Pope Francis Calls Us to Pray for Families

 

PRAYER TO THE HOLY FAMILY

Jesus, Mary and Joseph, in you we contemplate the splendor of true love, to you we turn with trust.

Holy Family of Nazareth, grant that our families too may be places of communion and prayer, authentic schools of the Gospel and small domestic Churches. Holy Family of Nazareth, may families never again experience violence, rejection and division: may all who have been hurt or scandalized find ready comfort and healing.

Holy Family of Nazareth, may the approaching Synod of Bishops make us once more mindful of the sacredness and inviolability of the family, and its beauty in God’s plan. Jesus, Mary and Joseph, graciously hear our prayer.

We Wish You a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

Dear Parishioners:Merry Christmas!   Yes the Christmas Season is just beginning!  Christmas  is a  season full of joy, hope  and faith not just a day.  The Eternal Word has become Man and dwells among us. The longings of the  patriarchs and prophets are  fulfilled. With the shepherds we hurry to the manger and adore the Incarnate Son of God, who for us and for our salvation  descended upon earth. The purpose of Christmas  is beautifully expressed in the Preface of the Nativity: "For in the mystery of the Word made Flesh a new light of your glory has shone upon the eyes of our mind, so that, as we recognize in him God made visible, we may be caught up through him in love of all things invisible."

Christmas at Our Lady of Mercy is always a joyful, faithful and hopeful celebration.  We give thanks for the gift of God’s only begotten Son, Jesus Christ born on Christmas day.  We also give thanks to the many people who made Christmas so beautiful and solemn at OLM.  Let’s give thanks and praise where it is due!  The OLM Decorating Committee under the direction of Cecelia Franzone did a tremendous job of making our Church truly beautiful.  Jeffery Allard and Deirdre Donovan along with our musicians, Adult and Children’s Choirs gave us the great gift of wonderful music.  Our fine Altar Servers ensured the great feast was celebrated with solemnity and reverence.  Our fine ushers did a great job of welcoming and ushering our many visitors!  Our lectors proclaimed the readings with great joy and faith.  Our  Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion helped  many people receive the Body of Christ with reverence and respect.  We thank them all!

In “The Joy of the Gospel,” Pope Francis writes about a “practical relativism” in which we act, in our day to day life, like God doesn’t really exist.  He said that this can  result in a heart that No to selfishness and transforming us Disillusioned with reality, with the Church and with themselves, they experience a constant  temptation to cling to a faint disillusioned and Christmas is the May we continue these Christmas days and throughout the New Year to  celebrate the wonder and beauty of this holy season and may we continue to adore Him in all we say and do.

The Holy Father calls us to say “No to selfishness and spiritual sloth.”  He talks about the dangers of “acedia,” which is an emptiness or listlessness that results in not really caring about anything.  He warns of a “gray pragmatism,” transforming us  into “mummies.” He says: “Disillusioned with reality, with the Church and with themselves, they experience a constant  temptation to cling to a faint melancholy, lacking in hope which seizes the heart.”  Pope Francis asks us to say “no to a sterile pessimism.”  He says, “Our faith is challenged to discern how wine can come from water and how wheat can grow in the midst of weeds.”   He writes about a “defeatism” which can turn us into “disillusioned  pessimists, ‘sourpusses’” and  urges us to say “yes to a new relationship with Jesus.”

Christmas is the  opportunity to open our hearts to Jesus’ coming today, in the midst of our darkness and restore the light of peace, joy and hope.   On the threshold of the New Year, “come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord!”  May we continue these Christmas days and throughout the New Year to  celebrate the wonder and beauty of this holy season and may we continue to adore Him in all we say and do.

I offer my thanks to the Hill Funeral Home for donating the beautiful 2014 OLM Calendars to our parish.  These calendars are a gift to each of you so please take one as you leave Church.  If you know of a neighbor or family member who needs one, take one for them too!  The calendars  highlight all the important dates of our Church Year and provide easy contact information for the parish. We are grateful to the Carparco Family of Hill Funeral Home for their generous  donation.

Fr. Connors and I wish to thank the many parishioners who were so kind to us at Christmas.  The cards, best wishes and  generous personal gifts are  appreciated and we are grateful for your thoughtfulness.  Your support and encouragement of our priestly ministry is truly  appreciated .  We wish you and your families a continued Merry Christmas and many blessings for the New Year in 2014!  God Bless

Anticipating the Nativity of the Lord, Christmas is coming!!!

