Welcome to June ! Vocations, VBS, Graduation, and lots of Feasts!!

Dear Parishioners: Our Summer Seminarian, Nick Robenhymer, is settling in to his new assignment here at Our Lady of Mercy. It’s been a busy two weeks for him. He graduated from Providence College and then moved into OLM the next day. Last weekend he attended the our of state wedding of his brother and came back on Monday. This past week Fr. Connors is keeping him very busy around the parish. Nick is with us for about ten weeks and then he is off to First Theology at St. John’s Major Seminary in Boston. He joins our own native OLM son, Seminarian Brian Morris. Brian just completed his First Year Theology and has been assigned to St. Pius Parish in Westerly for the summer. I am confident he will do well under the tutelage of one of our outstanding priests in Providence, Fr. Ray Surani. Brian also goes to Lourdes, France this summer to work assisting the many sick and suffering pilgrims who flock to the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes. I ask you to please pray for these fine two young men who are discerning their call to priesthood. It isn’t always an easy thing to do  in our post-modern world. They need your prayers and count on them. We need to also pray for more vocations to the priesthood for our Church. The Month of June is traditionally the month of ordinations to the priesthood in the Diocese of Providence. I was ordained on June 24, 1995 and Fr. Connors ordained on June 23, 2012. This June there is no ordination for the first time in the history of the Diocese. We have a few priests retiring after decades of faithful service this month but there will be no new priests in June or any month during 2014!!Fr. Connors mentioned a few weeks ago that we should have twelve young men from OLM in the seminary studying for the priesthood and an equal amount of young women preparing for the religious life as a sister. Vocations to the priesthood and religious life are vital to the future of our Church and parish. I urge you to pray for vocations, encourage young men to be priests and young women to enter the religious life. Vocations are everyone’s business, why not make it yours.

This weekend we have sign-ups for our new Vacation Bible School. I am grateful to Fr. Connors who is working with OLM School 7th Grade Teacher Miss Bethany Crouteau and Mickey St. Jean, Directress of Religious Ed have been putting this together. We are all very excited about this great program which gathers the children of our parish and beyond for a week learning about Jesus and the Church in a very fun way. Seminarian Nick is to help us with the program but we are also in need of more volunteers. It is a great opportunity for high school and college age parishioners to have some fun while getting some service hours. If you would like to volunteer or know someone who might be interested, please contact Miss Croteau. Next week at the 10:30AM Mass we celebrate Mass for our 8th Graders who are finishing up at OLM School. They join us at Mass dressed in their graduation gowns and we shall acknowledge their great accomplishment and pray for their future. After the Mass the graduates gather for a luncheon where Academic Honors are awarded and they have a chance to sign their new yearbooks. The Graduation Ceremony for them takes place separately from the Mass on Wednesday, June 11th at 6:00PM.June looks to be a very busy month around OLM and probably in your own life. Lots of graduations and parties and a few celebrations of faith and family. We have our share and I hope you can join us for them. We have a special celebration scheduled on June 18th for Sister Jeanne to acknowledge her faithful service to our parish and school. We also have a Mass and Welcome Reception scheduled for our new OLM School Principal on Sunday, June 22nd. The Church calendar in June includes the great feast of Pentecost and Trinity Sunday. Also we celebrate with great solemnity the Feast of Corpus Christi with its Eucharistic Procession at OLM and the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, patrons of our Diocese, ends the month on June 29th. June is busy indeed

Saying Hello and Goodbye! Transitions at OLM

Dear Parishioners: I am delighted to announce the appointment of Mr. Scott W. Fuller as our new Our Lady of Mercy School Principal. Mr. Fuller comes to our school after nearly thirty years in the Cumberland School District where he has been a mathematics teacher and administrator at Cumberland High School. He holds an advanced degree in school administration and has vast experience in all areas of education and administration. He and his wife are the parents of three adult children and reside in Barrington, RI.  Mr. Fuller not only has an excellent educational background including teaching at St. Raphael Academy in Pawtucket, RI but is deeply committed to his Catholic faith. He is fully dedicated to the Church and Her mission of Catholic Education. He and his wife are active members of St. Luke’s Parish in Barrington, RI where he serves as a Lector. Mr. Fuller is also a member of the Bishop Hickey Council, Knights of Columbus.      I wish to thank the Search Committee for their hard work on this important undertaking as well as their exhaustive review of the many candidates for the position. Also I thank the parents and faculty who provided valuable input in the online survey. There were many qualified and excellent candidates for the position and I thank them for their applications.

