Let Freedom Ring! Happy Fourth of July!!

Dear Parishioners:

It’s hard to believe but its already Fourth of July weekend. The summer is in full swing as we once again celebrate our nation’s founding. We not only celebrate having overthrown the shackles of British colonial oppression but we also celebrate our freedoms and liberties. Pope emeritus Benedict once called religious liberty “the most cherished of America’s freedom.” However, even in our own nation religious liberty is under threat as the culture becomes more secular. Those who hold to deep religious convictions are frequently criticized but also forced even by the government to violate their conscience. We do not face the violent persecution that our fellow Christians face in other nations. In countries like Syria, Iraq, China, Egypt and Nigeria, Christians often face not only government oppression but violent attacks and murderous persecution. Pope Francis recently commented on the increased persecution of Christians across the globe. He stated: “Nowadays, persecution of Christians is stronger than it was in the first centuries of the Church, and there are more Christian martyrs than in that time. This is happening 1700 years after the edict of Constantine, which granted Christians the freedom to publicly profess their faith.” As we celebrate our independence this weekend, we must not take our liberties especially our liberty to come to Mass and worship as Catholics for granted. We also pray for our brothers and sisters who follow Christ and our persecuted, oppressed and even put to death because of it. May freedom of religion soon ring for all people!

Last Sunday we marked our last Sunday 5:00PM Mass until September. This was the first year we had the 5:00PM Mass on Sunday evenings and it seemed to work pretty well. There was a dramatic decrease in attendance during the month of June, so we may consider ending it in May next year. In any case, if you are looking for a Sunday evening Mass in July and August, there are a few so-called “Last Call” Masses down at those beach parishes and a 5:00PM at Saints Rose and Clement in Warwick. And if you are travelling this summer, go to masstimes.org to find a Mass near your vacation destination!

You may have noticed in the bulletin the results of the Catholic Charity Appeal here at Our Lady of Mercy. I want to offer my thanks to the many parishioners who generously supported the Appeal. We more than surpassed our parish goal of $193,000. As of June 29th our total was $242,470.50! We came close to our parish participation goal of 600 with 594 OLM parishioners supporting the Appeal. In the name of the poor who benefit from this charity, I offer my thanks and gratitude to the many who gave so generously and also to our Chairs, Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Zubiago, and Mr. and Mrs. Kevin McDevitt. Thanks for all your generous support!!

Sister Jeanne Barry, RSM, our former parish school principal, is to move into the Mercy Convent. The convent has been empty since Sister Edna moved to Mercy Mount Nursing Home. Sister Jeanne has been living in the Mercy Convent at Saints Rose and Clement but the parish is taking over the convent there for other purposes. So if you see boxes coming and going at the Mercy Convent, know that it is Sister Jeanne moving in to her new home. Welcome to the neighborhood! We are looking for high school age boys and girls who would like to work weekends as Sacristans setting up for Masses. Training is provided along with a small stipend. If you are interested or just want more information, contact Fr. Connors. It’s a great opportunity for our youth to serve the parish. This weekend we welcome to Our Lady of Mercy Mr. Henri St. Louis as our new Director of Music and Organist. Be sure to give him your usual warm OLM welcome! May St. Cecilia, the patroness of Church musicians, pray for him and all our church musicians at OLM! Hope you had a great Fourth of July! Enjoy the summer while it lasts! God Bless America!

Summer has arrived! Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us!

