More Good News

Young people at St. Monica Church in Sussex received the Sacrament of Confirmation from Bishop Serratelli during his pastoral visit to the parish June 27 where he also celebrated the vigil Mass marking the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Bishop Serratelli made his final pastoral visit to St. Lawrence the Martyr Parish in Chester June 28 where he celebrated Mass for the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

On a wing and a prayer, Father Javier Bareño hedged his bets and bought a ticket for a June 14 flight from Colombia to Miami that he was not sure he would be allowed to board. For several weeks prior, Father Bareño had been longing to return to New Jersey where the diocesan priest serves as a parochial vicar of Our Lady of the Moun­tain (OLM) and St. Mark the Evan­gelist parishes, both in Long Valley.

We were just in the midst of a Paterson liturgical extravaganza: Wednesday, June 24 was the diocesan patronal feast, the Solemnity of the Birth of St. John the Baptist; the following day was the liturgical commemoration of the rededication of the diocesan Cathedral; and yesterday, July 1, was the Episcopal Ordination and Installation of Paterson’s eighth bishop, the Most Rev. Kevin J. Sweeney! All this and COVID-19 too!

On Good Friday, Father Leonardo Jaramillo, pastor of St. Paul Church in Clifton, said he experienced a miracle. In great pain as he struggled to breathe suffering from the coronavirus, he thought that evening would be his last on earth. He even accepted the fact that if death came to his door, it was his time to return home to God. Instead, the Colombian-born priest believes he received God’s mercy and that allowed him to survive that night.