  We give thanks to God for the remarkable leadership of our school under Sister Jeanne Barry, RSM and pledge our prayers for her during her transition. She has been a blessing to our school and children for nearly twenty-years and without a doubt she will be missed. On a personal note, I will certainly miss her joyful and merciful presence in my own life and I wish her continued blessings for the future which I pray will be healthy, happy and holy. Mr. Fuller paid an informal visit to our school this past week and is excited about the future at OLM. A Mass and Welcome Reception for him sis scheduled for  Sunday, June 22nd. I am confident that you are as excited to meet Principal Fuller as he is to meet you and lead our school into the future. Keep him in your prayers as he prepares for his new position.

In this time of transition I also ask for your continued prayers for our entire school community. May Almighty God continue to bless our school and parish and may Our Lady of Mercy continue to lay her mantle of protection and guidance upon us all. It’s hard to believe but we are soon to celebrate our graduation of the OLM Eighth Grade. On Sunday June 8th we celebrate a Mass of Thanksgiving for the OLM 8th Grade at 10:30AM and then on Wednesday, June 11th they graduate at the Graduation Ceremony. We congratulate them for this milestone in their young lives. We also thank the OLM School Administration, Faculty and Staff for guiding these young men and women to grow in faith and wisdom over these many years.

Next weekend tickets for Sister Jeanne’s Retirement Celebration on June 18th are being sold after all Masses. Also Doug Green and Mickey St. Jean will be at all weekend Masses for re-registration of our OLM Religious Education students for next year. Parents of children grades K through 6 will also be able to register for the Vacation Bible School in June. Fr. Connors survived his time at “Grill the Priests” last week. Nearly a hundred young adults gathered at Dave & Buster’s Bar and Grill in Providence to ask several of our young priests many questions about the Catholic Faith. Fr. Connors reports it was a very positive experience for all gathered there and the priests had some challenging questions. If you have a question about the Catholic Faith email it to Fr. Connors and he will put the answer in his weekly column in an upcoming bulletin.  Monday is Memorial Day, a day to offer our prayers and give thanks for the many men and women of the U.S. Military Services who have sacrificed their lives fighting for our nation. Why not honor their memory at on Memorial Day by coming to Mass at 8:30? Join us as we offer our prayers for the many who gave all for us. May they rest in peace. God Bless. God Bless America!

First Communion Faith at OLM and the Catholic Church at Harvard!

Dear Parishioners: We had a beautiful celebration of First Communion last Saturday. Even the weather was beautiful! We congratulate our 95 First Communicants on receiving the Lord Jesus truly present in the Eucharist for the very first time. We hope and pray that this will be the start of a life-long love of the Eucharist!   On Sunday we celebrated Mothers’ Day with the May Crowning at the 10:30AM Mass. It was so nice to see the Church full of First Communion Families, their guests and our parishioners celebrating together our Blessed Mother!

We continue to celebrate our Blessed Mother Mary during this month of May on Mondays with Exposition and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament and the Rosary. Last Monday at May Devotions Fr. Connors prayed for Harvard University which was scheduled to hold a “Black Mass.” A “Black Mass” is a ritual performed as a religious travesty and mocking of the Catholic Mass by the followers of Satanism. This outrageous and offensive action was originally slated to be performed on the campus of Harvard but fortunately it was cancelled.  Unfortunately it was not cancelled by the Harvard Administration but by the organizers themselves after the outcry against it. Harvard President Drew Faust said the satanic Mass is "flagrantly disrespectful and inflammatory" but refused to cancel such an event on the campus because of “free speech.”One wonders if there was to be an offensive event that attacked, ridiculed and mocked African-Americans, followers of Judaism or Islam, or homosexuals she would have permitted it under the guise of “free speech.” People may have “free speech” rights to spew hatred and evil but it doesn't have to be accepted and permitted at institutions of higher learning. The great historian and advisor to President John Kennedy, Arthur Schlesinger, himself a graduate of Harvard, suggested: “Anti-Catholicism was the last acceptable prejudice.” It appears that might be true at the nation’s leading university. Sean Cardinal O’Malley, the Archbishop of Boston stated: “It’s just very disappointing and disturbing. You know, there’s a great fascination with evil in the world. It doesn’t lead to anything good.” Let us continue to pray for those at Harvard and all over the world who mock and attack our Catholic Faith. Listen to Pope Francis: “Let us ask the Lord for the grace to take these things seriously. He came to fight for our salvation. He won against the devil! Please, let us not do business with the devil! He seeks to return home, to take possession of us. Do not relativize; be vigilant! And always with Jesus!”

