Lent, Holy Week, Easter

The sun shone brightly on faithful from around the Diocese as thousands gathered on Easter Sunday to celebrate the Resurrection of the Lord.

In two of the Diocese’s parishes – St. Joan of Arc, Marlton, and St. Isidore the Farmer, New Egypt – faith, new life and a sense of community was at the forefront of Easter messages.

VATICAN CITY – On Easter Monday, Pope Francis led thousands of people in St. Peter's Square in praying for the hundreds of people who died or were injured in bomb blasts the previous day in Sri Lanka.

Pope Francis had already condemned the bombings and offered prayers April 21 after celebrating Easter morning Mass.

Churches across the Diocese assumed the look of a starry night during Easter Vigil Masses April 20 as candles held by thousands of faithful shone in the dark.

“This is the night,” faithful in Trenton’s nearly filled St. Mary of the Assumption Cathedral heard as the “Exsultet,” or Easter Proclamation, was chanted. Only moments before, Bishop David O’Connell, C.M., had lit and blessed a new fire from which the newly marked Paschal candle, symbolizing Christ, the Light of the World, would process down the aisle, lighting parishioners’ candles along the way.

Daylight was quickly turning to dusk as faithful from around the Diocese entered a dimly lit and reverently quiet St. Catharine Church, Spring Lake, the evening of April 17.

Gathered for the celebration of a Tenebrae, the congregants were led in a meditation service on the Passion and Death and Resurrection of Jesus. 

Fran Thompson was exuberant as she described witnessing for the first time the sacred traditions of the annual Chrism Mass.

“It was nothing like what I expected. It was just beautiful. You have to see it to believe it.  You have to experience it,” the St. Mary Parish, Barnegat, parishioner said. “I’m bringing my husband next year.”

“But what about Peter?” my son DeForeest asked as we returned from Easter Vigil Mass many years ago.

I’d started telling him about Jesus from the time he began to talk. By the age of three, he was familiar with the Gospel and showed interest in its supporting cast. I sometimes aided his imagination with occasional vocal characterizations for the various apostles, Pharisees, centurions and townsfolk who wander in and out of Scripture.