The books that fill the shelves in Jim Hart’s Borough Park home library have defined his life.

But some of the words define his love. They’re his own and they’re dedicated to his wife sue.

“She was the love of my life,” Hart said. “It’s hard till this day. Some days it seems like three minutes ago and some days it seems like three lifetimes ago. It doesn’t end and I hope it doesn’t, as much as you feel the pain you don’t want to stop feeling the pain.”

Loving Sue and Missing Sue are two of Hart’s books of poetry. Sue was and still remains his creative muse. 

Sue was told she had terminal gallbladder cancer just three months before she passed away in 2020. Doctors said it was 9/11 related, a diagnosis that brought Hart back to that day 22 years ago, when Sue was in charge of facilities at city hall.

“I was scared as hell,” Hart said. “Being a husband, I said, ‘go home,’ but she said ‘I’m the manager of facilities and facilities are in danger. I can’t leave now.’”

Hart saw with his own eyes what was waiting at Ground Zero. He volunteered after work as a chief for the New York City Department of Sanitation, hoping to find survivors. 

“Everything and I mean everything, the streets, the signs [and] the buildings were this tannish color,” Hart recalls. “You could not tell where you were.”

He wished his wife, who was a dedicated partner, mother and employee, hadn’t been so dedicated at that moment.

“Not only did she stay the first day, I knew Sue and I knew she was going to go back and it’s one of those times you don’t fight but you try and persuade and you say ‘listen this is dangerous,’” Hart said. “If you hated somebody you wouldn’t want them walking into that danger every day, but if you were totally in love with somebody you definitely won’t. You wish she wouldn’t have gone to work.”

Since Sept.11, 2001, there have been 69 types of cancer that have been linked to the toxic dust at Ground Zero. 

As of March of 2023, she and nearly 6,000 others have paid the ultimate price for it. 

Sue’s duty to her work and the people of New York wasn’t unappreciated. In 2011, then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg issued a proclamation declaring April 14 of that year to be “Susan Hart Day” in New York City.

Now Jim is left with 50 years of memories and two works of poetry that have been published in journals all over the world. His love for Sue is memorialized forever.

“It is a bit cathartic, while you’re doing it but then when you’re finished and you’re done and it comes back to you as a book and that’s over now you have to deal with what comes next, Hart said. “There are a lot of tear-stained pages, I can say with Missing Sue, although some were painful there were no blank pages. The ideas flowed as fast as I fell in love with her.”

If he could, Hart would rewrite history, but instead he writes about Sue. You can get Jim’s books, Loving Sue and Missing Sue on Amazon.

Leaders of the nationwide Eucharistic Revival campaign have given more of a preview of its main event, the National Eucharistic Congress.

The event will happen in July of next year in Indianapolis. Officials say more than 25,000 people have already registered. 

Each day there will be a large Mass, with plenty of opportunities for confession and a place for perpetual adoration. 

A massive eucharistic procession will also happen during the congress, but the route is still being determined. 

For more info and updates on the eucharistic revival and that congress just go to eucharisticrevival.org. 

A diocesan-wide event for the revival is coming up soon, bringing Catholics from all over Brooklyn and Queens to Maimonides Park on October 7th.

The whole stadium will be filled with the faithful for family catechesis, a eucharistic procession and a Mass. 

For information on that event checkout at dioceseofbrooklyn.org and search eucharistic revival. 

From there you can register to receive important updates for this special day for the whole family. 

It was a christ-filled celebration at a Gravesend church, where they unveiled their restored crucifix last Sunday, Sept. 3rd.

Parishioners at Sts. Simon and Jude Church gathered for the rededication and blessing of Christ on the cross.

It was restored by members of the lay organization, The Legion of Mary, who saw the statue needed to be spruced up and decided to put in the time and money to do it.

There were 40 parishioners that took part, hand painting the statue until it looked like new.

The group says they were happy to do it because the crucifix shows us the love of our lord.

