On Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14, Bishop James F. Checchio made a pastoral visit to the Carmel of Mary Immaculate and St. Mary Magdalen, Flemington, where he presided at a Mass in the chapel. After Mass, the bishop spoke to members of the order, including, from left: Sister Talitha of the Trinity and Sister Teresa of Divine Mercy, who are Junior Professed or have made a temporary profession of vows. The bishop regularly encourages young Catholics especially to consider a vocation to the priesthood or consecrated life such as the Carmelites, who, according to their website, “follow the ideal of life established by St. Teresa of Avila to support the Church by their contemplative lives of prayer. Their loving fidelity to the Magisterium is lived out in the cloister where prayer, solitude and the common life in a Marian spirit nourish an apostolic zeal.”