When Bishop Serratelli called me in late spring, and asked me to be the pastor of St. Philip’s, I wasn’t expecting it. I had already begun planning in earnest for another school year at Morris Catholic High School in Denville. I knew, as a priest of our Diocese of Paterson, that I would probably one day be a pastor. But I wasn’t rushing it. And I certainly didn’t know that it would be this year.

After the initial shock, however, I began to accept the assignment as an unexpected grace. In almost 22 years of priesthood, I have never chosen or asked for any of my assignments. Yet, each of them has been providential. My years as a parochial vicar at St. Peter’s in Parsippany, as a teacher and chaplain at Morris Catholic, as our diocesan vocation director, as the president of a high school and as Vicar for Education have been filled with blessings and put me in touch with people and experiences that have enriched me in ways I could never have predicted.  I have enough confidence in God, and in his providential purposes working through the ministry of the Bishop, to know that this assignment at St. Philip’s will be equally graceful.

In his letter of appointment and in his conversation with me, Bishop Serratelli gave me a few pastoral mandates. In my ministry here, he asked me to help our parish focus on the Eucharist as the source and summit of our life, and to grow in our appreciation of the Real Presence of Jesus is our midst. He asked me to encourage the celebration of Reconciliation as an important element in our life of faith and our effort to grow into the likeness of Christ. He asked me to encourage vocations to the priesthood and religious life, to secure more witnesses to the priority of God’s Kingdom for the future. And he asked me to solidify the finances of the parish, so that we can be prudent stewards of our resources, and maximize the good we do.

These are noble goals for a pastor and parish to aspire to and achieve. We can reach these goals by attending to three simple assertions: We can be better than we are right now; we only need to start taking little steps in the right direction; and we can be and are the right people to do it. We can reach these goals if we work together, each in the role and station he or she has been given, with our firm purpose being the increase of Christ—of love for him and adoration of him and knowledge of him—and the decrease of our own selves.