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Article 129 - Catechism of the Catholic Church Series Paragraphs 1691-1698 As a small child, do you remember learning to pray to your guardian angel? Perhaps you remember your mother teaching you that your guardian angel helped keep you from hurting your soul by sin. Perhaps you remember her telling you that your guardian angel helped steer you away from sin. Perhaps you remember her telling you that your guardian angel helped you understand what God wants. Perhaps you remember the little prayer to your guardian angel ...

On this feast, it is good for us to visualize the real humanity of the only woman conceived without sin. If we look, for example, at the Joyful Mysteries of the rosary, we will find five portraits of a woman in whose image any action hero pales.

FORDS — The wet weather did little to dampen spirits of the faithful who filled Our Lady of Peace Church Oct. 27 for a Mass celebrating the parish’s 100th anniversary. Bishop James F. Checchio presided at the liturgy together with 20 concelebrating priests and assisting deacons.

NORTH BRUNSWICK — The familiar words of the Nicene Creed took on an extra dimension for the congregation at Mass Nov. 2 at Our Lady of Peace Church, when Bishop James F. Checchio installed Father Michael G. Krull as the third pastor of Our Lady of Peace Parish.

NEW BRUNSWICK — “Choices do matter,” declared Bishop James F. Checchio Nov. 2 at St. Peter the Apostle University and Community Church. “We choose heaven by accepting God’s grace in our lives. By living that grace, sharing that grace with others, we make heaven seen on earth.”

METUCHEN — “This has become one of my favorite gatherings of the year,” declared Bishop James F. Checchio at the Oct. 27 Silver and Gold Wedding Anniversary Prayer Service at the Cathedral of St. Francis of Assisi. “We thank you for your faithful witness to married love in a world so much in need.”

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, This will be a Thanksgiving Day I won't soon forget. On Thanksgiving morning, the bishops of Pennsylvania and New Jersey will be meeting with Pope Francis. Certainly, being your bishop is one of the things I am most grateful for, so it will be an appropriate way to spend Thanksgiving Day and I can thank the person who sent me here to you, Pope Francis.

Article 128 - Catechism of the Catholic Church Series Paragraphs 1680-1690 The most beautiful legacy my father left to his family is that he taught us how to live and he taught us how to die. During his lifetime, the words my dad spoke to us, and the example he set, were a perpetual lesson in how to live virtuously. Throughout his life, though deaf from the age of 21 and blind in the years before the end of his life, having battled years of sickness due to tuberculosis and many major surgeries that included the removal of a kidney and lung coupled with cancer and heart disease, my dad never thought of himself as disabled or needy, or otherwise less blessed by God.

As the leaves change color and the air turns crisp, we look forward to the Thanksgiving Holiday, a day of feasting, football and family and a time for us to give thanks for the many blessings we share. Sadly, more than 40 million Americans live in poverty and are not able to afford basic necessities, including housing, utilities, food, clothing and healthcare, let alone Thanksgiving dinner. Last year, in the United States, one of the world’s richest countries, one in every six children lived in poverty and the poverty rate among seniors was near 10 percent.

METUCHEN — “Do you realize that you are part of God’s plan to restore the order that was lost?” Bishop James F. Checchio asked the hundreds of law enforcement personnel gathered in the Cathedral of St. Francis of Assisi Oct. 17 for the 18th annual diocesan Blue Mass. “He has called you to cooperate with Him to help answer people’s need for protection and help, especially in times of great turmoil and chaos.”

METUCHEN – Young Catholics from the diocese were reminded that they can have an impact on the lives of others, whether it is at their school or for children thousands of miles away, at the diocese’s annual observance of World Mission Sunday.

For three days in late October, 78 pilgrims from the Diocese of Metuchen, led by Bishop James F. Checchio, went on a spiritual journey to Mexico. The pilgrimage was in preparation for the diocese’s consecration to Jesus through Our Lady of Guadalupe on Dec. 12, her feast day.

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, As we enter this final month of preparation in our year of awakening before consecrating our diocese to Jesus through Our Lady of Guadalupe, I want to share with you my opening homily from our pilgrimage to her shrine in Mexico City. I think it applies to all of us and can help us all prepare for the graces Mary wants to share with us:

As we approach the conclusion of the liturgical year, our readings place increasing emphasis on the end of our earthly lives and the end of time. Both our first reading and Gospel this Sunday, in fact, speak of our chief hope -- that we may continue to live eternally with Christ Jesus in heaven. We take heart in Jesus’ promise that God “is not God of the dead but of the living, for to him all are alive” (Lk 20:38).

Recently, the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) reported that suicide rates among American teenagers increased by an alarming 56 percent in the last 10 years. Sadly, suicide is now the second-leading cause of death among Americans ages 10 to 24 and is considered a public health crisis.

NEW BRUNSWICK — “Thanks for giving the witness some of you have done for decades,” said Msgr. Joseph J. Kerrigan to the medical personnel and supporters of Catholic Charities, Diocese of Metuchen, seated before him. “Let’s use this gathering … as a catapult for the next chapter.”

SPRING LAKE — Each year the priests of the diocese gather with their shepherd, Bishop James F. Checchio, for three days of prayer, celebration, study and fellowship. The convocation provides them an opportunity to step away from their daily life and activities in their parishes and ministries, and to spend time with the Lord and each other.

I recently heard a marketing expert explain how Halloween is one of the biggest consumer holidays of the calendar year. Many people love this day and decorate for it a month or more in advance of Oct. 31. In fact, it seems that, apart from Christmas, Americans spend more money on Halloween, tricks and treats, decorations and costumes, than any other holiday. Why this fascination with zombies (bodies without souls), ghosts (souls without bodies), tombstones, witches, wizards, monsters, animated pumpkins and scarecrows? Some sociologists allege that the reason for America’s growing fascination with the macabre, the occult and the dead is rooted in the erroneous notion that Halloween is a secular holiday. It is divorced from anything to do with family life, race, creed or sexual orientation. Nothing could be further from the truth, at least the part that asserts Halloween is a purely secular holiday. Perhaps in some circles, this is true but not the origins of Halloween, which takes us back more than 2,000 years ago to a tribe called the “Celts” that inhabited all of Ireland, most of the British Isles and part of France. The Celts celebrated the beginning of the new year on Nov. 1. This day symbolized the end of summer and the onset of winter. It was the time of the harvest. Celts believed that on New Year’s Eve, Oct. 31, the ghosts of the dead could roam the land from sundown on Oct. 31 until sunrise on Nov. 1. On Samhain, as this night was called, it was believed that the ghosts of the dead would rise from their graves, cause pranks and possibly ruin the harvest. To ward off these annoying spirits, the Celts wore costumes, usually made of animal heads and skins. They built a bonfire and paraded around the cemeteries of their dead until sunrise on Nov. 1.

Article 127 - Catechism of the Catholic Church Series Paragraphs 1667-1676 For most Catholic families, the grueling task of cleaning out the family home following the death of one’s parents or grandparents includes years of accumulated paperwork, some collectables, bric-a-brac and, of course, sacrament certificates, medals, rosary beads, crucifixes, statues of countless saints (including every possible variation of Mary), relics, water from Lourdes, Fatima, etc., and blessed oil in honor of St. Anne, St. Joseph, St. Jude, and St. Peregrine.

While shepherding a diocese calls for the commitment of bishop, clergy, religious and the lay faithful, Church theology and the law of the Church teaches that the priests of the diocese are the primary collaborators of the bishop in his role as Chief Shepherd. So, during my past three and a half years here in Metuchen, I have come to know our priests and have grown to love and admire them.