morris County St. Patrick’s Day Parade, in which their pastor, Father Paddy O’Donovan, was honored as the parade’s grand marshal.

Bishop Serratelli celebrated Mass in the chapel of St. Joseph Regional Medical Center in Paterson on Ash Wednesday morning, March 6, where he distributed ashes to employees of the hospital to begin the holy season of Lent. Following Mass, he visited patients at the hospital in their rooms and distributed ashes to them, blessed them and prayed with them.