Celebrating the Epiphany!

Dear Parishioners:Happy Feast of the Epiphany!  It is hard to believe that the Christmas Season is drawing to an end already.  It always seems to pass too quickly and end too swiftly.  For many in our society Christmas seems to end on December 26th when  people take down their trees and decorations.  The stores put up the Valentine’s Day merchandise before the New Year even arrives!   For others the Christmas Season ends with the celebration of New Year’s Day.

However, in the life of the Church the great and holy Season of Christmas doesn’t officially end until the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord.  Many think it ends with the Epiphany but we return to the Season of Ordinary Time next week after we celebrate the Lord’s Baptism.  We will still be celebrating Christmas at Our Lady of Mercy until Monday, January 14th!  So keep those trees and crèches up in your homes as they will remain up in our Church.  Keep the lights on the trees outside and continue to wish everyone a “Merry Christmas.”  For as Yogi Berra once said: “It ain’t over til it’s over!” 

In fact in much of the world, Christmas gifts are not exchanged until the Epiphany.  It is a celebration in imitation of the Three Kings bringing their gifts to the Christ Child.  In Spain, the Three Kings stop by the house and fill shoes with candy and goodies to celebrate the birth of Christ.  So be sure to put your shoes outside the door on Sunday night and maybe the Wise Men will stop by and fill them.

In Germany, they have the wonderful custom of blessing homes on the Epiphany.  The head of the household writes above the front door with chalk the following:  20 + C + M + B + 13.  This represents the year, 2013, plus the first initial of the Three Kings: Caspar, Melchior and Balthazar.  It also can be read as the first letters of the Latin phrase: Christus Mansionem Benedicat, which means “May Christ Bless this House. “  If you write this above the door, the Three Kings stop and Christ blesses your home!

The following prayer is said by all the families who wish their home to be blessed on the Epiphany: God of heaven and earth, you revealed your only Son to every nation by the guidance of a star. Bless this home and all who live in it. Fill us with the light of Christ, that our concern for others may reflect your love. We ask this through Christ who dwells among us. Amen. Loving God, may all who come to our home this year rejoice to find the love of Christ here; and may we seek and serve, in everyone we meet, that same Jesus who is your incarnate Word, now and forever. Amen.

In Rome it is the tradition for the Pope to ordain new bishops on the Epiphany because it is a feast that emphasizes  the Church's universality.  The Epiphany marks the day when the infant Christ was recognized by the Magi who were really representatives of the world at large.  Usually these new bishops are from around the world and serve in many different countries.  Let us pray for these new bishops that as successors of the Apostles they might proclaim the Gospel with zeal,  holiness, faith and integrity.

On behalf of Father Shemek and myself, we wish to thank the many parishioners of Our Lady of Mercy who were so thoughtful and generous during this Christmas Season.  Your support of our priestly ministry at OLM with so many warm wishes, thoughtful and generous Christmas gifts are truly appreciated.  We are both very grateful to be able to serve such a supportive and welcoming parish as Our Lady of Mercy. The celebration of Christmas at OLM was truly a joyful and joy-filled event for us.  Be assured of our continued prayers for you.

As we begin this new year, I pray it may  be a new year full of health and happiness but also a year to renew our faith in Christ, deepen our union with His Church, and strengthen our love of God and neighbor.  May the generosity and faith of the Three Wise Men lead each of us to wisely follow the light of Christ in all our words and deeds.  Happy Epiphany!  God Bless.

Celebrating Families on the Feast of Holy Family

Dear Parishioners: I hope you had a happy and joyful Christmas.  It certainly was celebrated here at Our Lady of Mercy with abundant joy and great solemnity.  We had large crowds, joyful music, beautiful decorations and solemn celebrations at all of our Masses.  It was truly a worthy celebration for the Nativity of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

Of course, this wouldn’t be possible without the dedicated hard work of so many volunteers.  In your name, I thank all of those who helped to ensure Christmas was celebrated so worthily at Our Lady of Mercy Church.  We thank Celia Franzone and her band of decorators for making it beautiful.  We thank Brother Roger and all of the choir members and choristers for making it joyful.  We thank the Altar Servers, Lectors, Ministers, Sacristans and Ushers for making it prayerful.

