Dear Parishioners:
I hope you survived the Blizzard of 2018! I think it was a blizzard even though the news media hyped it as a “Bomb-Cyclone”! A much scarier moniker than Blizzard for sure. I think I’ll stick with tradition and just call it the Blizzard of 2018!
Our great OLM Maintenance crew was working in overdrive during the storm and the cold weather. Plowing, shoveling, and sanding the sidewalks and parking lots to ensure safe passage to and from Church and School. We thank them for their hard work and the tremendous job they did with the snow removal.
We didn’t escape the cold weather unscathed as we had a pipe freeze in the school. Fortunately it didn’t cause too much damage and the clean up has taken place. It was an old pipe left over from the addition to the school over twenty years ago. It froze toward the end of the school day and then burst. This set off the fire alarm and caused the school to be evacuated and the fire department to rush here. This was the afternoon before the Blizzard when the temperatures were dropping quickly!
Thankfully this pipe was located just outside the gym and did not cause any serious damage to the gym floor. The OLM Maintenance team were able to turn off the water and stop the flooding in good time. Our friends, the GemmaBrothers from Gem Plumbing, were on the scene in no time and capped off the pipe. And thanks to OLM Parishioner, Frank Mattos, and his crack team from ServPro, the area was cleaned up, scrubbed and disinfected before Sunday! Sadly for the school children we were forced to close school for two days!
Now let’s hope the weather warms up and we can just worry about regular snowstorms not Bomb Cyclones and sub-zero temperatures. Of course all this cold weather and snow should also cause us to be mindful of those who have no heat. Therefore, we once again are supporting Bishop Tobin’s Keep the Heat On Fund. Donations to the OLM Outreach in late January and early February go to support this great work of helping those who need a hand in keeping their heat on.
Your tremendous charity to OLM Outreach during December enabled us to help some local charities over the Christmas Season. We donated $1000 to Emmanuel Homeless Shelter, McAuley House, Whitmarsh House for Troubled Youth and Mary’s House Meal Kitchen and Food Pantry at St. Patrick’s Church in Providence. We also helped RI Right to Life Services with a $1000 donation for their good work with mothers in a crisis pregnancy. None of this is possible without your support and generosity. In the name of the poor and needy who you’ve helped, I thank you.
OLM Outreach also provided gifts, food and help with bills to several area families at Christmas. In addition, we were able to support several refugee families with donations of warm clothing and Christmas gifts. Again I thank you for your continued support of OLM Outreach and the mission of mercy and good works at OLM.
In his homily during last weekend’s Solemnity of the Epiphany, Pope Francis reminds us about giving:
“To give freely, for the Lord’s sake, without expecting anything in return: this is the sure sign that we have found Jesus. To do good without counting the cost, even when unasked, even when you gain nothing thereby, even if it is unpleasant. That is what God wants. He, who become small for our sake, asks us to offer something for the least of his brothers and sisters. Who are they? They are those who have nothing to give in return, the needy, the hungry, the stranger, the prisoner, the poor (cf. Mt 25:31-46). We give a gift pleasing to Jesus when we care for a sick person, spend time with a difficult person, help someone for the sake of helping, or forgive someone who has hurt us. These are gifts freely given, and they cannot be lacking in the lives of Christians.”
Fr. Connors returns to Rome this week to resume his doctoral studies. Over the next few months he is finishing up his dissertation and is to publicly defends it on June 1st. We are grateful for his presence and ministry at OLM over these last few weeks. It is always a joy to have him at OLM and enjoy his priestly fraternity. Keep him in your prayers as he resumes his studies.
Do good. Be well. God Bless! Go Pats, Go!!!