Our Hope for the Future! Catholic Schools Week!

Dear Parishioners:                                

Our Lady of Mercy School

We sincerely apologize for the late arrival of your weekly offering envelopes. Due to unexpected issues with the production equipment at the Cathedral Corporation, they experienced an unavoidable delay in sending the budget envelopes.  Please know we greatly appreciate your patience and understanding.                            

By the time this column is printed, I hope you have received your budget envelopes. However, it is a good time to consider utilizing online giving.  It is called Parish Giving, and a link to it is on the parish website.  It is very easy to use and also extremely safe and secure.  It is also more efficient and avoids delays like the one we are experiencing, and also the many delays of the U. S. Postal System.  So consider supporting us online with Parish Giving.

This week, we celebrate Catholic Schools Week.  It is a national event to highlight the success of Catholic Education in our nation.  This year, Catholic Schools Week is very special as OLM School celebrates its 75th Anniversary, and our theme is “A People of Hope."   We celebrate with hope as we remember with great thanksgiving the late  Fr. Francis Brady. He had a tremendous concern for the youth of OLM parish, and the building of a school was his priority.

OLM Pastor Father Francis Brady, the Sisters of Mercy, Parish Trustees, and Builders gather for the groundbreaking of OLM School in 1951.

Fr. Brady purchased a home on First Avenue for use as a convent and invited the Sisters of Mercy to staff the new school.   Under the direction of the first principal, Sister of Mercy Sr. Helena McNulty, the student population grew rapidly.  In the summer of 1951, Fr. Brady then purchased three acres of land on Fourth Avenue and began construction of a new school building.   Additional grades were added each year until there were eight grades in all.  The school population grew so rapidly that two new wings were added in 1955.  In the 1990s, with the resurgence of the demand for Catholic education, Msgr. John Lolio began a campaign to reopen the 7th and 8th grades.  He implemented the construction of a new Middle School wing at our school.

Both Father Brady and Monsignor Lolio had great hope for OLM School's success. That success in education at OLM School continues today.  You will be able to hear about the outstanding education offered at OLM School from students this weekend. They will be sharing their love for OLM School at all Masses.   Also, join us at the OLM School Open House today from 10:00 am until Noon. You will be able to meet our outstanding and dedicated administration, faculty,  and staff. Students will be offering tours of our 75-year-old school!

OLM School is well known for its academic excellence, fun activities, great athletics, and wonderful arts and music. We have an exceptional and dedicated principal, faculty, and incredible students who strive daily to be saints and scholars.  We have generous and supportive parents, as well as many accomplished alumni. We have a school where God is not only invited but welcomed daily.  Where Jesus is not some historical figure like Napoleon to be studied in class, but the living God and the center of our school.  Where the Gospel is not merely a piece of literature to be read along with Shakespeare, but rather it is proclaimed in word and deed.

OLM students with Fr. Healey at a OLM School First Friday Mass.

At OLM School, students know their God through daily prayer, devotions, the Rosary, and the Stations of the Cross. OLM students love and worship their God at weekly Mass and frequent Confession. Our students serve their God through acts of mercy and charity, helping the poor and needy, not because it makes them feel good about themselves, but because Christ compels them to do so.  

Pope Benedict XVI said, “A good school provides a rounded education for the whole person. And a good Catholic school, over and above this, should help all its students to become saints.”  OLM School is that “good Catholic school” that helps our students to strive to be saints and scholars.

Next weekend, we kick off the Catholic Charity Appeal. Last year, we raised $276,000 from 449 donors.  This year, our goal is $199,500. I am hopeful we can once again surpass the goal.  I thank Mike and Lee Mita, Jerry and Kim O'Connell, who are serving again as the Chairs of the Catholic Charity Appeal. Be well. Stay safe. Do good. God Bless! Go Pats! Bust those Broncos!!!!!

Ordinary Time for Extraordinary Things

Dear Parishioners:

As you can see around the church, Christmas is over!  The trees, the creche, and the decorations are all put away for another year.  Some suggest that Christmas really ends on Candlemas, or the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, on February 2.          

Candlemas is the last day that the Alma Redemptoris Mater, the Marian antiphon, is sung or recited.  The Alma Redemptoris Mater is used from the beginning of Advent through February 2, and so Candlemas has come to be associated with the close of the Christmas season. However, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops states that the liturgical season of Christmas concludes with the celebration of the Baptism of the Lord. We are now in the Season of Ordinary Time.

