March 15, 2017 – Excerpted from Put Out Into the Deep, Bishop DiMarzio’s column in The Tablet:

My dear brothers and sisters in the Lord,

As you know, March 19 is the day we normally celebrate the Feast of St. Joseph, Patron of the Universal Church. This year, because it falls on a Sunday in Lent, the feast day has been moved to the 20th of March.

It is interesting that St. John Paul II and Pope Francis both have a special devotion to St. Joseph. St. John Paul II, in his Apostolic Exhortation, Redemptoris Custos, “On the Person and Mission of Saint Joseph in the Life of Christ and of the Church,” allows us to recognize the wealth of the Scriptural basis for understanding the role of St. Joseph in caring for the Savior. Joseph is the silent man of the Gospel, the man in a certain sense who is the back drop against which we understand the role of Mary, the Mother of the Savior; he who protects her from shame, he who protects the newborn infant, it is he who guards the mystery of God himself. St. John Paul II recognized St. Joseph as one who could mirror for us the service of fatherhood.

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

April 12, 2017 – Excerpted from Put Out Into the Deep, Bishop DiMarzio’s column in The Tablet: 

My dear brothers and sisters in the Lord,

Each year, children and families participate in Easter egg hunts and the coloring of Easter eggs. At the White House, generally over 30,000 children gather on the White House lawn for this annual event and a large portion of those attending are children from military families.

Have you ever wondered why this tradition figures so prominently in the celebration of Easter? There are many and varied explanations which attempt to explain these traditions, many of which pre-date Christian times. While secular traditions should never obscure the religious dimension of Christian feasts, sometimes they can serve to remind us of fundamental truths which are at the essence of our religious celebrations.

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

April 5, 2017 – Excerpted from Put Out Into the Deep, Bishop DiMarzio’s column in The Tablet:

My dear brothers and sisters in the Lord,

Palm Sunday, in the liturgical year, is a day when we anticipate the joy of Easter by reenacting the triumphal entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem several days before the beginning of His passion. The symbol of palm is a powerful one. The Gospels describe the people of Jerusalem spreading palm branches on the roads so that Jesus could enter in a regal manner.

The symbol of palm goes deeper into God’s revelation. In the beginning of the book of Genesis, we hear the story of Noah who saves his family from the great flood with the Ark. Towards the end of their ordeal, Noah sends out a dove who on the second time returns to the Ark with a palm or olive branch in his beak. This is the indication of dry land being somewhere within reach. It is a symbol of the peace to be created between God and humanity, thereafter to be symbolized by the rainbow, which is to recall that God would never again destroy the world by water. In the New Testament, the palm branch is portrayed in the Book of the Apocalypse as the symbol of the martyr’s glory and a sign of resurrection.

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

April 5, 2017 – Excerpted from Put Into the Deep, Bishop DiMarzio’s column in The Tablet:

My dear brothers and sisters in the Lord,

March 29, 2017 – Excerpted from Put Out Into the Deep, Bishop DiMarzio’s column in The Tablet:

My dear brothers and sisters in the Lord,

As we have begun the season of Lent several weeks ago, I cannot help but comment on what Lent can mean for us. The word Lent comes from an old English word that means spring; therefore, it is not unreasonable to describe Lent as the springtime of the soul, a time of new birth in preparation for the great feast of the Resurrection.

St. Augustine once prayed in these words: “Lord, to cut myself off from You means to die. To return to You means to rise again. To remain with You means to live, to truly live.”

This prayer of Augustine truly can be an outline for a Lenten program. If we separate ourselves from the Lord, we truly die. That separation happens when we sin, when we neglect our spiritual life or when, for so many reasons, God does not become the center of our lives. But, to return, and Lent is a season of return, means to rise again, to begin again, to take a new opportunity to deepen our relationship with the Lord. Truly, to remain in the Lord means to really live, and that is the goal of our Lenten journey, to rise and to remain in the Lord.

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

March 29, 2017 – Excerpted from Put Out Into the Deep, Bishop DiMarzio’s column in The Tablet:

My dear brothers and sisters in the Lord,

As we have begun the season of Lent several weeks ago, I cannot help but comment on what Lent can mean for us. The word Lent comes from an old English word that means spring; therefore, it is not unreasonable to describe Lent as the springtime of the soul, a time of new birth in preparation for the great feast of the Resurrection.

St. Augustine once prayed in these words: “Lord, to cut myself off from You means to die. To return to You means to rise again. To remain with You means to live, to truly live.”

