Dear Parishioners:

We welcome  Father John Callan, Sch.P, to Our Lady of Mercy this weekend.  He is a member of the Piarist Fathers. Also known as the Order of the Pious Schools, they are the oldest religious order specifically dedicated to providing free education to children, especially the poor and disadvantaged. Father is preaching at all the Masses about the Piarist Missions and the good work that they do, preaching the Gospel across the globe.  

The Second Collection this weekend is for the Piarist Missions as part of our participation in the Missionary Cooperative.   There is no envelope for this collection. If you are not prepared to contribute this weekend, you may make a check payable to OLM with “Mission Co-op” in the memo line and drop it in the collection basket next week. I thank you in advance for your generous financial support of the Piarists’ Missions and your prayers for Father Callan and the Piarist Fathers.  

Next week we celebrate the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary on Saturday, August 15.  It remains a Solemnity, but this year it is not a Holy Day of Obligation as it falls on a Saturday.  There will be only one Mass on Saturday at 8:30 am.  

Also next weekend we will take up the Peter’s Pence Collection. From his first appearance after his election in May 2025, Pope Leo XIV has called upon Catholics to live in peace and unity with one another within the Church and to share this invitation to peace and unity with the whole world. Catholics have always shared the peace and unity of Christ with the world by proclaiming the Gospel and performing works of mercy that bring comfort to the poor and vulnerable. Pope Leo XIV, in his first homily as our Holy Father, said: “Together, as one people, as brothers and sisters, let us walk towards God and love one another.”

Pope Leo hosts the poor for lunch at Castel Gandolfo.

For centuries, Catholics have expressed our unity with the Pope by giving to the Peter’s Pence Collection, which supports his mission to proclaim Christ’s message of unity and peace with the world. Our gifts to the Holy Father are “concrete signs of hope” to Pope Leo XIV that fulfill the two aims of Peter’s Pence.  

It calls us to support the Holy Father’s mission, which extends throughout the entire world, from the proclamation of the Gospel in support of the poor through the promotion of education, justice, peace, and brotherhood among all peoples.

Also, Peter’s Pence supports the numerous charitable works in aid of people and families in difficulty, populations afflicted by natural disasters and wars, and those in need of humanitarian assistance.

The Pence, as a donation to the Successor of Peter, developed in the 7th century with the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons. Having been evangelized by missionaries sent from Rome, they felt a strong bond of devotion tying them to the Holy Father, and began going on pilgrimages to Rome.

There in Rome, the Schola Saxonum was established. This was a kind of pilgrim house which provided spiritual and material assistance to pilgrims. To support this institution, the Saxon rulers established a collection which, according to the earliest laws of the 11th century, was collected by households on the feast days of Peter and Paul and then delivered to the Pope, who divided it equally between the Holy See and the Schola.  

In the centuries that followed, as more of Europe converted to Christianity, it developed into a contribution of devotion and an expression of unity and shared responsibility within the Church. I ask you to please prayerfully consider supporting this year’s Peter’s Pence collection as an act of hope and charity. Join our brothers and sisters in faith from around the globe to help our Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV, carry out his ministry to the Universal Church and reach out to the most marginalized in our world.  

The grotto in Lourdes, France

On this Sunday night, I depart for a ten-day pilgrimage to Lourdes, France.  I will celebrate Masses at the Tomb of St. Thomas Aquinas in Toulouse and on the Solemnity of the Assumption at Lourdes. I will offer Mass for you and for your intentions. Please pray for the pilgrims making the pilgrimage and me. May we travel safely and may the pilgrimage be fruitful.

 Be well. Do good. God Bless. Go Sox!!!

 

.