The Christmas Season is still here and I hope you continue to celebrate it with beauty, joy and prayer. For as Isaiah proclaimed: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shone.”  May we continue to shine that light brightly in our words and deeds especially during this holy season of Christmas!

We celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family this weekend.  I always find this feast an important part of the Christmas celebration.  At Christmas we gather with family and we remember family members who have gone on to eternal life.  The Feast of the Holy Family serves as reminder of the importance of family life for us.  The bonds of love that unite a family are part of celebrating Christmas. 

The Feast of the Holy Family marks a time to honor Jesus, Mary and Joseph who are real flesh and blood figures of faith, hope and love. It is also an occasion to consider the holiness inherent in domestic life. Jesus was born into a family who nurtured, protected, taught, and raised him to adulthood. Although we know little about his life as a youth, it is not hard to picture him doing the same things any well-loved child would do – playing games, learning to read, helping with household chores, interacting with family, neighbors, and townspeople. Through it all, Mary and Joseph are there to model what it means to live by faith and to illustrate what makes a family holy.

So let us pray for all families especially those that face the pain of separation or divorce.  May Jesus, Mary and Joseph, intercede for all families and help all to grow in love and deepen the bonds of unity.  May we all grow in the holiness that the Holy Family offer us in such a wonderful example

This week we also begin a New Year, 2013!  On the Church Calendar New Year’s is the Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God.  It is a holy day of obligation for Catholics.  But isn’t going to Mass actually the best way to welcome the New Year anyway?  The Holy Day Mass schedule is in the bulletin and I hope you  join us as we honor the Mother of God and prayerfully welcome in a New Year.

I wish to express my gratitude to the Hill Funeral Home for the beautiful parish calendars they sponsored for Our Lady of Mercy.  Their generosity in providing us this great service of a parish calendar with the highlights of the Church Year  is greatly appreciated.  Thank them if you get the chance.

Of course, the New Year means a new session for the R.I. General Assembly and I resume my duties as the Director of the R.I. Catholic Conference. New Year’s Day  the Assembly officially opens its legislative session.  This year there is a very serious threat that they will attempt to redefine the bedrock of our culture, marriage between one man and one woman.  The very powerful and well financed same-sex marriage lobby is pushing their agenda with a renewed energy this year.

It appears that this issue tops the agenda of the R.I. House of Representatives as they return to Smith Hill.  You can help with your prayers and also expressing your opposition to your elected officials.  The traditional definition of marriage in our state is under threat so please help preserve it.              New Year’s also brings with it new blessings as well as burdens.  I pray your blessings are many and your burdens few.  Happy New Year! God Bless.

Prayers for Newtown

Homily for Third Sunday of Advent, December 16, 2012Father Bernard A. Healey

We were all shocked and saddened by the tragedy in Newtown, CT.  And while today is Gaudate Sunday, Rose Sunday, a time to celebrate with joy that Christ is coming soon, that Christmas will soon be here I am sure that we are not feeling any joy.  Rather this morning we may be more like the crowd standing before John the Baptist in today’s Gospel who ask the simple yet profound question:  What should we do?

Even for the believer, there is no satisfactory answer for why the innocent suffer.  Why do bad things happen to good people? It is the question that echoes throughout all of history but in our limited humanity we can never truly make sense of the senseless.

However we do have our faith.  And our faith teaches us that in this Advent season as we must cry out for Emmanuel to come, He must be the one we long for with all our hearts.  Certainly that cry is made all the more urgent given this terrible tragedy.

Where is God? God is right there with the people who are grieving and sorrowful in Newtown.  God was in the teachers who pulled children to safety. God was in the first responders who got survivors safely reunited with their families.

God is right beside everyone, because he is the God who knows the pain we feel and shares the sorrow we experience.  He is Emmanuel, God with us.  He is God with us in the sorrow as well as the joy of this season.