Dear Parishioners: We mark the last Sunday of Advent this weekend.  Now we begin the final preparations for Christmas.  No doubt for many that includes some decorating, last minute shopping, baking goodies, sending out cards, and cleaning the house.  At OLM the coming of Christmas means cleaning the Church and getting the beautiful decorations ready for the great feast of God made Man!  It also means an additional hour of Confessions on this Monday night from 6:00PM until 8:00PM.  Fr. Connors and I will be joined by two guest priests and  we encourage you to give  the best gift you can give this Christmas, namely God's mercy and   forgiveness!  What a great way to truly celebrate the coming of our Savior by cleaning our hearts and souls from all that keeps us from drawing ever closer to Him!

It also means a full schedule of Christmas Masses at OLM.   On Christmas Eve we celebrate the Vigil Mass at 4:00PM and our wonderful Choir is singing the carols of Christmas with us.  If you plan on coming to the Vigil Mass, I suggest you come early as it fills up quickly and we usually have what you might describe as an above average sized crowd!  I urge you to please be welcoming to all those good folks visiting OLM for the Vigil Mass! Perhaps even invite them to join us again next Sunday!!

The Nativity of the Lord couldn’t be a celebration without Midnight Mass!  Many other parishes have moved away from the tradition of a Midnight Mass, even Pope Francis  moved it to 9:30PM!  At OLM we celebrate Midnight Mass at Midnight (that’s 12:00AM)!  At 11:30PM a concert of orchestral and choral music with our OLM Choir begins the Midnight celebration.  On the day of Christmas itself we  celebrate the Lord’s Nativity with Masses at 7:30AM, 9:00AM and 10:30AM.  Christ is coming and we plan on celebrating with great solemnity, joy and faith!!

Christmas is always a great opportunity to invite that friend, family member or neighbor to join you at Mass.  I cannot image celebrating Christmas without going to Holy Mass.  But sadly many do not celebrate the great feast of our Savior by coming to adore Him at Mass.  Perhaps if you offer a kind invitation or even provide a ride to that individual or family who have been away from the Lord it might make a  difference for them this Christmas! There's plenty of room in the stable at OLM for everyone!

This last week before Christmas has seen a flurry of  activity around OLM.  Our  Religious Education and OLM School children made good  Confessions this past week.  Our OLM Decorating Committee led by Cecilia Franzone have been working tirelessly to ensure Christmas is celebrated with great beauty.  Our OLM Musicians, Jeff Allard and Deirdre Donovan, and the Choirs have been rehearsing with gusto the great sounds of the season.  All this to prepare the way for Christ’s coming at Christmas here at OLM. Perhaps we all need to take a short break or time out  before Christmas this week .  A little time to pray and reflect on the true meaning of Christmas for  ourselves, our families and our parish.  Let’s not let the flurry of activities and the last minute to do lists take over the authentic reason for the season.

The Irish have a wonderful Christmas tradition of placing a candle in the window of their homes on Christmas Eve.  It is offered as a symbol of welcome to Mary and Joseph as they  travel looking for shelter.  The candle is lit by the youngest in the family and extinguished after Christmas preferably by a young girl named Mary (there are lots of girls named Mary in Ireland!).  We might light such a candle in our own homes this Christmas Eve as we  proclaim with the Prophet Isaiah that “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light! Upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shone!”

Christmas is coming! Light the candles! See the star over the manger! Acclaim the Son of God as the light of the world! Let Him banish the gloom and darkness from our world and our lives!  Fr. Connors and I offer you our  prayers and best wishes for a Happy and Blessed Christmas!

Rejoicing at OLM School and Serving the Poor!

Dear Parishioners: On Monday I had the great privilege of handing out report cards at our parish school.  The students at OLM School seem to be doing very well  academically but as always there is room for improvement.  The excellent teachers do a fine job educating the children in all areas including Religion on a daily basis. Our parish school is a tremendous asset to our parish community and in fact to the entire community!  Many of our Catholic Schools struggle to keep open and operating but OLM School is blessed with a great  administration, terrific faculty, wonderful students and families.  This doesn’t mean we are free from struggles or problems.   This year we saw a drop in the number of students enrolled from a high of over 400 to just 375 students this year.  This drop in enrollment has taken place at nearly every Catholic School across the Diocese.

One reason for it is the decreasing population of children in our state.  Families are getting smaller not larger and even the public schools are facing declining enrollments as a result the lower number of children.  Also the cost of a Catholic Education can keep Catholic  families away from  our great schools.   At OLM School I am happy to report that we provide tuition assistance to those families that need a helping hand in affording a Catholic Education.  We also have some scholarships available for those families that have multiple children in the school and are struggling to afford tuition.  So spread the word, OLM School is a great place to get a great Catholic education!

