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Bishop Serratelli made a pastoral visit to St. Paul Church in Clifton where he celebrated the vigil Mass for Palm Sunday on April 13. During the Mass, palms were blessed by the Bishop to mark Jesus triumphant entry into Jerusalem. Palm Sunday begins Holy Week.

Bishop Serratelli served as main celebrant and homilist of Mass on Palm Sunday April 14 in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Paterson. Palm Sunday commemorates the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem when palm branches were placed in his path, before his arrest on Holy Thursday and his crucifixion on Good Friday.

Long before starting her new position as coordinator of faith and leadership formation for the diocesan Office of Hispanic Ministry in Madison, Maria Moncaleano of St. Anthony of Padua Parish in Passaic had been serving as a “missionary disciple” of Christ through a series professional and volunteer leadership experiences in her home parish, in the Diocese and beyond. Over the past two years, she has been instrumental in helping to guide the Diocese through V Encuentro — part of a four-year process to revitalize Hispanic Ministry in the U.S.

The diocesan Office of Hispanic Ministry has wasted little time in addressing the five pastoral priorities for serving the ever-growing Spanish-speaking population in the Church of Paterson that were selected during a diocesan gathering last year of 400 delegates from Hispanic ministries in 32 parishes. The gathering was part of V Encuentro — a four-year process to help revitalize Hispanic ministry in the U.S. Their priorities for the Diocese focused on the areas of social assistance, faith formation, marriage and family life, youth and young adults and the Office of Hispanic Ministry.

Picture being in a packed baseball stadium with fans cheering. It’s the bottom of the ninth. Two outs. The bases are loaded. Zach Drexler steps up to home plate with a bat in his hands ready to deliver a hit to win the game. The 30-year-old Drexler said that’s how he looks at his life, like a baseball game. “My life and the decisions I make are in my hands alone,” he said.

Today begins the most solemn and holiest days on the liturgical calendar of the Roman Catholic Church. With the beginning of the Mass of the Lord’s Supper tonight, the Church enters into the Sacred Triduum. The Triduum concludes with Evening Prayer on Easter Sunday. On Holy Thursday, the Mass of the Lord’s Supper relives the institution of the Eucharist and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass at the Last Supper, as well as the institution of the priesthood, which took place the evening before Jesus was crucified.

Bishop Serratelli made a pastoral visit to St. Francis DeSales Parish in the McAfee section of Vernon April 6 where he celebrated the vigil Mass for the Fifth Sunday of Lent. During the Mass, the Bishop administered the Sacrament of Confirmation to young people of the parish. The Bishop also named Father Christopher Barkhausen as pastor of St. Francis. He was serving the parish as its administrator.

Bishop Serratelli made a pastoral visit to St. Mary Church in Denville April 7 where he celebrated Mass for the Fifth Sunday of Lent. During the Mass, he also administered the Sacrament of Confirmation to young people of the parish.

Does your prayer life leave you frustrated — feeling like you should be getting more out of the holy experience of communicating with God, like you should be devoting more time to it or like you are going about it wrong? If so, then let Michael St. Pierre, executive director of the Catholic Campus Ministry Association, become your “prayer coach” and put his years of expertise in workplace and personal time management, productivity and performance to work in your spiritual life.

The faithful kneel in prayer as they experience Christ’s love and mercy in the Blessed Sacrament in front of them on the altar at the start of a recent holy hour dedicated to Divine Mercy. They also listen to Jesus’ message of love and mercy, as Derek Nelson, leader of the service, softly sings his song “My Mercy” — written as if Christ were sitting in the pews next to them and inviting them to receive his infinite forgiveness.

She was born and raised in New Jersey. She was the youngest of seven children. She came from an immigrant family. She attended a public school. Many teens in the Diocese can claim this background. But it was also the background of Blessed Miriam Teresa Demjanovich. On Sunday, May 5, high school teens from around the Diocese are being invited to a youth pilgrimage to Blessed Miriam Teresa Demjanovich’s shrine in Holy Family Chapel, on the campus of the College of St. Elizabeth in Convent Station.

