#OurCatholicStory

ANDOVER  During the Sacred Triduum, the holiest days on liturgical calendar of the Church leading to Easter this past spring, Nicholas Berg took a photo showcasing the source and summit of the Catholic faith.

The photo he captured was during the Consecration of the Eucharist. Msgr. Martin McDonnell is seen elevating the Host with Deacon Tom Sullivan elevating the chalice and Father Ed Reading concelebrating the Mass in Good Shepherd Church here.

A few weeks after Easter, eCatholic, a web design and web hosting company with the mission of the Church in mind, launched a contest to share the Catholic faith with millions of people through pictures. Using the hashtag #OurCatholicStory, users on social media and eCatholic members were able to enter the competition.

Out of more than 1,800 entries, Berg’s entry won the #OurCatholicStory challenge and he will receive a new DSLR camera. Berg, evangelization director at Good Shepherd Parish, said he was excited to win and believes opportunities like the eCatholic challenge allow the faithful to put the Catholic Church on the social media radar and showcase what the Church is all about to the world.

Berg, who is also a mechanical engineer at Picatinny Arsenal, has been serving part-time as evangelization director for Good Shepherd where he and his wife are parishioners. Last February, Msgr. McDonnell, who retired as pastor on June 29, hired Berg to serve the parish, including maintaining the parish website, hosted by eCatholic and social media accounts on Facebook and Twitter.

“Father Martin gave me the open opportunity to do things that I thought would be good for our parish from a technological and faith point of view,” said Berg.

About capturing the winning photo during the Sacred Triduum, Berg said, “I ended up taking a few hundred pictures from that week and I think this turned out as one of the better ones. Even though photography is just a hobby for me — which I’m still learning — I feel pictures and other digital media formats can be used quite effectively to spread the message of the Gospel and the vitality of the Church — whether throughout the world or at our small parish in Sussex County.”

eCatholic, which ran the contest, currently hosts 71 websites for parishes, ministries and agencies of the Paterson Diocese, including the website for the Diocese and The Beacon, Berg, who also helped build the website for St. Mary Parish in Dover, said, “eCatholic does a pretty good job at helping churches create websites especially because they are mission based. They are very user-friendly and they assist churches to make great looking websites.”

[Information: www.eCatholic.com.]