News - December 2014 RSS Feed

Advent — our season of waiting — is done. The good news from Bethlehem this day is announced once again to the world. The story of the Nativity is framed in our memory — timeless yet timely — so strikingly familiar to the headlines we read today, it could make the front page.

[The well-respected Northern Italian artist Lorenzo Lotto painted this engaging picture of the Birth of Jesus. Signed and dated in 1523 by the artist himself, this oil painting is on display at the Pinacoteca Nazionale in Siena, Italy. The small, interpretative details of this High Renais­sance Nativity scene set it apart from others and open a way to look at the birth of Jesus with the eyes of faith.]

“The point is this: he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must do as he has made up his mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. (2 Cor 9:6-7)” While Advent is a time of waiting for the birth of the Christ Child, it is also a time for being a cheerful giver to those who are struggling.

Tucked away almost at the very end of the Old Testament is one of the shortest books of the Sacred Scripture. It is the prophetic book of Haggai. It consists of only two chapters. Yet, its importance far exceeds its brevity.

At Masses this weekend across the diocese, the annual collection for the Retirement Fund for Religious will be taken up.

DOVER On Dec. 8, 1984, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, the Mary Queen of All Nations Missionary Alliance was born at meeting that drew just four volunteers who wanted to help the poor in the Philippines and India. Within six months, the organization had helped the poorest of the poor in eight countries. And for the past three decades, it has helped the poor in more than 40 countries in four continents – Africa, South America, Asia and Europe. For its outreach to the poor worldwide, the alliance was honored last Sunday at a dinner at Madison Hotel in Morristown.

Faithful fill St. Peter the Apostle Church for annual diocesan Christmas concert. The concert featured the diocesan choir directed by Preston Dibble  and new this year  the diocesan children’s choir, directed by Christine Wilson and Dibble. Accompaniment was provided by Vincent Carr, organist/pianist and the Madison Brass Quintet.

CLIFTON — Bishop Serratelli is inviting the faithful everywhere to visit the diocese’s new website — launched Dec. 8, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception — that gives the Church of Paterson’s presence online a significant new way to more effectively evangelize. In a video on its home page, Bishop Serratelli welcomes visitors to the site (www.rcdop.org), encourages them to explore it, to come back often and let the diocese know what they think about it. “I am very pleased with the results. I know you will be too,” says Bishop Serratelli

The story in Scripture about the wedding at Cana recounts the first miracle that Jesus ever performed — that very act of turning water into wine, which marks the start of his public ministry. But for Catholics, this Gospel account also shows the Blessed Mother as a model of faith, who helped bring about the miracle — and by extension, our salvation — by simply asking Jesus, based on her unshakable belief that Jesus as the Messiah could make it happen.

In an interview Nov. 28 with the Orthodox Christian Network, the Rev. Canon Andrew White, “the Vicar of Bagdad,” told how ISIS fighters threatened four Iraqi Christian children, each under 15-years-old

We’ve commented before on how the secular media is a big fan of what Pope Francis says. But we hasten to add, that’s only the case when it suits their agenda. When his words don’t meet their criteria on hot-button issues, they bite their collective tongues and the words fall on deaf ears.

CLIFTON — Catholics schools in the U.S. continue to face serious challenges, but Catholic education in the Paterson Diocese and elsewhere still deserves enthusiastic and generous support, because of the vital role that it plays in the religious formation of young disciples and in inspiring them to spread the “Good News” of the Gospel — all while providing quality academics.

Marketing experts have discovered that consumers quickly read a headline before delving into the advertisement of a product. The headline has to capture their attention. If not, the readers go no further. Based on the results of their research, experts have found that we instinctively respond to certain words used in advertising.

In 1843, Sir Henry Cole, a civil servant in London, found himself too busy to sit down and write the customary Christmas greetings to his family and friends. So he asked the British painter John Callcott Horsley to design a card with an image and greeting to send instead. That first Christmas card has spawned an industry that produces more than 2 billion Christmas cards each year in America alone.