In the Old City of Jerusalem, tradition holds that the Via Dolorosa (The Way of Sorrows) was the path that Jesus had to follow carrying his cross on his way to his crucifixion on Golgatha. For many years on Good Friday, the tradition for the parishioners of the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist is to present a live re-enactment of Christ’s sorrowful journey on the Via Dolorosa to Calvary through the Living Stations of the Cross along the streets of the city.

Our religious freedom in this nation is firmly rooted in the First Amendment. Yet, some elected officials continually try to throw dirt on our religious freedom in an attempt to bury it, once and for all, in our increasingly progressive secular society. We witnessed it recently during the Senate Judiciary Committee’s review of Brian Buescher, a Knight of Columbus, for a judgeship on the U.S. District Court as two Democrat Senators Mazie Hirono and Kamala Harris, questioned Buescher’s membership in the Knights of Columbus. They accused this fraternal organization of having “taken a number of extreme positions.”

Bishop Serratelli made a pastoral visit to St. Christopher Parish in Parsippany where he celebrated Mass March 31 for the Fourth Sunday of Lent, which is also known as Laetare Sunday. On Laetare Sunday, vestments worn by clergy members are rose colored to signify the coming joy of Easter Sunday on April 21. Laetare comes from the Latin, which means “to rejoice.”

At El Mundo del Nino at the Father English Center in Paterson, a group of preschool-age children were learning about the place where airplanes depart and arrive. “Where do you go to take an airplane?” the teacher asked. “At the airport,” the children answered, in great excitement at knowing the answer. These children, who come from a diversity of backgrounds — Hispanic, African American and Arab American — most of whom live in low-income households in the city, may have never flown on a plane or never even stepped foot in an airport but they’re learning about the great big world around them because of their dedicated teachers.

When it comes to theater in this area and in New Jersey, the Pope John Players have always been recognized as one of the best high school theater groups to hit the stage. The Pope John Players will look to become one of the top theater groups outside of New Jersey as they perform at the 51st Student Theater Festival at the Bucks County Playhouse in New Hope, Pa.

On March 26 — final night of a three-night retreat — the faithful in attendance listened as Bishop Serratelli reflect on Mark 1:40-45: the account of Jesus miraculously healing the leper, initially motivated by his compassion for the suffering of all people. He reaches out his hand, touches the man and replies to him, “I am willing. Be clean!” At that moment, the leper is cleansed of the horrible and hated disease. The Bishop said Mark uses the disease of leprosy to dramatize the effect of sin in our lives — cutting us off from God others — but also emphasizes the “unquenchable desire” of Jesus to heal us “mind and body” but most importantly of spirit — to forgive us of our sins.

Parishioners of Our Lady of Consolation (OLC) in Wayne welcomed Bishop Serratelli on his pastoral visit to the parish March 30 where he celebrated the vigil Mass for the Fourth Sunday of Lent. The Mass marked Laetare Sunday. On the Fourth Sunday of Lent, the introductory word of the Introit is laetare, “Rejoice O Jerusalem” and rose vestments are worn.

“With great power” sounds like the fantastic beginning of a great superhero story. Instead, at a Confirmation retreat for seventh to 10th graders at St. James the Marches Parish in Totowa, it meant something much more meaningful. It signified the Holy Spirit, who would come upon the candidates on their Confirmation day. Some 88 youths heard this message from the National Evangelization Team (NET), a ministry of young adults, who travel throughout the country for nine months to share the Gospel message with youths.

Catholics everywhere, strive to be all you can be as people of faith this Lent by, among other things, getting more into the habit being generous — big-hearted like the late Albert Lexie, a shoeshine man who became a hero to UMPC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. On March 30, Allen Hunt of the Dynamic Catholic Institute visited St. Virgil Parish in Morris Plains to talk, in part, about Lexie, who he said lived out one of the four important habits — generosity — that all Catholics should adopt to become their best selves.