The ordinary here does not refer to a season of dull routine but rather the listing of ordinal, or sequential, numbers. This is what is meant by the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, etc. Interestingly, there is no First Sunday in Ordinary Time in the liturgical calendar, because the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord replaces it.

Rather than making a statement about degrees of importance, the term Ordinary Time refers to the order of Sundays in the church year that do not fall into the major liturgical seasons of Advent, Christmas, Lent, or Easter.   It is the longest liturgical season, lasting 33 or 34 weeks each year and ending with the Solemnity of Christ the King.

While it is “ordinary time”, there are plenty of extraordinary things happening at OLM. Next Sunday, we kick off Catholic Schools Week. Fr. Brodeur, a graduate of the former St. Pius X School in Westerly, will preach at Masses on Catholic Education, and OLM students will also speak at Masses.

Also, next Sunday, OLM School is hosting an Open House from 10:00 am until Noon.  If you’ve never visited the school, the Open House is a great opportunity to learn about the many extraordinary things that take place in our classrooms.

 Our outstanding Principal, Mr. Patrick McNabb, along with our exceptional faculty and staff, will be there, along with many of our great students.  So take some time next Sunday and stop by the Open House.

Also, next weekend we will host a Baby Shower Collection for Gabriel’s Call, a ministry of the Diocese of Providence that serves pregnant women in need of assistance.  It assists them during pregnancy and beyond by meeting material needs, providing friendship, and offering guidance through a difficult time.  I am very grateful to OLM Parishioner and Bishop Hendricken student Joseph Ferris, who is leading this important project.   A list of needed items is in the bulletin. Please leave all donated items in the blue bins in the Church's vestibule.

 I appreciate your support. This project in support of Gabriel’s Call comes as we make the Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children on Thursday, January 22.  The over 60 million abortions since the 1973 decision of Roe v. Wade reflect the  heartbreaking magnitude of the evil of abortion

The Holy Father, Pope Leo, in a recent address to the Vatican Diplomatic Corps to the Holy See, said:

“We categorically reject any practice that denies or exploits the origin of life and its development.  Among these is abortion, which cuts short a growing life and refuses to welcome the gift of life.”

We are reminded time and again in Scripture to seek the Lord’s help, and as people of faith, we believe that our prayers are heard.  And while, on June 24, 2022, the Dobbs decision overturned Roe v. Wade, right now, state and federal laws, in many instances, are still hostile to unborn children. So, great prayer is still very needed.

In our own State of Rhode Island, the law allows for the abortion of an unborn child up until the time of birth.  A truly horrific practice. So I encourage you to pray for the unborn, especially on Thursday.  Pray for the unborn and their mothers, as they very much need our prayers.  As we pray for life, we also support the Gabriels’ Call Baby Shower Collection next weekend.  Thank you for your support of the sanctity of human life.

Be well. Stay safe. Do good. God Bless! Go Pats!! We hope Houston has a problem!

When Were You Baptized?

Dear Parishioners:                                 

The Baptism of Christ, 1723 by Francesco Trevisan

This weekend, we celebrate the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, marking Jesus' baptism by John the Baptist. This event revealed Jesus’ divine nature as God's beloved Son and launched his public ministry.  It also marks the end of the Christmas season and the beginning of Ordinary Time.  

On this Feast of the Baptism, we need to reflect on our own baptism and how well we are living out the promises of Baptism to love God and neighbor.   Baptism is that “gateway” or “door” to new life in Christ and is extremely significant. All the other sacraments depend on that first sacrament of Baptism. However, as important as our Baptism is, how many of us know and celebrate the day of our entrance into the Church?

During his pontificate, the late Pope Francis continually challenged us to celebrate our Baptism day. He said in a General Audience in 2014, “Many of us have no memory of the celebration of this Sacrament, and it is obvious why, if we were baptized soon after birth. I have asked this question two or three times already, here, in this square: who among you knows the date of your Baptism, raise your hands. It is important to know the day on which I was immersed in that current of Jesus’ salvation.

And I will allow myself to give you some advice, but more than advice, a task for today. Today, go home, look, ask about the date of your baptism, and that way you will keep in mind that most beautiful day of Baptism. To know the date of our Baptism is to know a blessed day.” Similarly, when asked what the most important day of his life was, St. John Paul II answered: “The day I was baptized.”

I encourage you to find your baptism date and place it on your calendar as a day to celebrate with faith, hope, and love.  Take a moment on that special anniversary to remember and pray.  Pray for your parents and godparents, as well as the priest who baptized you into the faith.  After a celebration of faith and prayer, have a special dessert with a candle to mark the occasion!   It is the “rebirth” day as you entered the Church and the doors of grace were opened, leading to life eternal.

