April 19, 2017 – Excerpted from Put Out Into The Deep, Bishop DiMarzio’s column in The Tablet:

My dear brothers and sisters in the Lord,

This is the complete text of Bishop DiMarzio’s homily at the Chrism Mass celebrated April 11 at St. Joseph’s Co-Cathedral in Prospect Heights.

During one of my Catholic Schools Week visits, a young student asked me, “Bishop, do you give the priests “pep talks?” Well, consider tonight your “pep talk!”

It was during one of my school visits that a third grader asked the question, “What does God look like?” I was surprised by his question and answered, with the Holy Spirit’s assistance, “God is love, when you see love or express love, you see God.”

A priest friend of mine was working with mentally challenged people and went door-to-door in his parish seeking out children for special catechism classes. He rang the bell at one home and the door was answered by a young boy with Down Syndrome. When he saw the priest, the boy called to his mother and shouted, “God is here!”

Read the full text of the Bishop’s column on The Tablet website.