Now that First Communion is over our Religious Education Program has ended for the year. I am truly grateful to Mickey St. Jean and Doug Green who did such a tremendous job leading the program this year. We thank all those who participated in our RE Program and especially thank the teachers who volunteer so much of their time and talent to teaching the Catholic Faith to the future of our Church and Parish. There is a flyer in this week’s bulletin introducing a new and exciting opportunity for the children of our parish. We are offering a Vacation Bible School at OLM in late June. We invite all children of the parish from Grade K through 6 to join us for this great week of fun and faith!  Our Summer Seminarian, Nicholas Robenhymer, arrives at OLM this week. He will be with us for a few weeks, living and working with Fr. Connors and I. He is from Narragansett and graduates from Providence College this weekend. He continues his priestly studies this fall at St. John’s Seminary in Boston. When you see him around the parish or around town please be sure to give him your usual warm OLM welcome. I hope you will join us on June 18th for a celebration of Sister Jeanne’s many years of dedicated service to our school and parish. Details are in the bulletin this week so be sure to mark your calendar. Have a great week! Remember Mondays are for Mary! Welcome Nicholas! God Bless. Go Bruins??!!

Foundations of Faith

Dear Parishioners: We had a great night last Saturday at our Annual OLM School “Spring Fling.” Nearly two-hundred OLM School families, staff and friends gathered at the Omni Hotel in Providence to celebrate and support our school. I am grateful to the many who made it such a great success.              We thank OLM Parishioner Gene Valicenti of Channel 10 News and WPRO Radio Fame for generously serving as our toastmaster for the evening. It is always a fun evening but also a critical fundraiser for our parish school. I wish to thank the many donors who gave donations in advance of the evening and the benefactors who provided the auction items for the evening. The silent and live auctions had some terrific items on which to bid including Red Sox-Yankee Game packages, a Fishing Excursion on a 35 foot boat, a weekend at beautiful Vermont Vacation Home, and of course, Dinner with the Priests of OLM. They all produced high bids but it was Dinner with the Priests that sold for the highest at $3,000! Now Fr. Connors and I have to just figure out how to cook!! We sold two of the dinners!I want to thank OLM Parishioner John Pontarelli of Pro-Scape Landscaping who not only provided a landscaping design for the auction but during the auction generously included providing the landscaping for OLM Church and School. We are grateful to all those who bid on all the auction items and generously donated to this critical fundraiser for our school. We couldn't meet the $2.5 million budget of our school without this important event. In the name of Sister Jeanne, the faculty and students I thank you for the support, it is truly appreciated!

