Each year the Church gives us the beautiful “Easter Season” — the 50 days (seven weeks) when we celebrate the Joy of the Resurrection. During the Easter Season, both on Sundays and weekdays, we hear the Gospel accounts of Jesus appearing to his apostles and others after he had risen from the dead. In the First Reading at Mass during the Easter Season, we hear the story of the early Church from the Acts of the Apostles.

Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney celebrated the 5:30 p.m. Vigil Mass with concelebrating priests on May 13 in St. Mary Parish in Dover, during a visit from the Pilgrim Statue of Our Lady of Fatima from Portugal from May 10–14. During Mass, Bishop Sweeney censed the pilgrim statue and led the congregation in a consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

A noon Mass was held on May 8 in the chapel of St. Joseph’s University Medical Center in Paterson in honor of National Nurses Week, which was celebrated by Father Lazaro Perez, a St. Joseph’s chaplain. The homilist was Deacon Roberto Demetillo, St. Joseph’s nursing director.