Dear Parishioners: God provided a beautiful day last Sunday for our celebration of Corpus Christi. Our new Deacon, Brian Morris, did a great job of proclaiming the Gospel and preaching his first homily. The Eucharistic Procession led by Bishop Evans was truly beautiful. And the Reception for the new Deacon was made even more joyful with the great weather. My thanks to all those who made the day so reverent, prayerful and joyful!
We thank Deacon Morris for his commitment to pursuing his vocation to the priesthood. He is to begin his Diaconal Ministry at St. Eugene’s Church in Chepachet
this summer. He has one more year of theology and priestly formation while working at St. Eugene. With the grace of God he will be ordained a priest of Providence next June! We congratulate him and thank his parents and brothers for helping to nurture his vocation to the priesthood. I ask that you continue to pray for Deacon Morris but also to pray for an increase of vocations to the priesthood. We hope and pray that every family is as supportive as the Morris Family in promoting vocations to the priesthood.
This weekend we welcome Billy Burdier, our Summer Seminarian. He is to be with us for the next eight weeks. Please take a moment to say hello and welcome to Billy this weekend or when you see him around the parish or around town. In your name, I officially welcome Billy to Our Lady of Mercy! While we are welcoming Billy’s arrival we are also saying so-long to some members of our community.
The OLM School Eighth Grade graduate this Tuesday night at 6:00pm. This Saturday we celebrate a Mass in their honor followed by a Dinner at the Quonset O Club. This is our chance as a parish family to pray for them as they prepare to end their academic career at OLM School and enter into the rigors of high school next fall. 
We offer our prayerful congratulations to the OLM Class of 2016!
However, we also offer our prayers and congratulations to all those graduating this year from high school, college, university or graduate school. This is the time of year when many of our parishioners prepare to enter into a new phase of their young lives as the mark the milestone of graduation.
Let us pray for them all this prayer: Loving God, we ask for your almighty hand to be upon all those who graduate this year. Bless their lives with goodness and holiness, joy and love. Help them to stay true to their dreams, to use their gifts of knowledge and faith wisely, and to walk always with the Lord in all they say and do. May their future be filled with faith, hope, and great love. Amen.
While we say farewell to those graduating we also prepare to say farewell to Fr. Connors. As you know he is leaving Our Lady of Mercy this month to begin his new
assignment. Father will celebrate his final Masses at OLM on the weekend of June 18/19. Appropriately enough it is Father's Day weekend! Father will then move to St. John’s Seminary in Boston where he is to prepare for his doctoral studies this fall at the prestigious Angelicum University in Rome. Fr. Connors is keeping a room here at OLM so we hope and expect to see him when he is visiting home!
I ask you to please join us in honoring and thanking Fr. Connors for his ministry among us at OLM on Sunday, June 19th. There is to be a “Farewell Reception” in his honor at Mercy Park following the 10:30am Mass on Sunday, June 19th. So be sure to mark the date and time and stop by to say “Thank You and So Long Father Connors!” We shall miss Fr. Connors here at OLM. I especially will miss him. He has been a truly wonderful Associate Pastor with whom I have shared joyfully in priestly ministry and fraternity these last three years.
At this date I have not received word who is to replace Fr. Connors as our new Associate Pastor. However, I do expect to hear from Bishop Tobin in the coming weeks prior to the Priesthood Ordinations on June 25th. Be well. Do Good. God Bless. Go Sox!