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Little did Cristina D’Averso-Collins realize last October when she was one of the keynote speakers at the diocese’s Critical Life Issues conference that she would return on July 1 as director of the Office of Family Life. At the conference D’Averso-Collins spoke about the “Beauty and Wisdom of God’s Design for Marriage – A Millennial’s Perspective.” “Her presentation was thought-provoking and was very well received,” stated Jennifer Ruggiero who heads the diocese’s Secretariat for Family and Pastoral Life. She added that several months later, when the director position became vacant, Cristina came to mind immediately as a possible candidate and was ultimately chosen to lead the office.

ANNANDALE - As part of this year’s spiritual preparation for the consecration of the Diocese of Metuchen to Our Lady of Guadalupe on December 12, the faithful, especially families and young people, are invited to participate in “The Way of St. Juan Diego.” The nine-mile walking pilgrimage on September 21 will begin at 10 a.m. at Immaculate Conception Parish.

PISCATAWAY — “Our Catholic faith is more valuable than any pearl, and we should be very careful not to waste it,” Father John J. Barbella reminded the boy and girl Catholic Scouts seated before him in the chapel of the St. John Neumann Pastoral Center June 25. “Instead, we should make every effort we can to live our faith fully, to learn it more completely, as many of you have done by earning your religious medals.”

There will be no issue of “The Catholic Spirit” Aug. 22 while the staff takes a brief vacation. Your next issue will be Sept. 5, the annual Back to School edition.

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, One of the cherished hallmarks of being a Christian is that we always have hope. Hope is our gift from God that proclaims there is never a situation so desperate that we would have to resort to an evil means to find a solution. This is especially true in promoting the sacredness of every human life, even when there is serious illness and suffering. In hope we can see suffering as a sign of God’s presence and love. This is why it deeply saddens me to have to write to address the reality that has taken a step into the darkness of despair by accepting as law physician-assisted suicide. 

If you were asked about the doctrine of indulgences, would you say that indulgences are something that is “old fashioned,” “outdated” or “pre-Vatican II”? In fact, indulgences are included in the Catechism as a legitimate, present-day teaching of the Church. The Catechism states: “The doctrine and practice of indulgences in the Church are closely linked to the effects of the sacrament of Penance” (ccc 1471).

This section of the Catechism provides an overview of how, though various forms of penance, interior conversion helps a person become more faithful to Christ. Ordinarily, there are at least two ways for Our Savior Jesus Christ to enter our lives. We can invite him in before a tragedy happens or when there is nowhere else to go but to him; or, he will invite himself into our lives after a tragedy happens.

I love telling the story of an experience I had in my first parish as a newly ordained priest. It happened that my sitting room was on the second floor of the rectory looking out toward the front door of the parish church across the street. Over the course of several months, a car stopped shortly after 5 p.m. in front of the church.

When I heard last month that the editors at Esquire magazine had named Pope Francis the best-dressed man of the year, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. The juxtaposition of Esquire and the pope seemed absurd on the face of it. And I suspected that Esquire, what with periodicals in general struggling to hang on to their readers, might have made a cynical decision to exploit the pope’s popularity.

A wonderful way to begin the New Year 2019 is to make a pledge to fall in love, more and more, with Jesus — present in the Eucharist! Like many, my recognition of Jesus being fully present in the Eucharist was a kind of spiritual awakening that happened to me in high school. It was the moment when I realized, not only intellectually, but emotionally and spiritually, that Jesus is indeed fully, substantially, and in every way, truly present in the Holy Eucharist.

A few weeks ago I participated in a funeral Mass for a 96-year-old woman named Harriet Colvin. Aunt Harriet, as I called her, was a longtime friend of my mother, and the last surviving member of my mom’s peer group.

“Do this in remembrance of me” (1 Cor 11:24). This passage from St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians reminds me of a banner prominently displayed in our school chapel when I was in high school. It was not a chintzy hanging with felt letters prepared freehand-style and fastened with Elmer’s glue, a familiar sort of banner that was often seen in churches in the years following the Second Vatican Council.

The actor John Ratzenberger is most widely known for the role of know-it-all bar fly Cliff Claven on the television series “Cheers.” But recently I saw Ratzenberger play a very different character in what Netflix characterized as a “faith-based movie.” Ratzenberger had the title role in “The Woodcarver,” a 2012 film shot in British Columbia.

Christmas is all about active participation in the lives of our families, friends and neighbors. We offer one another best wishes of the Christmas season as we prepare gifts, in imitation of the Magi who gave “gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh” ( Mt 2:11) to the Christ Child.

On my daily drive home from the office there is one spot where I am really on alert. It’s the half mile or so of westbound Route 22 in Bridgewater approaching the exit for southbound routes 202/206. The ramp that feeds the traffic leaving Route 22 can’t handle the volume at rush hour, so the cars back up onto the highway, sometimes a couple of dozen deep.

Most of us have heard the teaching of the Second Vatican Council that Eucharist is “the source and summit of the Christian life” (Lumen Gentium 11). What this means, as the Catechism states, is that “the other sacraments, and indeed all ecclesiastical ministries and works of the apostolate, are bound up with the Eucharist and are oriented toward it.

Rich,” according to a lyric by Hal Hackady, “is walking ’cause you want to, not because you have to.’’ That line, written for the 1970 Broadway show “Minnie’s Boys,” comes to mind often as I drive around central New Jersey — including my home county of Hunterdon which, I am told, is affluent.

This Sunday’s Gospel presents a series of Jesus’ missionary instructions to his disciples. Having himself just set out on the road to Jerusalem, Jesus must have been considering his own destiny, for these instructions stress both the urgency of proclaiming the Gospel as well as the opposition which the disciples will face.

As a high school student, I would help our parish priest during the weekdays by opening and closing the church and parish hall for special events. On one occasion, I was asked to open the church for a new group that was coming to our parish called the Charismatic Renewal.

So there I was, rummaging through a box of old photographs, looking for something to post on the Facebook page for folks who grew up in Totowa. One of the photos I found showed my father, in casual civilian clothes, standing between two younger men in uniform