The Babe of Bethlehem, who we prepare for in this season, is also the Christ of Golgotha.  The wood of the manger would become the wood of the cross.  God suffers along with us.

We believe that God became human and that God underwent all the things we do. Jesus on the cross cried out, “My God, my God, why did you abandon me?”  Ours is not an impersonal God, but a God who understands what it means to suffer; a God who understands even us at our worst, our lowest, and our deepest despair.  Our faith tells us that He is here with us: with us in our confusion and anger; with us in our anguish and sorrow.

In my own life, when I have felt great sorrow I have trusted that God is with me and that I do not face my struggles alone.  For it is often when we suffer in sorrow that God can break into our lives more easily, more profoundly.  It’s not that God is closer; it’s that we’re more open.

And so brothers and sisters, what should we do?

First, we should and must pray.  Pray for the victims, pray for the survivors, and pray for those who suffer such profound grief, pray also for those first responders who came to the aid of the victims and my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, pray even for the one who is responsible for this horrific evil.

What should we do?

Call someone we’ve been avoiding and listen to them.

Visit someone we’ve overlooked and who is waiting for us to stop and notice them.

Reach out to someone who is isolated and hurting, alone and afraid.

Invite someone who is left-out to join us.

Forgive someone who has hurt us.

Make peace with the enemy.

And let love conquer all fear and doubt; let joy overcome all grief and sorrow, let hope defeat all despair and anguish.

“O come, O come, Emmanuel, ransom captive Israel that mourns in lonely exile here until the Son of God appear.”

May the innocent of Newtown rest in eternal peace and may the perpetual light shine upon them.

Christmas is Coming!

Dear Parishioners: It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!  The lights and wreaths are up and  this weekend our  very hard working decorating committee begins the final preparations for the Savior’s birth.  Beautiful plants and trees and the crèche help us to mark the great feast of the Incarnation.   Father Shemek and I have a small tree in the Rectory that we decorated this week.  The  candles have been put in the windows for a week as we await the coming of Christ at Christmas.  The light of the season is truly needed perhaps this year even more.  The darkness that has been cast over our land needs the light of Christ to pierce it and let faith, hope and love shine forth. Most certainly some of that light has been cast by your generous support of the OLM Outreach efforts to provide gifts, gift cards and other items for those in need during this time of year.  In their name, I thank you for your generosity in making the true spirit of the season alive for so many who are need. The light also shined last Sunday night as members of our OLM Youth Group gathered to celebrate the season.  Their celebration included assembling nearly one hundred bags of much needed toiletries for McAuley House.  What a great way to celebrate Christ’s coming! I offer our gratitude to the Youth Group for making His presence felt for those who might otherwise go without or remain forgotten.   I know the good folks at McAuley House are also very appreciative. In preparing for Christmas, I came across the words of the late Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador.  He was assassinated for his prophetic witness for the poor and marginalized in his country.  At what would be his final Christmas Mass, he offered the following words:  “No one can celebrate a genuine Christmas without being truly poor.  The self-sufficient, the proud, those who, because they have everything, look down on others, those who have no need even of God, for them there will be no Christmas. Only the poor, the hungry, those who need someone to come on their behalf, will have that someone.  That someone is God.  Emmanuel. God-with-us.  Without poverty of spirit there can be no abundance of God. “ Most certainly we all need Christ to come this year.  We truly need the Messiah to come on our behalf.  So let us continue to prepare the empty manger in our hearts for the Lord to be reborn this Christmas.  May we continue to feel His presence in our lives and make His presence known in our words and deeds.  We rejoice because not only do we need our Savior to come but because He already with us.  Let us celebrate the joy, the hope and the peace of Christmas as a parish by sharing our faith in Jesus Christ.  Perhaps you might invite someone to Christmas Mass who doesn’t usually come to Church. Why not give them a gift of the real presence of Christ at Christmas! Father Shemek and I offer you and your families a very Merry Christmas.  We are truly blessed to be part of such a great parish family and are truly looking forward to our first  celebration of Christmas at Our Lady of Mercy. Know that you are remembered at Christmas Masses. My prayer is that you will have a Joyful Christmas that is rooted in the tranquility  deep faith provides, strong enough to survive the sorrows and  carry the burdens that life delivers to our doorstep yet lively enough to celebrate life’s happiest moments. May the birthday of Christ touch you with deep joy.  I pray, too, for a Peaceful Christmas: the peace the world so clearly is unable to give itself; the peace that broken hearts long for; the peace that is ours to share with one another in forgiveness, kindness and charity. May the birthday of Christ sow seeds of peace in your heart.  Finally, I pray that you have a Hopeful Christmas. So much in the world around us can diminish hope yet  the message of Christmas is at its very foundation one of hopefulness. Such hope is needed this year more than ever.  May the birthday of Christ renew hope in your heart.  I wish you a Joyful, Peaceful, Hopeful Christmas and should your Christmas be Merry and Happy, too – all the better! Please pray the same for me. God Bless. Merry Christmas!

