Dear Parishioners:
With the celebration of the Solemnity of Pentecost comes the end of the Easter Season. The Easter Candle that has been so prominently displayed by the pulpit and lit for every Mass during the Easter Season is now returned to the baptistery. Now in this Season of Ordinary Time is lit only for baptisms and funerals. The rhythm of the liturgical seasons reflects the rhythm of life — with its celebrations of anniversaries and its seasons of quiet growth and maturing. Ordinary Time, meaning ordered or numbered time, is celebrated in two segments: from the Monday following the Baptism of Our Lord up to Ash Wednesday; and from Pentecost Monday to the First Sunday of Advent. This makes it the largest season of the Liturgical Year.
We wear green vestments , the color of hope and growth. The Church counts the thirty-three or thirty-four Sundays of Ordinary Time, as a time to meditate upon the whole mystery of Christ – his life, miracles and teachings – in the light of his Resurrection.
In a very real sense we must descend the great mountain peak of Easter in order to "pasture" in the vast verdant meadows of tempus per annum, or Ordinary Time. As Sunday by Sunday, the Pilgrim Church marks her journey through ordinary time processing steadily through time toward eternity.
Of course, we also mark special feasts following Pentecost including today’s Solemnity of the Blessed Trinity. The fundamental dogma, on which everything in Christianity is based, is that of the Blessed Trinity in whose name all Christians are baptized. The feast of the Blessed Trinity is understood and celebrated as a prolongation of the mysteries of Christ and as the solemn expression of our faith in this triune life of the Divine Persons, to which we have been given access by Baptism and by the Redemption won for us by Christ. Only in heaven shall we properly understand what it means, in union with Christ, to share as children in the very life of God.
The feast of the Blessed Trinity was introduced in the ninth century and was only inserted in the general calendar of the Church in the fourteenth century by Pope John XXII. Worship of the Trinity is, of course, to be found throughout the liturgy. Constantly the Church causes us to praise and adore the thrice-holy God who has so shown His mercy towards us and has given us to share in His life. Next Sunday we mark the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi). Corpus Christi is a Eucharistic solemnity and the solemn commemoration of the institution of that sacrament. It is the Church's official act of homage and gratitude to Christ, who by instituting the Holy Eucharist gave to the Church her greatest treasure. Holy Thursday, marks the anniversary of the institution, but the commemoration of the Lord's passion that very night suppresses the rejoicing proper to the occasion. So our celebration of Corpus Christi really highlights the truly joyous aspect of Holy Thursday.
We shall mark this great feast with a Solemn Procession of the Eucharist following the 10:30AM Mass. As we process from Mass to Mercy Park with the Eucharistic Lord, we gather in adoration and receive the Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. In the fourteenth century this custom of carrying the Blessed Sacrament in a splendid procession through the town after the Mass on Corpus Christi Day developed.
Also next Sunday at the 10:30AM we acknowledge several of our Senior Altar Servers as they graduate. They have been faithfully serving Holy Mass for as many as ten years or more. We take the time next Sunday to offer our gratitude and thanks for their service to God, Church and OLM. OLM School ended on Friday! Summer for our students and faculty has officially begun! East Greenwich Public Schools finish up this coming Wednesday! It’s hard to believe but schools out for the summer! So keep all our students and teachers in your prayers. May summer be a time to relax, reflect and renew and may God grant them health and happiness this summer! With summer vacations coming, let’s not forget that there is no vacation from Sunday Mass! God Bless! Be well. Do Good. Go Sox. Go Bruins!