Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
May is such a wonderful month! The days are getting longer and warmer. I welcome this, especially for my morning walks. Flowers and lawns are renewed, adding beauty to our neighborhoods, too. We are getting ready for graduations of all kinds. Ordinations take place and so many of our children receive their first Holy Communion this month.
Of course, May is a month when we honor our Blessed Mother, so that adds a warmth and joy to the month, too. As I visit our parishes and schools, so many have had May crownings and I see the Blessed Mother placed in a prominent spot in the sanctuary with her crown! It is an opportunity for us to pray the Rosary more often and try to emulate more closely our Blessed Mother’s virtuous example for us. How blessed we are to have a dear, loving and intimate intercessor to watch over us. What would we do without having her to turn to so often?
During the month of May, my own prayer life is boosted through participation in Confirmations for our youth almost every evening during the week. It is such a joy to go around to different parishes each evening for Mass and to confirm and visit with our youth. I cannot fit them all in during this month since we have 90 parishes, so we usually start in March or so, and do some in the fall, too, but I think May is the most popular month requested. We have about 3500 8th or 9th graders confirmed each year! This is a powerful movement of the Holy Spirit.
How grateful I am to the many wonderful parish catechetical leaders and catechists in our religious education programs and Catholic schools who prepare our youth for this important sacrament which fully initiates them into our Church having already received Baptism and the Holy Eucharist. Thanks also to their parents, sponsors, and parish priests, deacons and religious who help and encourage them to prepare for this sacrament, too.
When they are confirmed, they are sent out to witness to Jesus in a world so in need of that witness. Of course, all of us are called to be witnesses. Jesus gave us the Sacrament of Confirmation to strengthen us to witness just as He did for the Apostles in that Upper Room in Jerusalem. We were all reminded of this when we celebrated Pentecost on May 19 this month. We each received the very same Spirit as the Apostles did at Pentecost who instructs us and reminds us of all that Jesus said and did.
The Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness and makes intercedes for us. What a gift from God, and how we need the help of the Holy Spirit to sustain us, to teach us, to lead us and even pray for us. Pentecost reminds us to stay in close contact with the Holy Spirit through our daily prayer, so He can lead us and teach us to make the right choices in life. Yes, the Holy Spirit protects us, too, even as He makes us bold in being a witness to Jesus.
Please join me in praying for the youth of our Diocese, especially those receiving the Holy Spirit at Confirmation this year. And prayerfully invite the Holy Spirit to fill you with His presence each day, too, a simple reminder and prayer as we begin the day, “Come Holy Spirit!” The Holy Spirit will act in our lives and in our world if we open our hearts to Him more fully; we have been promised that. We just have to give Him permission.
Enjoy this beautiful spring season and longer, warmer days, and know that I will be praying for you, too, and all in our beautiful Diocese, that we may each help to renew the face of the earth though the witness we give to Jesus in our daily lives. Thank you, too, for praying for me, which I appreciate and need. Know of my love and gratitude for you and God bless you all.
Most Reverend James F. Checchio, JCD, MBA
Bishop of Metuchen