The Diocese of Brooklyn will say goodbye to a priest who was a pillar of the Black Catholic community on Tuesday, Sept. 12.

The funeral Mass for Monsignor Paul Jervis will be held at St. Francis of Assisi-St. Blaise Church in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, Brooklyn.

Bishop Robert Brennan will preside over the service.

Monsignor Jervis served as the pastor there before his death last Tuesday.

It’s not the most decadent meal many have seen, but what was eaten at the last supper is historic. 

While experts can’t say with absolute certainty what was served, some foods were common in the Middle East 2000 years ago. 

Monsignor Jamie Gigantiello, a former chef and the pastor of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel-Annunciation Parish in Williamsburg did his best to recreate it.

“It’s been 2,000 years,” Msgr. Gigantiello said. “Food has changed, traditions have changed, things have been added, things have been taken out. The foods that I’ve researched that have been eaten, are some of the things that I’ve prepared.” 

So here’s what was on the menu:

Lamb Stew

Beans

Olives – With The Pits Of Course – 

Fish Sauce 

Dates 

Unleavened Bread 

And Wine 

A simple meal to go along with the simple life Christ led.

“If you look at the life of Christ everything was simple,” Msgr. Gigantiello said. “He came among the simplest of people and he chose simple things people could relate to. These are things Jesus used so that people could understand the meaning of his teachings.” 

What would be missing from this meal is dairy. Keep in mind Jesus was Jewish, so technically what they ate for the last supper meal was kosher.

“Jesus was Jewish,” Msgr. Gigantiello said. “He stood by the rules and regulations and guidelines of eating a kosher meal and he and the apostles I’m sure followed it to the letter of the law.” 

Italian archaeologists researched what the last supper looked like using resources like art, specifically, third century catacomb paintings. 

Leonardo da Vinci’s last supper is iconic, but historically inaccurate.

The spread lends itself to several different pairings, the most significant of them all, bread and wine. 

“Jesus offered himself, he gave his life, he sacrificed his life for us and the bread and wine,” Msgr. Gigantiello said. “The simplest of food is a message to us, to follow him is very simple, sacrifice, give of yourself to others.”

This food may not be to everyone’s taste, but it’s a reminder that Jesus invites everyone to the table.

The face of Fontbonne Hall Academy is getting a new look, thanks to the Sisters of St. Joseph.

The congregation of nuns, who run the Bay Ridge School, helped to fund the renovations, hoping to change an almost century-long habit of students entering through the back door.

“It’s a little like using the door at the mud room when you have a front door,” Sister Maria Pascuzzi, director of facilities, said.

Sister Pascuzzi said the feature recalls the building’s glamorous past.

The school installed a new glass door, large storefront windows, and a small garden around their statue of St. Joseph. 

“It returns the school to a kind of air of elegance and beauty,” Sister Pascuzzi said.

The building is one of the few Gilded Age mansions left in Brooklyn. 

It was built in the 1880s by American businessman, Diamond Jim Brady, who shared it with a big name in Hollywood. 

“He had Ms. Lillian Russell, a famous actress,” Sister Pascuzzi said. “And the legend, whether it’s true or not, is that she was here in this house and remained using this house until he died.”

The sisters bought the building in 1937 and decided to turn it into the all-girls school that stands there today. 

The renovation is a celebration of the school’s past and as Principal Rocco Gentile explained it, a way to keep this historic building preserved. 

“The roof on the auditorium had slate shingles and those shingles,” Gentile said, “some of them were coming loose and posed a potential risk. If the roof wasn’t fixed, the gymnasium floor could be damaged if there was a leak. So we went ahead and made those investments.”

Now as students return to their classes, they have a new sense of school spirit.

“When I first saw it I thought it was beautiful,” Julie Dicapua, student activities president at Fontbonne Hall Academy, said. “It feels like a school entrance and you just feel like, this is home. It all looks new but the spirit is still there.”