Rejoice in the Mercy of God!

Dear Parishioners:“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice.”  So goes the Entrance Antiphon for the Third Sunday of Advent.   The Third Sunday of Advent is commonly called Gaudete Sunday and sometimes Rose Sunday, this Sunday when we light the rose candle on the Advent wreath.   It is called Gaudete from the Latin to rejoice.  It is a command ordering us to rejoice! In these days of repentance and preparation leading up to the feast of our Savior's birth, it reminds us of the joy that is to come, and serves, amid this season of Advent as a kind of 'break' when we recall the hope we have because of the coming of Jesus. So how might we rejoice? We can come to the celebration of Advent Lessons and Carols Sunday night in Church at 5:00 pm.  There we can with prayer and praise prepare the way rejoicing at the Lord’s coming.  It is a wonderful celebration of the season that calls us to prepare with prayer and patience but also with joyful anticipation.  I hope you join us for this great event for our parish.  We will take up a free-will collection for the Diocesan Keep the Heat Fund so those who are less fortunate than us might also rejoice. If you cannot make it on Sunday to rejoice than perhaps you can come on Tuesday night for the OLM School Pageant.  Father Shemek and I are excited about experiencing our first pageant at OLM as we’ve been told it is a great celebration of the season by our schools kids.  So if you can, please join us on Tuesday at 7:00 pm, it should be a great time! You might also come to the OLM School Band Concert on Thursday at 7:00 pm. Try to stop by and rejoice a little in the season. Of course, if you really need some rejoicing in the season I invite you to consider going to Confession.  This week our OLM School children as well as our RE Classes Grades 7-9  have the opportunity to rejoice in the mercy and forgiveness of God as we will be joined by several visiting priests to celebrate the Sacrament of Confession. Going to Confession is truly a Sacrament of joy as it offers to us the chance to experience God’s unconditional love and mercy. When is the last time you made a good Confession?  When is the last time you rejoiced that God not only loves you but also forgives your sins?  Confession is available every Saturday at OLM at 3:00 pm.  If you cannot make it on a Saturday afternoon before Christmas, don’t worry.  Father Shemek and I will be in our confessionals on Christmas Eve Day (December 24th) from 10:00 am until Noon.  So why not give yourself the best Christmas gift you’ll ever receive, God’s loving mercy and forgiveness.  Why not make a little room for the Lord before Christmas?  Stop by and visit Him in the Confessional before Christmas comes, He’s waiting to meet you and forgive you! Advent is  truly the time to prepare for His coming into our own lives and reflect upon our own poverty, the poverty of spirit. No one wants to admit to being needy.  It is, after all, allowing someone else to have strength and power to deliver what we are desperate for. When we are well fed and hydrated, healed, clothed and safe in our homes, it is difficult to be considered “needy”.  Yet most of us are ultimately bereft and spiritually impoverished, needing God even when we won’t admit it, or even reject Him. Despite the wealth with which we surround ourselves every day, our need is still great; we stand empty and ready to be filled–abundantly. Only God can fill that emptiness, only God can truly nourish us, and only God can truly save us.  We sing “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” but Emmanuel means God-with-us.  So we prepare in Advent for God to come to fill the voids in our lives, to nourish us with His eternal presence and to save us from the snares of this world, sin and selfishness.   But we also  rejoice that we that we have a Savior who is with us today! It’s Advent so stop and be silent, prepare and pray!  But also as Philippians reminds us: “Rejoice in the Lord always. I shall say it again: rejoice!” Have a great week. God Bless.

