Bishop David M. O’Connell, C.M., issued instructions for the reopening of churches in the Diocese of Trenton for private prayer only, following all public health guidelines. The reopening may happen as early as May 13, the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima, or once pastors determine they can safely do so.

Thus, this morning, the first Saturday of the month of May, on behalf of our faith community of St. Ann, I crowned the image of our Blessed Mother whom we acclaim as Queen and as Mother of the Church. Let us in this whole month of May pray that through her intercession

He is Risen, Alleluia! This weekend is the Second Sunday of Easter, which is also the day we celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday. The church emphasizes today the magnitude of God’s love and His boundless mercy.

Easter has always entailed choices. People always had to make a decision whether to believe or not to believe. The good news is that even if our first impulse, like Thomas’, is to disbelieve, if we give it a chance, if we are open, just like the sign, we can revise our reading.

Good morning! It's now Holy Saturday, a quiet day that is given us to pray and reflect on the mystery of Christ's suffering and death while we await for His resurrection.

Our Holy Week journal continues.  Good Friday: The Six Trials of Jesus As we now know, Jesus was arrested by around 12 midnight. Judas Iscariot led the Jewish leaders and the soldiers to the garden of Gethsemane where Jesus was praying after the Last Supper.  Upon the arrest of Jesus, most of the disciples flee for fear of the Jews. Peter and John secretly followed Jesus.

Blessed Holy Thursday to you! I am writing this early morning to send you a beautiful note that could be of great help to you to make this Holy Thursday holier and fruitful. 

May the peace of Christ crucified be with you and your family. We continue on our journal of Jesus’ last days here on earth. As we have learned, Holy Tuesday was a grueling and tiresome day for Jesus. He spent the whole day in the temple teaching and preaching to His followers.

Holy Tuesday Waking up early morning, Jesus started his two-mile walk back to Jerusalem. His intent was to go back to the temple. He wanted to go there maybe to check if the business people, the merchants, money changers, robbers and thieves were back. He was on a mission to spend the whole day in the temple.

May the Blessed peace of Christ crucified be with you and your whole family! During the Holy Week, the Church accentuates a very essential doctrine of our faith, which is the Paschal Mystery: the Passion, Death and Resurrection of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Tomorrow is already Palm Sunday and Easter is, therefore, almost here. As we all know, before Easter we first have to go through the Holy Week. Christ first agonizes in the garden, is betrayed, shares the last supper, is given the crown of thorns, is beaten, humiliated, carries the cross, is crucified and dies… to give us Easter.

I hope that everyone is keeping safe and in comfort with the Lord.  I am sending you this newsletter today to encourage you to watch, participate and be one with the Holy Father, Pope Francis, as he imparts tomorrow a very special blessing " Urbi et Orbi".  Urbi et Orbi is a Latin phrase which is translated: “to the city and the world”. The pope imparts this special blessing usually at Christmas and Easter from the Basilica of St. Peter’s to the city (the Vatican City) and to the world. The “ Urbi et Orbi” blessing offers plenary indulgence, forgiveness of sins to all the faithful who are present and those who are attending through electronic media.

It is good to know that many of you are happy receiving my emails and extremely appreciative, especially the recorded streaming of the concelebrated Mass of Bishop David O’Connell in our very own church in St. Ann last week. Well, you should be excited because you are going to have another concelebrated Mass this Sunday, the 5th Sunday of Lent with the Bishop and myself in our church again.

As we enter this final week before Holy Week the narrative of Jesus’ life on earth builds to a climax. In the Gospels of the last two weeks, Jesus gave water to those who thirsted and light to those who could not see.