Annual Catechesis

PATERSON  There was ceremony and solemn prayer, but also a spirited question-and-answer session as Bishop Serratelli held his annual catechesis with recent First Communicants from throughout the Paterson Diocese. More than 150 First Communicants and their families filled the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist here for the celebration on June 3, the Feast of Corpus Christi (The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ).

The children received the sacrament for the first time in May and wore their Communion finery to the event. Following a reading from the Book of John, and a short instruction, the Bishop waded into the crowd and let the eager young congregants ask him questions as dozens of hands shot up.

There were queries about how long the bishop had been a priest (50 years), and his favorite saint and Mass (the Blessed Mother and Easter), among others. The bishop told the children that his First Holy Communion was one of the happiest days of his life, and said he keeps a picture commemorating it in his dining room.

“We receive Holy Communion because Jesus wants to be so intimately united with us, he wants to dwell in our hearts,” said the Bishop, who presided over an exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, a time during which he asked the children to “talk to Jesus — heart to heart.”

The Bishop asked the children to write down two promises to Jesus and he asked their parents to pray for vocations in the Diocese, noting that eight of nine priests recently ordained at the cathedral were from outside the Diocese. He also instructed the parents to “Bring your young people to church every Sunday; let them see you pray.”

The Bishop, holding high the monstrance containing the Blessed Sacrament under an embroidered canopy, then led the First Communicants and 19 attending priests on a Eucharistic procession through the cathedral.

At the end of the event, the Bishop presented each First Communicant with a gift.

For many of the attendees, it was the first time they’d seen the 19th century neo-Gothic cathedral since it reopened in 2017 after extensive renovations. Jason and Nichole Munch from St. Matthew the Apostle in Randolph were there with their son, Matthew. Jason said the family would like to return to the cathedral for Mass. “This was really great,” he said.

“The brownstone cathedral is beautiful in its simplicity,” said Cristin Adinolfi, a religious education teacher at St. Joseph in Mendham, who was there with her son, Patrick, a First Communicant. “I told him it would be really exciting to meet the Bishop,” she said.

Indeed, after the ceremony, families lined up at the Bishop Frank J. Rodimer Center next door to the cathedral on Grand Street to take pictures with the Bishop and enjoy light refreshments. Viola Womack was there with her mother and grandmother and said she’d been eager to be chosen by the Bishop to ask him a question. Viola, from Our Lady of the Lake Parish in Sparta, asked what it took to become a priest.

About 55 parishes were represented at the catechesis, said organizer Ivannia Vega-McTighe. Families came from all corners of the Diocese, which encompasses Passaic, Morris and Sussex counties. Friends Mariana Rayo and Isabella Arca, both 9 and from St. Paul in Clifton, said they were happy to meet the Bishop and have a chance to wear their Communion outfits again, with one caveat: “My shoes are killing me!” said Isabella.

The 2018 First Communicants: