In Harper Lee’s 1960 novel “To Kill A Mockingbird,” Atticus Finch is appointed as defense lawyer for Tom Robinson, a black man falsely accused of raping a young white girl in Depression-Era Alabama. Toward the end of Chapter Three, Finch shares his uncompromisingly noble moral philosophy regarding racism and its attendant stereotyping with his six-year-old daughter, Scout. “You never really understand a person,” Atticus tells her, “Until you consider things from his point of view, until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.”
With the Christmas season behind us now, Catholics enter into a period referred to as “Ordinary Time” in the Church’s liturgy. In our vernacular usage, the word "ordinary" describes what is commonplace, "everyday" or without uniqueness or special distinction.
For much of contemporary secular society, Christmas is over for another year. For Catholics and Christians, however, there is “still more to come.” This weekend, January 7-8, the Roman Catholic Church in the United States celebrated the Christmas feast of the “Epiphany of the Lord,” traditionally remembered throughout the Western Christian world on January 6. Known by many other names in a number of different cultures – “Little Christmas,” “Three Kings’ Day,” the “Twelfth Day of Christmas,” “Twelfth Night,” etc. – this feast extends the Christmas season by commemorating the visit of the “magi” or “wise men” to the Christ Child. What is the Feast of the Epiphany all about in the Church?
As the world learned of the death of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, Bishop David M. O’Connell, C.M., released a personal reflection about the pontiff who named him a bishop in 2010 and who had visited The Catholic University of America in Washington during then-Father O’Connell’s tenure as president. Bishop O’Connell also has announced that there will be a Memorial Mass for the late pope this Thursday, Jan. 5, at noon in St. Robert Bellarmine Co-Cathedral in Freehold. This will allow an opportunity for the clergy, consecrated religious and faithful in attendance to pray together as a diocesan family and still return home to watch the televised funeral Mass from St. Peter’s Basilica. For those who cannot attend the diocesan Mass, it will also be livestreamed at youtube.com/trentondiocese.
The year was 1859. The place was 19th century Europe. The novelist was Charles Dickens (1812-1870). The novel was “A Tale of Two Cities.” In what is widely regarded as one of his – if not his best-known quotes – Dickens began his reflections on the historical experience of the French Revolution (1789-1799) with a series of contradictions:
Things change. Not always recognizably so but, often enough, change is noticeable. I was struck by that fact last week, while looking at some pictures and home movies of Christmas celebrations taken many years ago. Apart from the obvious changes in size and shape, clothing, hairstyles and ages of the celebrants, the decorations and ornaments heralding the season seemed different, simpler, unlike what we have today.
BISHOP O'CONNELL HAS SHARED THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE AS WE BEGIN THE LITURGICAL SEASON OF ADVENT. It is always a wonderful coincidence that our celebration of Thanksgiving occurs before the First Sunday of Advent as it has this year. Although not technically a liturgical feast, it is appropriate on Thanksgiving that we bowed our heads in grateful prayer to God before beginning a new Church year.
Give thanks to God for all his gifts, especially faith, family, and friends. With grateful prayers and best wishes this Thanksgiving! Most Reverend David M. O’Connell, C.M., J.C.D., Bishop of Trenton
A message from Bishop David M. O’Connell, C.M., for National Vocation Awareness Week The word “vocation” means a “call” and it presumes someone calling and someone called. As Catholics, of course, we identify “the caller” as God himself. In our faith, we believe that God has a plan for each of us and that God calls us, invites us to consider that plan and, hopefully, accept it. Different from merely a job, a “vocation” is all-encompassing, requiring a free and willing response and total commitment to the One who calls and to what is asked of us in that call.
Marked with the sign of faith "On this solemn Feast of All Saints, the Church invites us to reflect on the great hope that is based on Christ’s Resurrection: Christ is risen and we will also be with him. The Saints and Blesseds are the most authoritative witnesses of Christian hope, because they lived it fully in their lives, amidst joys and sufferings, putting into practice the Beatitudes … that Jesus preached are the path to holiness" (Pope Francis, Angelus Message, Nov. 1, 2020).
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, On October 23, World Mission Sunday, we join Catholics worldwide in this annual Eucharistic celebration for the Missions of the Church.
A message from Bishop David M. O’Connell, C.M., for the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, Oct. 7 The Catholic Church has been blessed with the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God through the Rosary since the early 13th century when, according to Catholic tradition, she appeared to St. Dominic (1170-1221) in 1214 offering him the idea of the Rosary. There are various legends and stories regarding how the Rosary initially came to be but its current form of 15 mysteries called “decades” – five joyful, five sorrowful, five glorious– was formally established by Pope Pius V (1504-72) in 1569. Pope St. John Paul II added five “luminous” mysteries to the decades of the Rosary in 2002.
October 2, 2022, is Respect Life Sunday and begins Respect Life Month in the Catholic Church in the United States and here in the Diocese of Trenton. This year, the theme chosen for this annual observance by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is “Respect Life: Called to Serve Moms in Need.”
As we remember, in awesome silence, those who died in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 in New York, Washington and Shanksville, those who gave their lives trying to save them, and their beloved families, co-workers and friends, let us together join in the prayer of Pope Benedict XVI when visiting Ground Zero in New York on April 20, 2008:
Since the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), several terms have appeared with increasing frequency in our Catholic vocabulary, among them “catechesis” and “evangelization/new evangelization.” Although they are not actually new to the Catholic lexicon, their meaning and application within contemporary Catholic life and experience have developed and taken on greater significance.
Bishop David M. O'Connell, C.M., has shared this message on the 25th anniversary of the death of Mother Teresa of Calcutta. It has been twenty-five years since the death of Mother Teresa of Calcutta died on September 5, 1997. She was, without a doubt, one of the most well-known religious women of the 20th century. Easily recognizable in her white and blue sari and veil, usually clutching a rosary in her wrinkled hands, Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity in India in 1950 to serve “the poorest of the poor.” At a time when numbers are diminishing in religious orders of women, Mother Teresa’s sisters now serve in 139 countries, numbering over 5,100 members.
by Bishop David M. O'Connell, C.M., on the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation
I always feel grateful to live in a section of the country that enjoys a clear and distinct change of seasons and their accompanying weather patterns. In more recent years, however, those seasonal weather patterns seem to overlap and blend a bit more than in the past. I am not a meteorologist or scientist, but I am sure there are “scientific” reasons for such evidence of “climate change.” And I am also sure that there are many people who will either agree or disagree with those reasons, as well as those who simply do not care.
Home is the first and primary school. Parents are the first and primary teachers. By the time children enter the doors of a school, substantial education and formation has already taken place. Children bring with them to school all that they have learned in the family home: language and basic vocabulary, behaviors and social skills, attitudes and values.
It is the mission of the Catholic Church to address and reform contemporary culture not the other way around. That mission is rooted in the Lord Jesus Christ and his Gospel. He has called the Catholic Church to be the “light of the world (Matthew 5:14).”
Since the 16th century, the practice of dedicating whole months to saints or other sacred things began to take root in the popular devotions of the Catholic Church. The month of August has traditionally been dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, with the Solemnity of the Assumption celebrated at its midpoint.