Today, we are overjoyed to baptize two children at the 10:30 am Mass. What a glorious feast day to celebrate the Sacrament of Baptism!  Please keep these children, their parents, and godparents in your prayers.  We hope and pray that as they are reborn in the waters of baptism and filled with the Holy Spirit, these children of God may grow fully in faith, hope, and love.   Congratulations and prayerful best wishes!

With the Baptism of the Lord, we begin the Season of Ordinary Time.  The beautiful Christmas creche, trees, lights, and decorations will soon be put away.   So take a final look at the beauty of Christmas at Our Lady of Mercy, make your final visit to the creche to pray for the Holy Family’s intercession, and give thanks to God for the gift of his Son born on Christmas Day.  

Pictured left to right:  Seminarian Luke Simms, Fr. Healey, Fr. Brodeur, and Seminarian David Del Bonis.  Luke and David, parishioners of OLM, are in priestly formation at the Seminary of Our Lady of Providence and are studying philosophy at Providence College.   Pray for them!

We received good news from Bishop Lewandowski at Christmas.  He has accepted Luke Simms, an OLM parishioner, into the Seminary of Our Lady of Providence as a seminarian for the Diocese of Providence. Luke’s grandparents and family are longtime parishioners of OLM. He graduated from our parish school and then LaSalle Academy.  He has been studying at Texas A & M University, but has now transferred to Providence College.  At OLP, he joins our other native OLM Seminarian, David Del Bonis, who is currently a senior at PC.

There are currently 27 collegiate seminarians living at OLP. These seminarians are from various dioceses, including Boston,  Fall River, Springfield, Worcester, Syracuse, Brooklyn, Manchester, Hartford, and Rochester. Only two, Luke and David, are from the Diocese of Providence. In addition, 10 seminarians at the major seminary are studying for the priesthood in the Diocese of Providence.  They study at St. John’s Seminary in Boston and the  North American College in Rome.  Pray for all seminarians, especially David and Luke.  May they persevere in their priestly vocations. Also, pray for more vocations to the priesthood in the Diocese of Providence.

Be well. Stay safe. Do good. God Bless! Go Pats!!!! Beat LA!!!!!

2026! New Beginnings of Faith, Hope, & Charity

Dear Parishioners:                                  

Pope Leo Urbi et Orbi Chritmas 2025

I hope you and your families had a very Happy New Year’s Day!  On New Year’s Day, the Church celebrated the 59th World Day of Peace.  Each New Year, the Holy Father offers a Message to the world, calling for peace among all nations and peoples.  The World Day of Peace was established by Saint Pope Paul VI in 1967 and first observed on January 1, 1968, to promote peace, human rights, and justice, particularly during the Cold War and the Vietnam War. The Saintly Pope stated, "If you want peace, work for justice.”

In his first Message for World Day of Peace, Pope Leo XIV stated: “Saint Augustine urged Christians to forge an unbreakable bond with peace, so that by cherishing it deeply in their hearts, they would be able to radiate its luminous warmth around them. Addressing his community, he wrote: ‘If you wish to draw others to peace, first have it yourselves; be steadfast in peace yourselves. To inflame others, you must have the flame burning within.’ Dear brothers and sisters, whether we have the gift of faith or feel we lack it, let us open ourselves to peace!”

Saint Francis in prayer. Cigoli (Ludovico Cardi) Castello di Cigoli, 1559 – Rome, 1613

In a world with too many wars, too much conflict and violence, let us heed the Holy Father’s call to pray for peace. Let the Prayer of St. Francis be our prayer:  "Lord, make me an instrument of your peace: where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy."

Did you make a New Year's resolution this year?  Losing weight, eating healthier foods, exercising more regularly, getting more sleep, or quitting bad habits such as smoking and swearing are often the top New Year's resolutions. As Catholics, we might consider making some spiritual resolutions in 2026.

Focusing on physical health and well-being is a great resolution, but what about our spiritual health? The Catholic writer, G.K. Chesterton, said: "The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul."

So, in 2026, resolve to work on your soul. Consider beginning and ending every day with prayer. Resolve to stay close to Christ by clinging to the Sacraments. Make a concrete resolution to live a more Sacramental life. Strive never to miss Sunday Mass; make a good Sacramental Confession at least once a month; add daily Mass to your schedule; attend Marian Devotions and First Friday Adoration; and spend more time praying in Church before the Eucharistic Lord, truly present in the tabernacle.

