Dear Parishioners:
School has begun! This past Wednesday school started again for many students including our students at OLM School. The First Day of School is always a fun day at OLM. We wish all the teachers and students God’s blessing for a fruitful and holy year!
Just in time for the return to school we delivered over 100 backpacks filled with school supplies to the students of St. Patrick Church in Providence. Father James Ruggeri, the Pastor at St. Patrick’s and my dear classmate, was overjoyed with the generosity of OLM! In his name and in the name of the many students who have school supplies this year, I offer thanks for your generous support of the Annual Backpack Drive for St. Patrick’s!
Now that classes are back at OLM School we are looking forward to the Opening Mass of the Holy Spirit on Friday, September 6th at 9:00AM. We celebrate a votive Mass of the Holy Spirit at the opening of the school year, imploring the descent of the Holy Spirit upon our OLM School Community to impart his wondrous gifts in all that we undertake in this new school year. The Holy Spirit produces the saints and scholars we need for our Church and world! Age after age and in every epoch the Holy Spirit produces men, women and children who respond to the gifts given to them. So we invoke the Holy Spirit to pour out his graces upon OLM School as we begin this school year.
In a very special way at the Mass on Friday, we pray for our new OLM School Principal, Patrick H. McNabb. Patrick most recently served as the middle school theology teacher and director of faith formation at Holy Name Parish and School in Fall River, MA. Prior to his time at Holy Name, Mr. McNabb served for eleven years in public and charter schools as a teacher and vice principal at the middle and high school levels. Patrick and his wife are the parents of two young daughters and attend St. Barnabas Church in Portsmouth. He attended Catholic schools from pre-K through twelfth grade and holds a Bachelor of Arts in History from Haverford College and a Master of Education in Administration and Supervision from National Louis University Pray for him as he begins his first year at OLM School. All are invited to join us for the Mass of the Holy Spirit this Friday at 9:00AM. Bishop Evans is to celebrate the Mass and I will be preaching. In addition to installing our new Principal, we also install our returning and new faculty.
May the Holy Spirit descend upon OLM School! Let us pray for OLM School: “Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created. And You shall renew the face of the earth.”
There is also another important event happening this week at OLM! On Tuesday, September 3rd, Sister Jeanne Barry, RSM celebrates her 80th Birthday! It will be “Sister Jeanne Day” at OLM School and we will mark this special day with a school celebration! We offer Sister Jeanne a very Happy Birthday and continued blessings for health, happiness and holiness!
Labor Day is Monday and with it we mark the unofficial end of summer!! So enjoy the holiday, relax and celebrate the dignity that work bestows upon us. Pray for those who have no work and give thanks to God for the blessings we enjoy because of work! Enjoy the end of summer cookouts, outings to the beach and golf too!
As we mark Labor Day, let us reflect on it with the wisdom of St. Pope John Paul the Great: “Man must work, both because the Creator has commanded it and because of his own humanity, which requires work in order to be maintained and developed. Man must work out of regard for others, especially his own family, but also for the society he belongs to, the country of which he is a child, and the whole human family of which he is a member, since he is the heir to the work of generations and at the same time a sharer in building the future of those who will come after him in the succession of history.”
Happy Labor Day! Pray for OLM School and be sure to wish Sister Jeanne a Happy 80th Birthday! Be well. Do Good. God Bless! Go Sox????!! Go Pats! Oremus pro invicem!