This weekend we mark one of the highlights of the year, First Communion! It is always a joyful and happy day when our parish children receive Jesus Christ truly present in the Eucharist for the first time in their lives. I am grateful to the teachers who have worked so hard to prepare the children for this important day. In particular I wish to thank Mrs. Mickey St. Jean our OLM First Communion Coordinator and the many volunteers who help her in the Religious Education Program for doing such a terrific job preparing the children. Also I wish to thank Mrs. Mary Martin-Tuite and Mrs. Mary Ryan who have so wonderfully prepared the First Communion Class at OLM School. The dedication of these fine teachers of the faith along with the example of their own families has brought these children to this truly great day in their faith lives. May they continue to grow in the faith and nourish their faith on the Eucharist every Sunday. Of course this week we also celebrate Mothers’ Day and so we wish all our of our Mothers a truly happy, healthy and holy Mothers Day. Fr. Connors and I are to offer Mass for all Mothers both living and deceased on Mothers’ Day. Also we crown the Blessed Mother the Queen of Heaven and Earth this Sunday at 10:30AM Mass. Last May Pope Francis talked about a mother’s roles during a visit to the Basilica of St. Mary Major, the oldest church in the West dedicated to Jesus’ Mother. He stated: “A mother helps her children grow up and wants them to grow strong; takes care that her children develop better, that they grow strong, capable of accepting responsibilities, of engaging in life, of striving for great ideals. Our Lady does just this for us, she helps us to grow as human beings and in the faith, to be strong and never to fall into the temptation of being human beings and Christians in a superficial way, but to live responsibly, to strive ever higher.”   We are getting close to reaching our Catholic Charity Appeal parish goal of $193,000. I thank all those who have donated thus far but we still have not heard from many parishioners. The Catholic Charity Appeal is our call to help the poor throughout the state by supporting the many good works of our Diocesan Church. If you have not yet pledged your gift, I urge you to please do so today. Thank you.Happy Mother’s Day! Congratulations to our First Communion Class! See you at May Devotions on Monday! God Bless. Go Sox! Go Bruins!!

Celebrations and Charity!

Dear Parishioners: With nearly two million people attending in Rome and millions more watching on TV, Pope Francis made history last Sunday when he canonized two of his predecessors, Saint John XXIII and Saint John Paul II. Pope Francis was joined by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, for the beautiful Mass of Canonization. I hope you were able to see it on TV as it was truly an inspirational and historic event.In his homily at the Mass, Pope Francis stated: “May these two new saints and shepherds of God’s people intercede for the Church... May both of them teach us not to be scandalized by the wounds of Christ and to enter ever more deeply into the mystery of divine mercy, which always hopes and always forgives, because it always loves.”   Saint John XXIII and Saint John Paul II, pray for us!

We are fully immersed into the Easter Season and now look forward to the parish celebration of First Communion. Next Saturday the Second Grade Students of the OLM Religious Education Program and OLM School celebrate their First Communion. I ask you to please keep them in your prayers as they continue to prepare for this joyous and faith-filled occasion in their lives.   First Communion is a great celebration in the life of our parish and a sign of the future for our Church. Next Sunday, we also celebrate Mother’s Day and our First Communion Class is to celebrate the May Crowning of the Blessed Mother at the 10:30AM Mass. It’s a wonderful way to celebrate Motherhood as we honor the Mother of God and of the Church. Also Fr. Connors and I offer Masses on Mother’s Day for all Mothers.   We hope spring weather arrives soon for First Communion and Mother’s Day!

Let’s not forget that May is for Mary! I invite you to join us on Monday evenings at 7:00PM during the Month of May for Marian Devotions. Each Monday in May we expose the Blessed Sacrament, pray the Rosary and receive Benediction. I can’t think of a better way to spend a half hour on Mondays, can you? See you at May Devotions!

While we continue to bask in the glory and joy of the Easter Season, let’s remember how we got here. We spent forty days during Lent praying, fasting and giving alms. I am happy to report that your generous alms giving to the OLM Outreach Office helped us provide financial support and material aid to many people and agencies in need.Over the winter months, the OLM Outreach Office has provided rental assistance and assistance with utilities to several local families. Also during Lent we collected $3,000 for Bishop Tobin’s Keep the Heat On Fund which helps those struggling to keep their heat in the winter. We also donated $500 each to McAuley House, Emmanuel House, Whitmarsh House and the RI Coalition for the Homeless.   We also provided hundreds of bags of healthcare and hygiene products to the residents of Emmanuel House for the Homeless, New Hope Shelter for Women, and Breadlines, the weekly food distribution program for the homeless at Cathedral Square. For Easter we provided nearly 50 Easter Baskets with food cards to area families in need. The Confirmation Class baked over 300 cupcakes for McAuley House’s Easter Dinner and the Outreach Office provided 200 candy filled eggs for the McAuley House Easter Egg Hunt. Almsgiving is alive and well at OLM! I’ve published in the bulletin this week some of the thank you letters we’ve received for our assistance.