While passing out the report cards to the students this week, I also learned of their great efforts in helping the less  fortunate.  They have raised over $1,000 for the Philippine Typhoon Effort.  This week they are   bringing dozens of delicious cookies to McAuley House as they  participate in the Annual  Christmas Gathering there.  This generous spirit of helping those in need is not just limited to the children of our  parish school but most certainly evident across the board at OLM.

Last week we raised over $5,000 for the Philippine Typhoon Effort in the special second collection.  Also thanks to your generosity to the Outreach Collection we have been able to send $1,000 to McAuley House, $500 to Whitmarsh House and $500 to the Diocesan Immigration Office to help with their good works at Christmas.  Additionally through our Outreach Office we have helped many local families with paying their rent, utilities and affording costly prescriptions.  We were asked to adopt 14 refugee  families for Christmas and  thankfully 5 were adopted by  parishioners and another 5 by the children of our Religious  Education Program.  We are still in need of people to adopt 4 families.  If you are interested, please contact Doug Green at our Outreach Office.

The children of the RE   Program are also  assembling Christmas Gift Bags for Emmanuel House.  These bags are filled with items purchased by our Outreach Office.  They include warm sweatshirts, thermal tops, hand and foot warmers, thermal socks, along with some candy and a religious gift.  Over 50 homeless are to receive them at Emmanuel House this Christmas.  This too was made possible by your  support of the Outreach  Collection. With Christmas around the corner, there is still time to help the poor and needy.  If you are interested in helping please contact the Outreach Office.  If you are interested in supporting these good works simply drop a donation in the collection basket and mark it “Outreach.”

Christ is coming at Christmas  so take lets a moment and reflect upon Pope Francis  words for Advent. “Life is an encounter with Jesus: in prayer, when we go to Mass, when we do good works, when we visit the sick, when we help the poor, when we think of others, when we're not self-centred, when we are amiable.  We always encounter Christ in these things and the journey of life is exactly this: walking to  encounter Jesus."  Let us continue to walk together to encounter Jesus in prayer, at Mass, while visiting the sick and in serving the poor! God Bless.

May Christ Come Quickly and Not Delay

Dear Parishioners:I hope you had a great Thanksgiving Day with your family and friends.  It’s hard to believe its come and gone already.  Now we prepare to enter in the holy season of Advent.  Unfortunately, the media and much of the commercial world push Christmas far too soon.  Non-stop Christmas music playing on the radio in October, Christmas decorations and  displays in November and  Christmas sales on Thanksgiving Day! Yes, even Thanksgiving Day is being pushed as a “Christmas Shopping Day” rather than a day to gather with family and friends and give thanks to God for our blessings.  Opening stores early on Thanksgiving Day and spending the day shopping for even more unnecessary things really is undermining the purpose of the holiday. So as Catholics what are we to do to keep from being over-secularized in our own lives?? Well, first we can  try to keep the spirit of the season of Advent.   It is a season of joyful preparation and prayerful anticipation of the coming of Christ at Christmas.  Also, it is a season “when minds and hearts are led to look forward to Christ’s Second Coming at the end of time.” Perhaps we might take some time away from the all the  shopping, parties, and all the rest of the routine  during this time of year.  Why not consider spending some extra time in prayer before you leave for work or stopping by Church on the way home for a visit with Jesus. Would you consider joining us on the Mondays of Advent to learn more about the scriptures of the season?  On Mondays in December we gather together in Church at 7:00PM to adore Christ in the Blessed Sacrament and learn more about his Sacred Word. Of course, preparing for Christmas during Advent means preparing spiritually as we call out “Come, Lord Jesus!”  One of the best ways to prepare ourselves for Christmas is going to  Confession.  Each Monday night in December guest priests join us for  Confessions at 6:00PM  and on Monday, December 23rd we’ve  added an extra hour.  Did you know that Pope Francis said he goes to confession every two weeks.  He says  knowing that God never tires of forgiving those who repent and knowing that having a priest say "I absolve you" reinforces  belief in God's mercy. Pope Francis said he knows some people are embarrassed to confess their sins to a priest, but it is the best path to spiritual healing and health. Advent is truly a beautiful, somber and  prayerfully solemn season. However, far too many  Christians skip it and join the mad rush to Christmas.  Too many people including many Catholics do not take the time to truly prayerfully prepare and focus  upon the real meaning of the season, Jesus Christ! We bless the Advent Wreath in Church this weekend and are reminded by the lighting of  its candles of the four weeks of prayer and preparation leading to Christmas.  Maybe you might add an Advent Wreath to the many decorations in your home to remind you of the season.  As the Advent Wreath Blessing reminds us:  “Lord God, your Church joyfully awaits the coming of its Savior, who enlightens our hearts and dispels the darkness of ignorance and sin.  May Christ come quickly and not delay .”  Let’s not let Advent begin or end without joyfully and prayerfully preparing for the coming of Christ in our hearts and in our homes. I hope you like the new landscaping in front of Church.  The design was planned by Kyle Alfred, a landscape designer, who  very generously provided his  expertise with the project.  We also wish to thank OLM  Parishioner John Pontarelli and his crew from ProScape  Landscaping  who helped complete the work.   I am grateful for their hard work in making the parish grounds more beautiful and inviting. I hope you enjoy Fr. Connors new bulletin column, “Fr. Connors’ Q & A”.  If you have a question for him be sure to send it his way. Remember Advent has arrived so “Prepare the way, the Lord is coming!! “ God Bless. Have a great week. Go Pats!!