Prepare the Way of the Lord!

Dear Parishioners:Advent moves quickly if you don’t stop to truly prepare the way of the Lord.  The hectic pace of our world and the speed with which our culture celebrates Christmas can distract us from truly preparing with prayer and patience.   So try this week to take a break from “the holiday” preparations like shopping, card writing and decorating and instead spend some time in prayer, coming to Daily Mass, praying the Rosary or reading the powerful scriptures of the Advent Season. It’s Advent catch the spirit while you still can!

Of course one of the hallmarks of this joyful season is giving to those less fortunate than ourselves.  This weekend our OLM Youth Group is collecting toiletry items for McAuley House after all Masses.  These simple items for personal care are greatly needed by those who can little afford them but have great need for them.  I am grateful to the Youth Group for coordinating this great effort to reach out to the needy in this season.

Many people have commented on the new look of the bulletin.  Yes, if you haven’t noticed it has changed in appearance and in size.  It is now fully color and has more pages.  I hope this change will enhance its use for the parish as not only a means of finding information but also as a catechetical tool.  In this Year of Faith, I hope to use the bulletin as a resource to deepen our knowledge and enliven our understanding of the faith.

You will notice a new column called appropriately enough, “The Catechism Corner.”  This will be a weekly column dedicated to a particular topic of our faith.  Each column will offer some insight and understanding on some aspect of the Catholic Faith and provide a reference to the Catechism of the Catholic Church for further study.  I hope every family and household owns a copy of the Catechism as it is a valuable reference tool and important way to learn more about our Catholic Faith.  As the column reminds us each week, check it out in the Catechism!

I hope you like the new hymnals that arrived last week. I thank Brother Roger for his leadership in choosing the hymnal and coordinating the order.   It isn’t easy to do as there are all kinds of hymnals to choose from and each offers something useful.  The Worship Hymnal is the updated version of the one that has long been used at Our Lady of Mercy so it should prove to be an easy transition.

You will notice listed in the inside cover  are  the revised translation of the Mass parts.  This will replace the use of the large cards that were placed in the pews last December.  It also contains the Order of Mass and the readings of each Sunday.  We are currently in Cycle C of the readings and you can find them located toward the back of the hymnal.  While no hymnal is perfect nor does every hymnal contain all the desired hymns we might wish, this Fourth Edition of the Worship Hymnal  provides what we need for our worship at OLM.

Speaking of hymns, please take note  that next Sunday at 5:00pm our Adult and Children’s Choirs along with the Handbell Choir are having a Service of Advent Lessons and Carols. They have been practicing hard and it should be a delightful celebration of song and scripture. Lessons and Carols is a service of Scripture and song that dates to the late 19th century. In this service, we listen to  Scripture lessons which recount the Fall, the promise of a Messiah, the  Incarnation, and the Great Commission to preach the Good News. Each lesson is followed by a carol or other song that reflects on the lesson's message.  Not only will the choirs be singing but there will also be congregational singing.  It is a great way to rejoice in the Advent season.  In the spirit of the season a free-will offering for Bishop Tobin’s Keep the Heat On Fund will be taken up.

So please mark your calendars and be sure to join us. Have you taken the time this Advent to stop, pause and pray?  It’s never too late to patiently prepare for the Lord’s coming.  Remember we are called to “prepare the way of the Lord, make straight His paths!”  God Bless.  Have a great week.  Go Pats!