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Each year the Church gives us the beautiful “Easter Season” — the 50 days (seven weeks) when we celebrate the Joy of the Resurrection. During the Easter Season, both on Sundays and weekdays, we hear the Gospel accounts of Jesus appearing to his apostles and others after he had risen from the dead. In the First Reading at Mass during the Easter Season, we hear the story of the early Church from the Acts of the Apostles.

Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney celebrated the 5:30 p.m. Vigil Mass with concelebrating priests on May 13 in St. Mary Parish in Dover, during a visit from the Pilgrim Statue of Our Lady of Fatima from Portugal from May 10–14. During Mass, Bishop Sweeney censed the pilgrim statue and led the congregation in a consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

A noon Mass was held on May 8 in the chapel of St. Joseph’s University Medical Center in Paterson in honor of National Nurses Week, which was celebrated by Father Lazaro Perez, a St. Joseph’s chaplain. The homilist was Deacon Roberto Demetillo, St. Joseph’s nursing director.

When Father David Monteleone, pastor of St. Philip the Apostle Parish in Clifton, enters his church building and approaches the late Anthony Panzera’s crucifixion painting, he thinks two things.

Raised in a non-religious household, Taylor Lyons enjoyed the times when she attended services alongside her Catholic grandmother and cousins. As a child, she was taken by — and yearned for — the rich ceremony of Catholic liturgy: the prayers, hymns, and rituals.

Jacinta Acosta, 5, and her sister, Talitha, 2, have a favorite way of spending time with Jesus before the Blessed Sacrament in Eucharis­tic adoration — kneeling on the floor and coloring pages from a coloring book. The girls learned this unconventional worship method at the first-ever Holy Half Hour at St. Philip the Apostle Parish in Clifton on April 21.

Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney will ordain two diocesan seminarians to the transitional diaconate on Saturday, May 20, during a Mass at 10:30 a.m. in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Paterson. It’s an important step before these men are called to be ordained as priests of the diocese in 2024.

Jesus continues to “walk with us” on the journey of our lives and the journey of faith. A few weeks ago, on the third Sunday of Easter, we heard these words from Luke’s Gospel, the story of the “Road to Emmaus.” I hope that we all took the opportunity to prayerfully ask ourselves whether and how often we “invite” Jesus into our lives, as they did, with the words, “Stay with us.” We can also ask ourselves, are we truly open to “encounter” Him at Mass, as they did on their journey, both in His word, “… he interpreted to them what referred to him in all the scriptures…” and in the Eucharist, His “real presence,” as they recognized Him, “in the breaking of the bread”?

In April, Bishop Emeritus Arthur J. Serratelli confirmed those who prepared for the sacrament at Our Lady of Fatima Church in the Highland Lakes neighborhood of Vernon, N.J. He was joined by OLF Pastor Father Babu Thelappilly, Deacon Bill Aquino, and Deacon Jerzy Chciuk.

St. Peter the Apostle Parish in Parsippany hosted the Diocesan May Crowning on May 7 in the church. Children who recently received their first Holy Communion participated.

The community of the Passaic Neighborhood Center for Women in Passaic welcomed Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney to celebrate the beginning of its garden season with a harvest blessing on May 4. The bishop led prayers and songs and then blessed the garden beds with holy water. The center is a ministry of the Diocese of Paterson.

It has been an ongoing project for five years, and both the beginning and end of the process are always eagerly anticipated. Every fall, St. Anthony School of Hawthorne first graders, under the direction of the township’s Shade Tree Commission, have planted 100 daffodil bulbs for fresh, new flowerings to appear on the school grounds in the spring. The daffodils have indeed sprung in the front of the school building.

Msgr. James Mahoney has been a lifelong Cubs fan. But Sunday, the retired diocesan priest made reference to a famous quote from N.Y. Yan­kees great Lou Gehrig to sum up his 50 years in priestly ministry and in service to Cor­pus Christi Parish in Chatham Township. He declared, “I’ve been the most fortunate priest on the face of the earth.”

Pope Francis scored a “great success” with his April 28–30 visit to Hungary — a politically charged and action-packed trip to the Central European nation. So reported Father Laszlo Balogh, a Hungarian-born priest of the Paterson Diocese, who returned to his homeland to see — and hear — Pope Francis for the first time live during his three-day trip.

Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney led the diocese in thanking members of law enforcement for risking their lives to protect the public and recognized those officers who died in the line of duty at the 23rd annual Blue Mass on May 2 at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Paterson. The principal celebrant of the solemn liturgy, Bishop Sweeney, honored the bravery of the fallen heroes, whom he said “have given their lives in the service of our city and our communities in the line of duty.” During the Mass, the faithful remembered the following fallen officers: Lt. Gerard T. Barbato Sr., N.J. State Police Department; Capt. Paul Jamolawicz and Sgt. Robert Skalski, both of the Bayonne Police Department; S/Off. Jacqueline Montanaro, U.S. Homeland Security CBP; Capt. Jeffery S. O’Brien, Woodland Park Police Department; and Sr. P.O. Daniel Sincavage and Sr. P.O. Robert McCormack, both of the N.J. Department of Corrections.

he faith community of Christ the King Parish in the New Vernon neighborhood of Harding Township welcomed Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney on April 25. There, the bishop presided over the 7 p.m. Mass and administered the sacrament of confirmation to 26 young people of the parish.

Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney, on April 28, visited St. Clement Pope & Martyr Parish in Rockway Township, where he presided over the 7 p.m. Mass. There, he administered the sacrament of confirmation to 28 young people of the parish. Concelebrating the Mass with Bishop Sweeney was Father Giovanni Rodriguez, St. Clement’s pastor.

Father Ricardo Ortega, the pastor of Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish in Wayne, has continued a worthwhile appointment started and kept by his predecessors. On the first and last Tuesday of each month, he celebrates at 10 a.m. Mass for residents and short-term rehabilitation patients in the dining room at Excelcare at Wayne.

Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney marked the 60th annual World Day of Prayer for Vocations by inviting two young priests from the Diocese of Paterson to join him for a down-to-earth-discussion about their own discernment to the priesthood, the people who influenced them and what it is like being a priest.

Msgr. Geno Sylva said he was surprised and honored by the news of his Vatican appointment to the Dicastery for Evangelization at the Vatican. Msgr. Sylva is the rector of the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Paterson and the diocesan episcopal vicar for special projects.