CONVENT STATION In the future, could the Church expect to canonize a St. Nick of Sparta?
Maybe — or maybe not — but Nick Ventresca, 15, of St. Kateri Tekakwitha Parish in Sparta at least started thinking about becoming an “everyday saint” in his own life on Sept. 22, during a Diocesan Youth Pilgrimage to the shrine of Blessed Miriam Teresa Demjanovich’s in Holy Family Chapel on the campus of the College of St. Elizabeth here. On Sunday afternoon, he joined more than 200 high-school teens from around the Diocese, along with Bishop Serratelli, for the pilgrimage to learn about Blessed Miriam Teresa, a “Jersey girl,” who studied and made vows as a Sister of Charity of St. Elizabeth here before her death at 26 in 1927. Loud and clear, these teens and their adult chaperones heard the beloved religious sister’s universal call that everyone should strive to be holy, regardless of age or state in life — like she did.
The pilgrimage — the first of its kind in the Diocese — began at 2 p.m. with a rally at St. Paul Inside the Walls: the Diocesan Evangelization Center at Bayley-Ellard in Madison that kept the teens engaged with faith-filled music and games, led by the New Jersey-based Fiat Ventures Ministry & Media Solutions. Then, under sunny skies, the teens from Catholic high schools and parishes in the Diocese walked for 30 minutes on a nearly 1.5-mile path from Madison to Holy Family Chapel in Convent Station.
“This was a good experience. Today, I got to come to such a beautiful — and prominent — church that is different that St. Kateri’s,” Ventresca said. During the walk, his parish group prayed the Divine Mercy Chaplet and reflected on their lives through the lens of faith. “It’s interesting to see many other young Catholics here from all over. That has strengthened my faith. I also didn’t know about the short lifespan of Blessed Miriam Teresa. I don’t think I’ll ever be a saint but this [pilgrimage] has opened my eyes to doing things in my daily life to get closer to God,” he said.
While entering Holy Family Chapel, many of the teens gasped at the sheer majesty and sanctity of the worship space, which is much larger than most churches in the Diocese. Here, they listened to Msgr. Raymond Kupke, pastor of St. Anthony Parish in Hawthorne and diocesan archivist, give a presentation on the life and holiness of Blessed Miriam Teresa. Then, they had time to tour the chapel, praying at the crypt that holds her remains and visiting a room that displays artifacts from her life. Bishop Serratelli addressed the teens at the rally in Madison, walked with them and closed the event at 5 p.m. by serving as the main celebrant and homilist of a Mass, concelebrated by several diocesan priests in Convent Station.
In his homily, Bishop Serratelli called shrines like the one for Blessed Miriam Teresa “places of rest” on our journey through life that help “renew our strength.” They also serve as “places of the memory of God’s powerful activity in our history,” the Bishop said.
“We come here to rest from our labors and to recall the intervention of God in our time and place. We celebrate when God chose a very young girl and through prayer and the performance of ordinary things with extraordinary charity, made her into a saint. Here, we remember what she taught: that, to be a saint, is simply to do God’s will with all our might. Today, Christ meets us in these hollowed halls. He is present as we honor Blessed Miriam Teresa. Christ is here through the example of her life, the inspiration of her teaching and the intercession of her prayer. He is most especially here in the Eucharist,” he said.
Sister of Charity Mary Canavan, vice postulator of Blessed Miriam Teresa’s cause for sainthood, welcomed the pilgrims to St. Elizabeth’s campus. Msgr. Kupke spoke about the reason for the pilgrimage: a visit to the tomb of the only person from New Jersey to be beatified by the Church. Blessed Miriam Teresa only served for two years in religious life, before she died of an illness on May 28, 1927 — “a short life but a holy life.” Because of her saintly life, her striving for perfection as a religious sister, her spiritual writings and favors received by others after her death through her intercession, the Sisters of Charity opened her cause for sainthood. She was beatified in 2014 in Sacred Heart Basilica, Newark, after a miracle, the curing of the blindness of an eight-year-old, Michael Mencer, in 1964, was attributed to her, said Msgr. Kupke.
In his talk, Msgr. Kupke asked the young people to consider the following four aspects of Blessed Miriam Teresa’s life. They are: that she was a “Jersey person,” like many of the young people that day, who lived a life of holiness; that she died young, reminding them to focus on the important things in life and respond to God’s call; that she had “terrible eyesight but had great spiritual sight,” which can help them keep their “spiritual vision sharp and clear;” and that she maintained “spiritual friendships” with saints, inviting us to pray to our patron saint and become “holy friends for others,” the priest said.
Afterward, pilgrims prayed at Blessed Miriam Teresa’s crypt to one side of the church and visited a room to one side of the altar that tells her story. Sister Mary called the pilgrimage, which the Sisters of Charity helped coordinate, an opportunity to “appreciate for the role models that the Church gives us, like Blessed Miriam Teresa. We are all called to be holy.” Students of the Academy of St. Elizabeth greeted pilgrims and assisted with the Mass.
At the end of the Mass, Father Pawel Tomczyk, diocesan director of the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults and Youth Ministry, thanked everyone who helped coordinate the event, including St. Paul’s staff, and the participating pilgrims, telling them, “God remembers the good that you do.” Then, Bishop Serratelli blessed participants and their families with a first-class relic of Blessed Miriam Teresa.
Before the Mass, Celine Hansen, 15, of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish, Swartswood, told The Beacon that she “learned a lot” on the pilgrimage.
“I didn’t know about the miracle [attributed to Blessed Miriam Teresa’s intercession]. That helped strengthen my faith,” Hansen said.