On behalf of our parish, I congratulate Mr. and Mrs. Jeffrey and Katrina DiLollo. I was honored to concelebrate their wedding last Sunday with Fr. Mike and Fr. Lance. We are all thrilled. Katie is a wonderful young woman and all of us who love Jeff have prayed for years that he would find the right woman to share his life. Jeff, as you know, has been a part of St. Luke parish his entire life and is very involved in our Antioch program, Parish Council and runs the young adult basketball program. We wish them God’s blessings and a happy and holy life together.
On Wednesday, June 29th, Bishop Kevin celebrated the 25th anniversary of his priesthood. We, the priests of the diocese celebrated Mass of Thanksgiving with our Bishop at our cathedral in Paterson. Bishop also celebrated his 2nd anniversary as our bishop this month. After the Mass of Celebration, we went to the Brownstone in Paterson to celebrate together. It is always nice to have priestly gatherings where we, the men who serve together as priests in our diocese can spend time together and continue to support each other’s ministry. On behalf of our parish, I wish Bishop Kevin, many blessings, and the assurances of our prayers as he leads our Diocese of Paterson.
As you can see, thanks to a private donation, the narthex was retiled last week. Over the coming weeks, Mike and Tom will paint the narthex and restore our beautiful oak table that is covered over with the cloth because of aging. We hope to have the rugs and the runners placed in the church in the next week or so and then the church will be complete. A big thanks to everyone who has sacrificed to help with our revitalization project. Next week, I will give the financials so that everybody can appreciate how blessed we are to have done all this work without incurring debt. For many years, we have been struggling with our sound system and sadly of late, the sound is both muffled and depending on where you are sitting in the church, inaudible. To say that I am frustrated would be an understatement as I know you all are too. Let us try to be patient as we strive to resolve this issue as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience.
Congratulations to Timothy Duffy, our trustee and loyal parishioner who was a one of the recipients of the 2022 NJBIZ Icon Honors Award Tuesday the 28th. I was privileged to attend this event at Palace Hotel in Somerset Park. Tim gives so much of himself not only to our parish but is active on the board of Tri-County Scholarships. He mentors young lawyers and is very active in our Antioch program. Tim also mentors some of our Antioch speakers and through his kind heart and strong intellect, empowers them to give amazing speeches which touches the hearts of their peers. Congratulations Tim from our entire parish! Thank you for everything you do. We love you.