All of these good works and financial assistance efforts are a direct result of your generous support of the Monthly OLM Outreach Collection.   Please know that all of the funds collected go directly to our OLM Outreach efforts locally and across the state.   In the name of the poor, the needy and the homeless who benefit from your almsgiving, I offer thanks and gratitude for your generous charity and bountiful support.Fr. Connors is back and this weekend we welcome him home from his well deserved vacation. Have a great week and pray the spring weather comes soon. Happy Easter! God Bless. Go Sox! Go Bruins!!

Celebrating Easter and Making Saints!

Dear Parishioners: Happy Easter! What a glorious celebration of Holy Week and Easter we had at Our Lady of Mercy. We saw large crowds at all the Liturgies of Holy Week and standing room only crowds on Easter Sunday. At the Easter Vigil Mass we baptized an adult into the Catholic Faith, received a convert into the Catholic Church and confirmed two adult Catholics in their faith. It was a joyful celebration of the Risen Lord and our Catholic faith. Such beauty and joy wouldn’t be possible without the hard work of so many good people.

We thank Cecilia Franzone and her dedicated troop of decorators for making our Church so beautiful for Lent, Palm Sunday, Holy Week and Easter. They did a tremendous job and we are grateful! We thank our musicians, Deirdre Donovan and Nick LaRoche, and our parish choirs for their great gift of beautiful and prayerful music. We thank our great Altar Servers who provided reverent service at all the Holy Week Liturgies and Easter Sunday. We also thank our Lectors and Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion for their faithful service during such a special time for our Church and Parish. And of course we thank our loyal Ushers for their welcoming and ushering of the many people who came to Church. It was truly a beautiful and faith-filled Holy Week and Easter at OLM and I am grateful to all who participated and helped to make it such a meaningful experience. With the Easter Season well underway, we continue to celebrate our faith with joy and hope.

The hymn of glory we sang at the Easter Vigil, the   Exsultet, declares: “Be glad, let earth be glad, as glory floods her, ablaze with light from her eternal King, let all corners of the earth be glad, knowing an end to gloom and darkness.”For the 50 days Easter we celebrate the Lord's resurrection from the dead, culminating in his Ascension to the Father and sending of the Holy Spirit upon the Church. We mark this season with hope and joy over the glorified life and the victory over death, expressed most fully in the great resounding cry of every Christian:  Alleluia! All faith flows from faith in the resurrection and it is as St. Paul said: "If Christ has not been raised, then empty is our preaching; empty, too, is your faith."

The word "Easter" comes from Old English, meaning simply the "East." The sun which rises in the East, bringing light, warmth and hope, is a symbol for the Christian of the rising Christ, who is the true Light of the world. The Easter or Paschal Candle is a central symbol of this divine light, which is Christ. This candle which was blessed at the Easter Vigil is used at Baptisms, Confirmations and Funerals and during the Easter Season is kept near the ambo (pulpit) throughout Easter Time until Pentecost.

Today in Rome Pope Francis is to canonize two Popes as Saints. Blessed Pope John Paul II and Blessed Pope John XXIII are now Saints of our Church and offered as examples to us for their heroic and holy lives of faith and service.Pope John Paul, known as a globetrotter who made 104 trips outside Italy, served as pope from 1978 to 2005 and Blessed John XXIII, known particularly for convoking the Second Vatican Council, was pope from 1958 to 1963. We turn in prayer to these good and holy Churchmen and ask for their intercession for our Church and Parish. I am grateful to the San Martino Family for donating a beautiful statue of Saint Pope John Paul II in memory of Maria San Martino. This statue will be placed in our candle room so we make seek the regular intercession of John Paul. Pope Francis said Blessed John was "a bit of the 'country priest,' a priest who loves each of the faithful and knows how to care for them; He was holy, patient, had a good sense of humor and a man of courage, especially by calling the Second Vatican Council.” Pope Francis said of Blessed John Paul : "I think of him as 'the great missionary of the church, because he was "a man who proclaimed the Gospel everywhere." We rejoice in the Risen Lord and rejoice in our two new Saints! St. Pope John Paul II and St. Pope John XXII, pray for us! God bless. Happy Easter!!