Resolve to read the Sacred Scriptures more and seek out good Catholic spiritual books. They help us gain a greater knowledge of the Word of God and a deeper spirituality. St. John Bosco said, "Only God knows the good that can come by reading one good Catholic book."

We can make many other resolutions as Catholics in 2026. Grace before meals at home and at the restaurant; acts of penance and sacrifice such as fasting, praying the Rosary, praying the Stations of the Cross, and being more generous and charitable with our time, talent, and treasure. Perhaps try making a pilgrimage to a local shrine or taking a retreat. Speaking of retreats, please keep Father Brodeur in your prayers as he makes his Annual Retreat this week.   He will be at the Marywood Retreat Center in St. Johns, Florida.

On Tuesday, January 6, the RI General Assembly resume their legislative session. And I resume my lobbying duties for the Diocese. Please pray for me and also our elected officials that they may truly serve the common good, defend the poor, work for true justice, promote human dignity, and protect the sanctity of human life.

Join us for a screening of the film, “The Star of Bethlehem.” It is a 2007 documentary by Rick Larson about his search for the Star of Bethlehem. As we celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany today, let’s continue to celebrate it next Saturday, January 10, at 5:15 pm in the OLM School Gym.  As Pope Francis said: “Follow the ‘Bright Star of Jesus.’"

Fr. Brodeur and I wish you a Holy, Healthy, and Happy New Year and many blessings in 2026. Be well. Stay safe. Do good. God Bless!

Giving Thanks for Blessings Bestowed

Dear Parishioners:                               

I hope you had a very Merry Christmas with your family and friends. Our celebration of the Nativity of the Lord at Our Lady of Mercy was solemn, prayerful, and joyful. Our parish and school staff deserve thanks for all their work over Christmas and over the past year. Their service to our parish and school is exemplary, and we are blessed to have such good people. I thank them for their dedication.

Paul Anderson and our OLM Maintenance Crew worked hard preparing for Christmas. They set up trees and creches, hung wreaths, strung lights, moved boxes, polished floors, and ensured the entire church's physical plant was ready for the birth of our Savior. Our Church, from the creche to the choir loft, was so stunningly beautiful for the birth of the Savior at Christmas!

We thank the band of decorators who joyfully work so hard to bring the beauty of Christmas to life in our Church. Our good Franciscan Sisters and Sacristans prepared all the sacred vessels, altar cloths, altar server garments, and vestments. They cleaned, polished, starched, ironed, and pressed with joy. We thank them for their dedication to our parish and devotion to the Lord.

We thank our Music Director, Henri St. Louis, the OLM Choir, and the guest musicians who provided majestic music for Christmas, especially at the Midnight Mass. We also thank Shirley Medici and the OLM Children's Choir for their joyful music at the Christmas Vigil Mass.

Our Altar Servers served reverently at all the Masses on Christmas. Some stayed up beyond their bedtime to serve the beautiful Mass at Midnight. Others awakened very early to serve at 7:30 am Mass on Christmas Day. We also had a team of veteran Altar Servers who had returned from college and served expertly. In your name, I thank them, especially our OLM Master of Ceremonies, Erik Carlson, and our OLM Seminarian, David DelBonis, joined by veteran Luke Simms, who made everything run smoothly, reverently, and solemnly.

We thank our many Lectors, Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion, and Ushers for their devoted service to our parish at Christmas and throughout the year. They helped our Christmas worship of the Christ Child and deserve our thanks and praise.

Finally, I thank you, OLM's good and faithful parishioners, for your abundant charity, support, kindness, and generosity. Your faith in the Lord is an inspirational witness and a sign of our parish's vibrant life and living faith. I offer my deep gratitude to you. And offer my praise and gratitude to Almighty God for the unique privilege and abundant joy of serving as your parish priest.

Father Brodeur and I thank the many parishioners who were so generous to us, the parish, and especially the poor and needy this Christmas. We also offer our thanks for the many beautiful cards and sincere greetings, delicious food and tasty treats, and the most generous and thoughtful personal gifts given at Christmas. Be assured of our gratitude and continued prayers.

The great spiritual mystic Meister Eckhart once said: “What good is it that Christ was born 2,000 years ago if He is not born in our hearts now?”  I hope that Christmas kindled your hearts with the flame of faith and renewed your lives with a deeper love of Christ.  May the Christ Child born on Christmas be born again and again in your hearts.  

