Dear Parishioners:
OLM School First Communion Class, September 12, 2020
It was a beautiful and joyful day last Saturday as the children from Our Lady of Mercy School celebrated First Holy Communion. Initially scheduled for early May, the First Communion Masses are now in September. This weekend and next weekend, the OLM Religious Education program children are celebrating their First Holy Communion. Pray for them.
Our Lady of Mercy. Sometimes called Our Lady of Ransom.
On Thursday, September 24, we celebrate the Patronal Feast of our parish. The Origin of the Feast of Our Lady of Mercy dates back to 1214 when St. Peter Nolasco, at the age of 25, donated his vast estates to the Church. After making a pilgrimage to Our Lady of Montserrat, he went on to Barcelona and began to practice various acts of charity and mercy. It was in Barcelona that St Peter Nolasco conceived the idea of establishing a religious community to aid the many captives seized by the Moors on the seas and in Spain. These enslaved Christian captives were cruelly tormented in the Moorish prisons to make them deny their faith.
All of Christian Europe was praying intensely to obtain the remedy for the great evil that had befallen them. On August 1, 1218, the Blessed Virgin appeared to St. Peter Nolasco, to his confessor, St. Raymond of Penafort, and King James I of Aragon and Catalonia. Through these three servants of God, a work of perfect mercy, the captives' redemption, was established. While the Church was celebrating the feast of St. Peter in Chains, the Virgin Mary appeared first to St. Peter Nolasco, saying that she indeed desired to establish a new religious order. It would become the Mercedarians, bearing the name of the Mother of Mercy. Its members undertook their mission to rescue Christian captives and offer themselves, if necessary, as a ransom to the captors.
The Order was established in Spain and approved by the Pope under the name of Our Lady of Mercy. By God's grace and under the protection of His Virgin Mother, the Order spread rapidly as the works of charity and mercy of its members became known. They followed Our Lady's directive to give themselves up to voluntary slavery when necessary.
It was to praise God and the Blessed Virgin that a feast day was instituted and observed on September 24. First in the Order, then everywhere in Spain and France. Pope Innocent XII, in the 17th Century, extended it to the entire Church. In the 19th Century, Pope Leo XIII sought devotion to Our Lady of Mercy with a focus on how Our Lady ransoms us from the slavery of our sins and brings us the grace of conversion. As the Mother of Jesus, our Merciful Redeemer, Our Lady is rightly named Mother of Mercy.
This year, we have had to change our usual Mercy Week events due to the pandemic. The Saints and Scholars Golf Tournament, the communal Work of Mercy night, and the Octoberfest are postponed until next year when we hope the COVID restrictions are lifted. However, to mark our Feast Week of Mercy, there are three events this week. On Monday at 7:00 pm, we celebrate Devotions to Our Lady of Mercy with Eucharistic Adoration, recitation of the Holy Rosary, and a talk on Mercy by Dominican Friar, Fr. Patrick Mary Briscoe, OP, the Associate Chaplain at Providence College. Before the Devotions on Monday, Fr. Briscoe and another Friar from the PC Priory, Fr. Jordan Zajac, OP, are available for Confessions beginning at 6:00 pm.
On Thursday, September 24, we mark the actual Parish Feast with a solemn Mass at 9:00 am celebrated by Bishop Evans. The Mass is open to the public, so please join us in person to celebrate this feast of faith in honor of Our Lady. On Thursday at 1:30 pm, the "See You in September" Raffle Drawing takes place at OLM School. Our OLM School saints and scholars are pulling the winning tickets for the raffle via live-stream! Get your ticket today if you have not yet done so and mark your calendar to celebrate our feast as a parish family!!
See you at Mercy Devotions and the Feast Mass! Happy Patronal Feast Day! May Our Lady of Mercy guide and protect you, your family, and our parish! Stay safe. Be Well. Do Good! God Bless. Go Pats!!!!