Dear Parishioners:It’s beginning to look a lot like summer! Last Saturday was the first day of summer but the weather has also provided that summer feeling we needed so badly. School is out and summer has begun! We had our first OLM Vacation Bible School this past week. Over fifty children from the parish and about twenty young volunteers had a terrific week learning about their Catholic Faith. I am grateful to Miss Croteau and Mrs. Maguire from our OLM School Faculty for helping organize this great opportunity. Also our Summer Seminarian Nick, Fr. Connors and several parents helped the OLM VBS be a great success. We hope that this will become an annual event at OLM where the parish children can come to a safe and friendly environment and learn more about Jesus and His Church. Fifty is a good start but we have hundreds of young children at OLM so I look forward to even more children participating in the VBS! 
Last week’s Corpus Christi Procession was a beautiful tribute to the faith of Our Lady of Mercy Parish. Many of our parishioners joined the procession and filled Mercy Park for Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. It was a great witness to our faith in the Eucharist and truly wonderful to see. Wouldn’t be great if we could get all of our parishioners to join the procession and go right down Main Street! Perhaps we might just try it in the future. I am grateful to the Adult Choir for their beautiful singing on the Feast of Corpus Christi. They did another great job of helping us to pray and worship God solemnly and joyfully. Both the Adult and Children’s Choirs will be off during the summer months. We thank them for their generosity for so willingly sharing their great talents. Both these choirs are great and we are truly blessed to have them at OLM. Also Nick La Roche who has been serving as our Interim Parish Organist and Choir Director leaves us after this weekend. Nick generously volunteered to serve for an interim period and now he returns to his full-time career. We are grateful for all his hard work and for sharing his beautiful voice with us. We wish him well and I am sure he will be back to sing on occasion. We also thank Steve Martorella who filled in as organist on Saturday and Sunday nights the last few months.
I am happy to announce Henri St. Louis as our new Our Lady of Mercy Parish Organist and Choir Director. You have most likely heard Henri play the organ before as he has substituted here many times for Masses, Funerals and Weddings. He comes to OLM after serving as the Organist and Co-Director of music at Holy Apostles Church in Cranston. Henri is a very accomplished musician and holds a degree in Church Music magna cum laude. He has served as an organist at Holy Apostles but also at Precious Blood Church in Woonsocket, and St. Augustine Church in Providence. He will continue to serve as the Music Director at the Seminary of Our Lady of Providence. In his “spare” time he composes music, restores organs, plays the harpsichord, conducts choirs, teaches music theory and organ. Henri is the founder and conductor of the Schola Cantorum Sanctae, a choral ensemble which specializes in unaccompanied sacred music. We welcome Henri St. Louis to Our Lady of Mercy. He begins next weekend so please be sure to say hello to him and give your usual warm OLM welcome! We look forward to Henri ‘s great talent as an organist and our soloist Deirdre Donovan’s beautiful voice!
Today Bishop Tobin is celebrating a special Mass in honor of the 125th Anniversary of the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul. It is truly fitting to celebrate such a happy anniversary for our Mother Church on the feast of our patrons, Saints Peter and Paul. There is a short history of the Cathedral in the bulletin this week. If you have never visited the magnificent Cathedral in Providence, you should make an effort to visit the newly restored Church. It is well worth the time and effort to see such a beautiful tribute to our worship of God. Happy 125th Anniversary! God Bless. Go Sox!!