‘Repent & Believe in the Gospel’

HOMEGROWN INSIGHTS  Pauline Vidulich of St. Anthony Parish, Hawthorne, is pictured reading “Repent & Believe in the Gospel,” a booklet that collects spiritual reflections for each day of the Lent-Easter season by 54 Catholics of St. Anthony’s who range from college students to senior citizens. Vidulich, a St. Anthony’s sacristan and extraordinary minister of Holy Communion, contributed a reflection for the Thursday in the Second Week of Lent on March 21.

HAWTHORNE  They come from different vocations — priests, religious sisters and laity — and have taken on different roles at St. Anthony Parish here — including lector, Catholic school principal and Bible-study participant. They use different approaches to make their points, drawing on personal experience, quoting Scripture or outlining with bullet points. Yet these people of faith, past and present members of St. Anthony’s, came together between the covers of the parish’s new booklet, “Repent & Believe in the Gospel,” offering short, individual spiritual reflections.

Distributed at St. Anthony’s on Ash Wednesday, March 6, the booklet offers the insights of 54 St. Anthony’s members who each contributed a reflection on Scripture readings for the Mass on a particular day of the Lent-Easter liturgical season — from Ash Wednesday on March 6 to Divine Mercy Sunday on April 28. These short reflections — including one by Bishop Serratelli — are accompanied by striking photos of places, such as the baptismal font, and objects, such as stained-glass windows and candles, found in and around St. Anthony Church.

For Lent last year, the Passaic County parish published its first edition of “Repent & Believe in the Gospel,” which contained different reflections and a few different photos. These two publications have enabled members of the St. Anthony’s community to minister to each other, said Msgr. Raymond Kupke, St. Anthony’s pastor, who originally devised the idea of the booklet.

“Within these pages, you will hear the unique voices of 54 members of St. Anthony’s Parish community, ranging from college students to senior citizens, parish staff and former clergy and staff,” Msgr. Kupke writes in the introduction. “Hopefully, their prayerful reflections will assist each of us to deeper prayer and reflection ourselves. I hope that the reflections might also serve as an introduction to our parish community and a deeper awareness of our ‘spiritual muscle’: the depth of faith and prayer present in our parish,” he writes.

In the introduction of “Repent & Believe in the Gospel,” Msgr. Kupke, who also contributed a reflection, tells readers, “Lent invites us to be open to the graces of spring.” He notes that the word Lent comes from “Lenten,” the Old English word for springtime. The pastor also emphasizes that the three traditional Lenten practices — prayer, fasting and almsgiving — “are all meant to soften the ‘winter’ hardness of our lives and prepare the fertile ground of our hearts to once again hear and take in the great news of the new life of Christ.”

The pages of the booklet introduce readers to Kimberly Libby, a member of St. Anthony’s Bible Study Group, who reflects on readings of the Saturday in the first week of Lent, including Matthew 5:43-48. In it, Jesus commands us to “Love your enemies and pray for those, who persecute you.” Libby quotes the passage and then makes a powerful admission in her reading of it: “It was a revelation for me to realize that we are all children of God,” as Jesus proclaims.

“Jesus is saying to have compassion for those, who are lost in anger, rage and hate. I was once lost too. Jesus is reminding me to be better than that — to choose love, where there was once hate, [and] to choose forgiveness, where there was once judgment,” Libby writes.

For Palm Sunday, April 14, Bishop Serratelli writes about Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem at the start of his last week on earth before his crucifixion. The Bishop writes that “the monuments of Babylon, the murals of Egypt and the columns of imperial Rome all depict the conquering king, riding in triumph and trampling beneath his feet his defeated foes.”

“How different the Gospel image of Jesus…By borrowing a donkey from its owner to enter Jerusalem, Jesus is actually claiming to be king,” writes Bishop Serratelli, a noted Scripture scholar, who adds that in ancient times, kings could demand any form of transportation that they wanted. In addition, the prophet Zechariah foretells of the Messiah coming “humble and riding on a donkey.” “The garments flung on the ground, the palm branches waved in the air [and] the shouts of acclamation all rightly acknowledge him as the Son of David. He is the Messiah-King, who comes not to throw off the yoke of Roman oppression as the cheering crowds expect. No! He comes to give to all people true freedom from sin. Blessed is he, who comes in the name of the Lord,” the Bishop writes.

Another contributor, Salesian Sister Marisa DeRose, who served as principal of St. Anthony School from 2007 to 2015, writes the last reflection in the booklet for Divine Mercy Sunday on April 28. She focuses on John 20:19-31, when Jesus appears to the Apostles, including a “Doubting Thomas.” At first, he refuses to believe that Jesus, who died and was buried, is alive again. But after Jesus offers proof, Thomas responds by proclaiming “My Lord and My God!” the religious sister writes.

“As we utter our own, ‘My Lord and my God,’ how many of us realize that it is our own personal contact with the Risen Lord each day and our reaching out to others in mercy and in love that will lead those around us to exclaim, ‘Seeing your good works is believing in the Risen Lord, who breathes his peace, his love and his mercy into our lives,’ ” writes Sister Marisa, now head of school at Mary Help of Christians Academy, North Haledon.

The idea for the booklet was inspired by a stop that Msgr. Kupke, who also serves as diocesan archivist, made to the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., where he saw a little book by its Catholic Campus Ministry with “homegrown” reflections from its community. Last year’s edition at St. Anthony’s was “well received,” said the priest, who showed the booklet to Bishop Serratelli last year and asked if he wanted to contribute to it. The Bishop said “yes.” Joining him on the pages of the booklet are past and current clergy, such as Father Sylwester Pierzak, parochial vicar, and Msgr. Geno Sylva, rector of the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, Paterson, and former St. Anthony’s parochial vicar.

“I wanted the booklet to cut across the spectrum of ages, genders and backgrounds to get a variety of perspectives. I’m surprised; their insights are profound,” Msgr. Kupke told The Beacon.

The booklet project also utilized the talents of other members of the St. Anthony’s community, including the parish staff; its Stewardship Committee; Father Pierzak; Judy Kopitar, the photographer; Louis Colon of LDC Design, who published the book; and Corinne Schiavo, a member of the parish choir, who served as general editor. She also wrote a reflection for the Solemnity of St. Joseph, husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary, on March 19.

“In the process of researching St. Joseph, I learned that he was revered by other saints. He is a role model for us,” Schiavo said. “All the contributors to the booklet approach the Scripture readings for their particular day in their own way, giving us their unique perspectives on their own Lenten experience, which is great,” she said.