Dear Parishioners:
We rejoice and give thanks for the 72 young adults who were confirmed in the faith last Sunday. It was a grand celebration of joy, faith and hope! We sang “Laudate omnes gentes, laudate Dominum” at the Confirmation Mass. It is taken from Psalm 117 and translates as: “All people sing praises to the Lord !”
We certainly sang praises to the Lord for this wonderful celebration of faith. We thank the young people who chose to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation, their sponsors who bear witness to the living faith to them, and their families for their support and faith. We must also thank Doug Green who directs our Confirmation Program at OLM and the many Religious Ed and OLM School teachers who have taught them over the years.
The Confirmation Mass was truly a beautiful experience of faith and we thank Henri St. Louis and the OLM Choir for the music, the ushers for their service, our sacristans who helped to prepare for the Mass.
And finally we offer our thanks to Bishop Mark Spalding for traveling from his Diocese of Nashville, Tennessee to be with us for the Mass. His words to the Confirmation Class were inspirational and provided these young adults much to reflect upon in their lives a Catholic disciples. As we rejoice on this great event in their lives and in the life our parish, let us continue to pray for them.
Next weekend we celebrate the great Solemnity of Christ the King. It is the end of the Church’s liturgical year and the prelude for the coming Season of Advent. We will put away our green vestments and end the Season of Ordinary Time. And of course we celebrate the most American of holidays this week, Thanksgiving Day.
It is one of my favorite holidays, and not just because of the food and the football. But because Church is always filled and the great thing is that people come to Mass on Thanksgiving Day not because they have to but because they truly want to give thanks to God. Of course, there is no better way to give thanks to God for our bounty and our blessings than at Holy Mass.
So I invite you to join us on Thursday morning at 9:00AM for Thanksgiving Day Mass. Bishop Evans is our celebrant of the Mass and we have a guest homilist to help celebrate the day. Deacon Tim Deely from the Diocese of Pittsburgh is coming to preach at the Thanksgiving Day Mass. He is a transitional Deacon who is to be ordained a priest next year. Deacon Deely has been a guest at OLM over the last few years.
He taught for many years at Bishop Hendricken High School before pursuing studies for the priesthood for his home Diocese of Pittsburgh. He has spent Thanksgiving annually with his friends here in RI. He was also Fr. Connors college roommate at Boston College. I know you will give him your usual warm welcome on Thanksgiving. We look forward to his homily at Thanksgiving Day Mass.
Thanksgiving Day is an opportunity to consider what we have been given and to give something in return, our thanks. We gather with our families and friends to share a meal but to truly give gratitude. A day for us to honor, with grateful hearts, what God has done for us. President George Washington’s Thanksgiving Day proclamation from 1789, includes these beautiful words:
“Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign THURSDAY, the TWENTY-SIXTH DAY of NOVEMBER next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be.”
Thanksgiving Day is for giving thanks. It doesn’t have to end when we offer grace over the turkey. Let’s strive to remind ourselves of God’s blessings, wherever we find them, however they come to us. And to give thanks for them, every day and in every moment. On behalf of Fr. Barrow, Fr. Connors, Deacon Dowd, Sister Emma and Sister Lourdes, I wish you God’s choicest blessings for Thanksgiving. May it be a time of family, friendship and faith. May we give thanks to God for all the bounty and blessings in our life.
Be well. Do good. God Bless. See you at Mass on Thanksgiving Day! Go Pats!!! Happy Thanksgiving Day!