Dear Parishioners:
I hope you had a happy Independence Day last weekend. Summer is a time of change in the weather and very often our routines. The warm and sunny weather is a time to relax. We can sit back in the yard, at the beach, or in the park. We take up bike rides, swims and walks, go golfing or boating. All this is routinely unavailable at other times of the year. But summer is often a time to change in different ways.
We typically say "Goodbye" to people who are leaving our workplaces or schools. So it is here at OLM as we acknowledge a few folks who are graduating or retiring from service at OLM! We offer our thanks, prayers, and congratulations to OLM School employees Carolyn Macrae and Donna Campbell. Carolyn has been our OLM Bookkeeper for many years, and Donna has served as our OLM School Art Teacher for nearly 20 years. They are retiring after many years at OLM, and we thank them for their service. May God Bless them with health and happiness! Also departing from the OLM School Faculty are 5th Grade Teacher Ashley McCarthy and our Librarian and Reading Teacher Christie Cambio. We are grateful to them for their dedication to OLM's budding saints and scholars and wish them well in their new endeavors.
Also, our longtime Parish Trustee, Bill Wray, who has served OLM since 2008, is stepping down from this role. We are grateful for his service, advice and wise counsel to our parish over these years. His knowledge, expertise, and experience have been a tremendous asset to our church, and I am personally grateful for his sage advice over the years. In your name, I offer our sincere thanks for his loyal and loving service to God and OLM Parish. We wish him well as he and his wife, Nancy, spend more time traveling to visit with their beautiful family!
Robert Duffy appointed new Parish Trustee at Our Lady of Mercy Church.
I am happy to announce that Bishop Tobin has accepted Bob Duffy as our new Parish Trustee. Bob and his wife, Sharon, have worshiped here at OLM for many years and are longtime parishioners. Their seven children attended OLM School and also served Mass. Bob has served on our OLM Finance Council for many years and is a distinguished attorney. He has provided wise counsel over the year, but even more importantly, Bob is a man of deep Catholic Faith. I am genuinely grateful for his willingness to take on this important responsibility in our parish.
Left to Right: Matthew Simonetti, David Del Bonis, John Curran and Jack Divine.
We say farewell to a few of our OLM Senior Altar Servers. David Delbonis, John Curran, Matthew Simonetti, and Jack Devine have served God's altar for eight years. We are grateful for their dedicated, solemn, and dutiful service. They have graduated high school and head off to college, and as they do, we thank them and promise our continued prayers for them! May God bless them with a lively faith, and may they continue to serve Him with dedication, holiness, and zeal.
We wish all these members of our OLM family well in their future endeavors, and we thank them for their service to our parish and school. We pray that: "The Lord bless them and keep them; The Lord make His face shine upon them and be gracious to them; The Lord lift up His countenance upon them, And give them peace."
Summer, even with restrictions of the pandemic, is still an excellent time to change our routine and take some time of rest. Perhaps spend time in prayer and reflection, take a hike, a long walk, a swim at the beach, or read a book. These things can be prayerfully done even in a pandemic!
Saint Pope John Paul the Great resting with the Lord during his annual summer vacation.
St. Pope John Paul the Great said: "Vacations, holidays, must be wisely used to benefit the individual and the family through contact with nature, tranquility, the opportunity to foster greater family harmony, good reading, and healthy recreational activities; above all, through the possibility of spending more time in prayer, in contemplation and in listening to God."
Summer is indeed a time for rest, but it is not a time of rest from the Lord. We must use this relaxing time for more prayer and reflection with the Lord. Summer Time is a call to live our Catholic Faith while resting in the Lord joyfully. So this summer, perhaps more than before, we should find rest in the Lord!
Stay safe. Be Well. Do Good! God Bless.