This prayer of Augustine truly can be an outline for a Lenten program. If we separate ourselves from the Lord, we truly die. That separation happens when we sin, when we neglect our spiritual life or when, for so many reasons, God does not become the center of our lives. But, to return, and Lent is a season of return, means to rise again, to begin again, to take a new opportunity to deepen our relationship with the Lord. Truly, to remain in the Lord means to really live, and that is the goal of our Lenten journey, to rise and to remain in the Lord.

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

March 22, 2017 – Excerpted from Put Out Into the Deep, Bishop DiMarzio’s column in The Tablet: 

My dear brothers and sisters in the Lord,

This week, we celebrate the Feast of the Annunciation. It is both a Marian Feast and a Feast of Jesus Christ because it is on this day that Mary virginally conceived the Lord Jesus. This feast has always been celebrated as a feast of both Christ and Mary. In fact, in the past it carried the name of the Annunciation of Christ or the Conception of Christ.

Unfortunately, many people confuse the Annunciation with the Immaculate Conception. The Immaculate Conception refers to the privilege of Mary that she was conceived without Original Sin, no sin touched her who was destined to be the Mother of God.

Instead, on the Feast of the Annunciation we remember that the message of the Archangel Gabriel to Mary is that the Holy Spirit would overshadow her and she would give birth to a son, notwithstanding Mary’s objection that she knew not man.

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

March 22, 2017 – Excerpted from Put Out Into The Deep, Bishop DiMarzio’s column in The Tablet:

My dear brothers and sisters in the Lord,

This week, we celebrate the Feast of the Annunciation. It is both a Marian Feast and a Feast of Jesus Christ because it is on this day that Mary virginally conceived the Lord Jesus. This feast has always been celebrated as a feast of both Christ and Mary. In fact, in the past it carried the name of the Annunciation of Christ or the Conception of Christ.

Unfortunately, many people confuse the Annunciation with the Immaculate Conception. The Immaculate Conception refers to the privilege of Mary that she was conceived without Original Sin, no sin touched her who was destined to be the Mother of God.

Instead, on the Feast of the Annunciation we remember that the message of the Archangel Gabriel to Mary is that the Holy Spirit would overshadow her and she would give birth to a son, notwithstanding Mary’s objection that she knew not man.

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

March 8, 2017 – Excerpted from Put Out Into the Deep, Bishop DiMarzio’s column in The Tablet:

My dear brothers and sisters in the Lord,

On behalf of the people who are served throughout our Diocese in Brooklyn and Queens, we begin the 2017 Annual Catholic Appeal, “Live in Faith – Give in Love,” by thanking those who generously responded to the 2016 Annual Catholic Appeal and the Generations of Faith capital campaign.

While the Generations of Faith capital campaign is helping to strengthen our parishes, provide for our senior priests and secure the future of the Church through our diocesan youth ministry initiative, the Annual Catholic Appeal continues to support the vital diocesan ministries that serve the people of Brooklyn and Queens on a day-to-day basis. If it were not for the commitment of parishioners throughout the Diocese to the Annual Catholic Appeal each year, the responsibility to provide the basic services and ministries of the Diocese of Brooklyn would be impossible.

The 2017 Annual Catholic Appeal, “Live in Faith – Give in Love,” reminds us that the work of the Church is shared by all believers in response to the gifts of faith and love. By supporting the works of the Diocese and the mission of the Church through a commitment to the Annual Catholic Appeal, you will inspire others in your parish and our diocese to join us as we answer God’s call to love and to serve our neighbors. Those who are without shelter, malnourished, those without access to Catholic education, men discerning the priesthood and those who are ill and dying – all depend upon our generosity.

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

March 1, 2017 – Excerpted from Put Out Into the Deep, Bishop DiMarzio’s column in The Tablet:

My dear brothers and sisters in the Lord, since Lent has now begun, I call attention to the Message of His Holiness Pope Francis for Lent 2017 entitled “The Word is a gift. Other persons are a gift.”

The Word of God is a gift to us. In the Sacred Scripture, Jesus the Word Incarnate gives us the direction for Lent in works of fasting, prayer and almsgiving. To illustrate his point that “other persons” are also a gift, the Holy Father chooses to reflect on the parable of Lazarus. From the very beginning, we understand that Lazarus is a person whose name literally means, “God helps.” In fact, it is not a name; it just means a special person. The person in need was Lazarus who stood at the door of the house of a rich man begging for scraps, which came from his table. The rich man, totally unaware of the presence of Lazarus, ignored him for he was not a person to the rich man.

Our Holy Father tells us the essence of the parable, which shows that the rich man’s greed made him vain, when he says, “The lowest rung of this moral degradation is pride. The rich man dresses like a king and acts like a god, forgetting that he is merely mortal.”

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