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Students at saint elizabeth catholic academy went on a pilgrimage around the world, and didn’t even have to leave their school!
The Ozone Park students celebrated International Day, learning about different countries.
First graders represented China– wearing traditional Chinese clothing. While the fourth graders embraced the Nigerian culture, showing off their dance moves.
Parents also joined in on the fun by buying passports and touring the classrooms to get them stamped.
It was a day of prayer and closeness to the body of Christ, as St. Jude Shrine church welcomes pilgrims from the Diocese of Brooklyn’s Lenten Pilgrimage on Wednesday, April 2.
The Canarsie church is connecting the faithful of Brooklyn and Queens during this season, and in the months to come, as a Jubilee station church for the diocese.
The pews were filled with pilgrims of all ages, including young people from the parish school, Our Lady of Trust Catholic Academy. They rejoiced in song as Brooklyn Bishop Robert Brennan celebrated the 8 am Mass.
Although the shepherd of the Diocese of Brooklyn has been leading the way during this Lenten Pilgrimage, he says seeing young people at this stop has been an inspiration for him and his fellow pilgrims.
“It’s a great experience to celebrate with the young people. First of all, for them to take part in something that, part of who we are and what we’re doing, there’s an educational piece and exposes them to something new and different. But they bring such joy, such hope, such faith. and that’s an inspiration to all of us,” said Bishop Robert Brennan of the Diocese of Brooklyn.
“The treat with the bishop was amazing. Cohesive message. During this special time of Lent. I love that the children are here praying. I have the privilege of having three of my kids here. So my daughter was one of the ones who did the reading. So, it’s extra special for me,” said Luis Machica, a parishioner at St. Jude Shrine Church.
“I have enjoyed the Masses because it just gives me, like a better relationship with God, like a better opportunity to talk with him and stuff like that,” said Gabriella Machica, an 8th grader at Our Lady of Trust Catholic Academy in Brooklyn.
“Today’s Gospel really, truly confirmed my beliefs in believing that God truly loves me and I fully trust in him no matter what,” said 8th grader Melanie Reneau from Our Lady of Trust Catholic Academy.
Because St Jude has been designated a Jubilee shrine church, that means pilgrims who visited on that Wednesday and met certain conditions, could receive a plenary indulgence and be free from the temporal punishment of sin.
If you also want to receive an indulgence you have until the feast of the Immaculate Conception on December 8, 2025 to visit a shrine church like St Jude.
Faithful are making their way across the Diocese of Brooklyn during the local Lenten Pilgrimage, but the next stop on their journey is one that connects them to the universal Church.
Researchers have found new evidence they say proves Jesus was crucified and buried at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.
On April 2, 2005 Pope John Paul II passed away and heaven gained a new saint – Currents News takes a look back on his final hours.
After finishing his breakfast, Thomas Hinchen doesn’t throw his scraps in the garbage. He puts them in a special bucket he has on his kitchen counter for composting.
“For the city, if it’s organic, it can be composted,” Hinchen tells Currents News.
After he separates the scraps, he then brings the food waste out to his yard to a compost tumbler. It’s a practice he’s been doing for nearly 27 years.
The routine is part of what he says are “just general, good gardening principles.”
Now, all of the Big Apple is joining him.
Starting April 1, New Yorkers can face a $25 fine if they don’t separate their trash.
Composting is meant for your kitchen food scraps, food soiled paper, and dead plants or leaves. It is not meant for paper, glass or plastic – that still goes in your regular recycling.
“Well my tip is just to start out with doing the little that’s required of you,” says Hinchen about making the switch. “What’s required of you is to gather your food scraps and put them in the bin.”
It’s a move that as a parishioner at St. Andrew the Apostle Church in Brooklyn, he applauds.
“I was very happy. I think this is where we need to go, and other cities have gone and other jurisdictions hopefully will go in the future,” Hinchen explains.
He also doesn’t just compost in his own backyard, but at the Prospect Farm garden that he helps with as well.
Although it can get messy, Hinchen knows the reward is worth the work because it ends up in the garden.
As a faithful Catholic, he also knows this work follows the message laid out in Pope Francis’ paper, Laudato Si, that we must care for God’s creation.
“We’re keeping materials out of landfills. If food waste went into landfills, it would be generating methane gas,” says Hinchen, “As the pope said, we need to be concerned about the generations to come.”
And Hinchen will keep his commitment to the earth, one scrap of food at a time.