Celebrating Christ the King and Giving Thanks!!

Dear Parishioners:This week we look forward to the national celebration of Thanksgiving Day.  A day of family gatherings and good food but most importantly a day to stop and give thanks to Almighty God for the many blessings in our lives and in our nation.  I invite you to start your day this coming Thursday with the best possible way to give thanks to God, praying at Mass.  Bishop Evans is our celebrant and Father Connors and I join him for the Thanksgiving Day Mass at 9:00AM on Thursday.  Our Choir is singing and we are to be joined by some little Pilgrims and Indians from our Parish School and RE Program. What a great way to celebrate the day of thanks!  President George Washington in his first Thanksgiving Day proclamation stated:  “It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor.”

Giving thanks to God is the purpose of Thanksgiving Day.  In a world in which many live in  poverty and want, we give thanks for abundance.  In a world where many live in fear and terror, we give thanks for security and safety. In a world where people still live on the edge of starvation, we give thanks that we will not only have enough to eat but most likely overindulge.  Recall the words of a pilgrim writing in his journal about the First Thanksgiving: "By the goodness of God, we are so far from want." Yes, Thanksgiving Day  truly calls us to be thankful and grateful for all we have and calls us to be humble before the richness of God’s love manifested in the bounty of our lives and for the gift of our nation.  God is good and we give thanks for His goodness!

As we give thanks for the abundant blessings in our lives, we continue to remember those in need.  I am happy to report that Bishop Tobin has initiated a special second collection to assist in the relief and rebuilding efforts in the Philippines.  Millions continue to suffer due to the devastation and destruction of the typhoon.  Bishop Tobin stated: “that he is aware of the many requests that are directed at our generous parishioners over the next six to seven weeks for both local and national causes.  However, those affected by the typhoon in the Philippines are also our sisters and brothers who no longer have the basic necessities. I ask all to be as generous as their circumstances allow.”

We will take up this special second collection on the weekend of December 7/8 at all Masses.  If you wish to donate in advance of the collection, please write a check payable to OLM and write Typhoon Relief  on the memo line.  All proceeds from this collection are to be sent to the Diocesan Fiscal Office and then sent directly to the relief agencies. Any support you can give to these relief efforts is greatly appreciated.  The effects of the typhoon are staggering and the relief efforts will undoubtedly continue for many years to come.  If you are unable to contribute financially, please pray for our brothers and sisters in the Philippines.

As we celebrate the great solemnity of Christ the King this weekend, we mark the end of the Church’s liturgical year.  The green vestments of Ordinary Time are to be put away as we soon don the solemn purple of Advent. It’s hard to believe but next week we begin the holy season of Advent as we joyfully prepare the way for Christ’s coming.  In the bulletin this week there is a complete schedule of Advent Activities.  These include an educational series on the Gospels of the season, Eucharistic Adoration and opportunities for Confession with guest priests.  It is a great way for us to truly prepare a place for Christ in our own lives during Advent. If you are traveling for the holiday, we offer you our prayers for safe travel and arrival.  I too hit the trail after Thanksgiving Day Mass to make the annual trek to my sister’s home in Saratoga, New York for Thanksgiving Dinner.  Father Connors and I wish  you a  Happy Thanksgiving Day, may God continue to bless our parish and your families.