New Year’s Day on Thursday is also the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God. There is a Vigil Mass at 4:00 pm on New Year’s Eve and Masses at 7:30 am and 10:30 am on New Year's Day.  It is a Holy Day of Obligation.  I can think of no better way to begin a New Year than coming to Holy Mass and offering our gratitude, hopes, and resolutions to Jesus, who is truly present in the Eucharist!

As we welcome a new year and say farewell to the old year, we thank God. A Catholic Tradition is to sing or pray the Te Deum hymn in thanksgiving to God for his blessings for the past year.  The name comes from the hymn's first words in the original Latin: Te Deum laudamus ("You are God, we praise you"). Let us praise God from whom all blessings flow!

Fr. Brodeur and I wish you a Happy, Healthy, and Holy New Year in 2026! Be well. Do good. God Bless! Happy New Year!  Go Pats!!!

Do We Truly Need Christ to Come This Christmas?

Dear Parishioners:                                 

Our OLM School Saints and Scholars are looking forward to their Christmas Break, which began on Friday.  A week ago, they regaled the school community with a beautiful Christmas Pageant and Living Nativity.  It was a great night of song and prayer as we prepared to welcome our Savior.  

Bethlehem Christmas Tree lighting.

The joy of the season also returned to the traditional birthplace of Jesus Christ last week as Bethlehem Bank lit up a Christmas tree for the first time since the war in Gaza began over two years ago.  Covered in red and gold baubles, the Christmas tree stands feet away from the Church of the Nativity on Manger Square, the site of our Savior's birth.  It has become a symbol of hope for the people of that city scarred by violence, terrorism, and war.

The world from East Greenwich to Bethlehem prepares to celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace with faith, hope, and joy. We turn to the Babe of Bethlehem and ask him to give us the grace we need to experience his peace and joy in our hearts and in our own lives so that we truly celebrate an authentic Christmas.

Saint Oscar Romero, the Archbishop of El Salvador who extremists murdered for his prophetic preaching in defense of the poor, once said of Christmas: "No one can celebrate a genuine Christmas without being truly poor. Only the poor, the hungry, those who need someone to come on their behalf, will have that someone. That someone is God, Emmanuel, God-with-us."

We are all poor beggars before a generous and loving God.  We need the Savior to come into our world, our community, our homes, and our hearts.   He can only come if we are humble enough to admit that we need the Prince of Peace. Such a need is born of a poverty of spirit.  To be "poor in spirit" means recognizing our spiritual dependence on God and acknowledging a spiritual emptiness, not a lack of wealth.

 It involves humility, a lack of self-sufficiency, and detachment of the heart from worldly possessions and reputation to find fulfillment in God and God alone. Such an attitude makes us open to receiving God's grace and blessings as the Kingdom of God is ours!  Such an attitude allows us to celebrate Christmas with meaningful joy and not cheap sentiment.

In his book "The School of Christian Perfection", Saint Alphonsus Liguori says: "The poor of this world do not possess poverty of spirit from the mere fact that they suffer the want of the goods of this life. Poverty of spirit consists in the desire to possess nothing but God. 'I meet a poor man," says St. Augustine, "and yet I find he is not poor'; that is to say: Many are poor in reality, few in spirit and desire. The truly virtuous poor desire nothing but God, and for that very reason, they are immensely rich. Of them, St. Paul speaks when he says: 'Having nothing, they possess all things.'"

As we begin the final days of Advent and anticipate the great Feast of Faith that is Christmas, let us take up a spirit of poverty.  Make room for Christ to fill in our lives and hearts.  Remove the obstacles that block his coming fully into our lives.  We become poor in spirit so the abundance of God can fill our souls. Begin this Monday by coming to Confession. 

There will be six priests, including Dominican Friars from the Providence College Priory, available from 6:00 pm on Monday until 8:00 pm, or later if needed.  So take the opportunity to clean the manger of your soul from the dirt and debris of sin.  Become filled with the mercy, love, and grace that a good Sacramental Confession gives. Pope Francis said, "Confession is the sacrament of the tenderness of God, his way of embracing us."  

On Christmas, join us as we celebrate the Nativity of the Lord with great solemnity, beautiful music, much joy, and deep faith.  The Christmas Mass schedule is in the bulletin.  Come and give glory to God on Christmas.  Please invite your family, friends, and neighbors who we don't see too often.  They are truly welcome, and Christ will be overjoyed if they come!

Fr. Brodeur and I wish you a Happy and Holy Christmas. You and your family are remembered during our Christmas Masses. Prayerful best wishes for a blessed Christmas Season and a Holy New Year in 2026.  May the blessings of the Christ Child be yours now and forever.  Merry Christmas!