Starting April 1, New York City residents have to start composting or they’ll face a fine. One parishioner in the Diocese of Brooklyn has been composting for years and is sharing his tips with first-timers.
The Vatican reports that Pope Francis’ condition is improving every day, and that he’s in good spirits.
Fourth graders at a Queens Catholic academy are learning about the significance of Lent by creating their own Stations of the Cross.
Students at Saint Adalbert Catholic Academy are celebrating the Lenten season by recreating Christ’s road to Calvary.
Fourth-grade students at the Elmhurst, Queens school made their own Stations of the Cross using different mediums to give their own take on the 14-step devotion.
This included creating the eighth station out of cut-out art to show when Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem, and using “Play-Doh” to tell the story of the tenth station when Jesus is stripped of his clothes.
The Lenten lesson is meant to inspire the students to pray like those on the Diocese of Brooklyn’s Lenten Pilgrimage.
The Big Apple is going green! Starting Tuesday, residents have to start composting – separating food waste from their normal trash or they’ll face a fine. But as Currents News’ Katie Vasquez reports, the new mandate is a piece of cake for one Brooklyn parishioner.
BENSONHURST — Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving are the three pillars of Lent, but Michele Guerrier has embraced a fourth for herself — the Diocesan Lenten Pilgrimage.
Now in its third year, the Diocese of Brooklyn’s Lenten Pilgrimage runs from March 6 to April 15. During that time, the diocese designates a different church each day for the faithful to attend Mass, pray the rosary, and spend time with the Blessed Sacrament.
Guerrier, a retired probation officer from East Flatbush, has participated each year, crisscrossing Brooklyn and Queens to visit the various churches along the pilgrimage route.
When The Tablet caught up with her on the morning of March 28, she had arrived for Mass at St. Athanasius Church in Bensonhurst, the pilgrimage stop for that day. As of that day, Guerrier had made every stop along the route — 21 churches so far — and planned to visit all 37 churches designated for the pilgrimage.
“This pilgrimage has become my fourth pillar for Lent. It’s amazing,” she said.
The visit marked the first time she had ever set foot in St. Athanasius Church. Guerrier said she participates in the pilgrimage because Jesus Christ is the center of everything.
“It is the Eucharist that makes me Catholic,” she explained. “So to be able to go every day somewhere and just spend that quality time with Jesus just reaffirms my resolve. I will always be Catholic because of the Eucharist.”
She also said she relishes the opportunity to visit other churches in the diocese.
“This diocese has the most beautiful churches, and we tend to stay in our parish home and don’t realize what we have out there,” said Guerrier, who is a parishioner of St. Therese of Lisieux Church in East Flatbush.
Upon entering St. Athanasius Church, she pulled out her cell phone and used the Diocesan Lenten Pilgrimage app created by DeSales Media Group — the ministry that produces The Tablet — to check in. The app has become a handy tool for Lenten pilgrims, particularly senior citizens, she said.
“Some people who never knew how to use their phone now have learned by using the app — how to use their phone, upload apps and do wonderful things with pictures,” Guerrier explained.
At each church Guerrier visits, she looks for something that makes that church unique.
“I try to see what draws me the most, what sparks my attention,” she said, “and I take pictures, and usually there’s a word or something that will remain with me.”
Guerrier, who is active in the Haitian Apostolate and the Vicariate Office of Black Catholic Concerns, also said part of the joy of being a pilgrim is getting to meet fellow Catholics of all races and nationalities as she travels throughout the diocese.
“We are the Diocese of Immigrants. We are family in this diocese,” she said.
Even if parishioners are not able to participate in person, they can still join the community online through the app to see all of the pilgrimage stops and even make prayer requests. Participants can get more information by visiting lent.dioceseofbrooklyn.org/.
Hundreds at Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Corona, Queens prayed for dozens of soon-to-be parishioners.
The church was full on Sunday March 30 as 60 people took part in their second rite of scrutiny, where the elect and godparents step forward and the parish prays for them.
Bishop Robert Brennan celebrated the ancient rite, which is meant to spiritually prepare the faithful in the weeks leading up to their baptism at the Easter Vigil.
While these men and women are about to finish their faith education journey, more than 300 religious students completed a milestone in theirs.
The children dropped off envelopes at the end of the Mass to mark their hours of church attendance over the last few weeks. It is an important step before they receive the sacrament of Confirmation.