Dear Parishioners:It’s beginning to look a lot like summer! Last Saturday was the first day of summer but the weather has also provided that summer feeling we needed so badly. School is out and summer has begun! We had our first OLM Vacation Bible School this past week. Over fifty children from the parish and about twenty young volunteers had a terrific week learning about their Catholic Faith. I am grateful to Miss Croteau and Mrs. Maguire from our OLM School Faculty for helping organize this great opportunity. Also our Summer Seminarian Nick, Fr. Connors and several parents helped the OLM VBS be a great success. We hope that this will become an annual event at OLM where the parish children can come to a safe and friendly environment and learn more about Jesus and His Church. Fifty is a good start but we have hundreds of young children at OLM so I look forward to even more children participating in the VBS! Last week’s Corpus Christi Procession was a beautiful tribute to the faith of Our Lady of Mercy Parish. Many of our parishioners joined the procession and filled Mercy Park for Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. It was a great witness to our faith in the Eucharist and truly wonderful to see. Wouldn’t be great if we could get all of our parishioners to join the procession and go right down Main Street! Perhaps we might just try it in the future. I am grateful to the Adult Choir for their beautiful singing on the Feast of Corpus Christi. They did another great job of helping us to pray and worship God solemnly and joyfully. Both the Adult and Children’s Choirs will be off during the summer months. We thank them for their generosity for so willingly sharing their great talents. Both these choirs are great and we are truly blessed to have them at OLM. Also Nick La Roche who has been serving as our Interim Parish Organist and Choir Director leaves us after this weekend. Nick generously volunteered to serve for an interim period and now he returns to his full-time career. We are grateful for all his hard work and for sharing his beautiful voice with us. We wish him well and I am sure he will be back to sing on occasion. We also thank Steve Martorella who filled in as organist on Saturday and Sunday nights the last few months. I am happy to announce Henri St. Louis as our new Our Lady of Mercy Parish Organist and Choir Director. You have most likely heard Henri play the organ before as he has substituted here many times for Masses, Funerals and Weddings. He comes to OLM after serving as the Organist and Co-Director of music at Holy Apostles Church in Cranston. Henri is a very accomplished musician and holds a degree in Church Music magna cum laude. He has served as an organist at Holy Apostles but also at Precious Blood Church in Woonsocket, and St. Augustine Church in Providence. He will continue to serve as the Music Director at the Seminary of Our Lady of Providence. In his “spare” time he composes music, restores organs, plays the harpsichord, conducts choirs, teaches music theory and organ. Henri is the founder and conductor of the Schola Cantorum Sanctae, a choral ensemble which specializes in unaccompanied sacred music. We welcome Henri St. Louis to Our Lady of Mercy. He begins next weekend so please be sure to say hello to him and give your usual warm OLM welcome! We look forward to Henri ‘s great talent as an organist and our soloist Deirdre Donovan’s beautiful voice! Today Bishop Tobin is celebrating a special Mass in honor of the 125th Anniversary of the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul. It is truly fitting to celebrate such a happy anniversary for our Mother Church on the feast of our patrons, Saints Peter and Paul. There is a short history of the Cathedral in the bulletin this week. If you have never visited the magnificent Cathedral in Providence, you should make an effort to visit the newly restored Church. It is well worth the time and effort to see such a beautiful tribute to our worship of God. Happy 125th Anniversary! God Bless. Go Sox!!

Celebrating Corpus Christi and The Source and Summit of our Faith!!

Dear Parishioners:Happy Feast of Corpus Christi!! Since the Apostolic Church, Christians have been celebrating the Eucharist in which we partake of the body and blood of Christ. Jesus instituted the Eucharist on Holy Thursday. The Eucharist is also called Holy Communion, the Blessed Sacrament or the Mass (from the Latin word meaning "to dismiss"). Even though Christians have highly esteemed every sacrament, the Eucharist has traditionally held a special place among the sacraments. St. Ignatius of Antioch (105 AD) referred to the Eucharist as the "medicine of immortality" and St. Ephrem the Syrian (373 AD) taught that even crumbs from the Eucharistic host could sanctify thousands and thousands. St. Thomas Aquinas suggested the Eucharist was the greatest of all sacraments. The Church has viewed the Eucharist as unique, even among the sacraments, since the earliest times. So it is fitting that the great Feast of Corpus Christi is celebrated every year specifically to commemorate the Eucharist. The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us that: “The Eucharist is ‘the source and summit of the Christian life.’ The other sacraments, and indeed all ecclesiastical ministries and works of the apostolate, are bound up with the Eucharist and are oriented toward it. For in the blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ himself.” (1324).” The Eucharist constitutes "the Church's entire spiritual wealth, that is, Christ Himself, our Passover and living bread.” It is the "Sacrament of Sacraments” and through it "the work of our redemption is accomplished."   Jesus Christ who is the "living bread that came down from heaven" assures us that “whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink." As we celebrate this feast, let us do so with great faith, devotion and solemnity. We should never take the Eucharist for granted but celebrate it as one of the greatest gifts God has given us. This feast is a good occasion to ask ourselves how important the Eucharist is in our lives. When we come to Mass we must never forget we are coming to the greatest banquet in the history of the world. It is at Mass that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is truly present to us. It is at Mass we come forward to reverently and worthily receive our Lord in Holy Communion. It is not a casual affair and we must not become casual in how we approach the Lord at Mass. Each week many people come forward to receive Holy Communion but don’t seem to know how to properly receive the Host. We can receive the Host on the tongue or on the hand. If we are to receive in the hand, the best way is to put the right-hand down and put the left-hand on top of it and make, as Tertullian used to say, “a throne for the Lord.”  When the priest or the extraordinary minister holds up the Host and says “The Body of Christ”, the proper response is to say loudly: "Amen." Our “Amen” is a statement of faith and should be said aloud in faith and with joy! After receiving the Host we should then take a step or two to the side to make way for the next communicant. It is then we must immediately consume the Host. Communion should not be received on the run, as we are walking back to our pew or even worse as we walk out the door! The Host should be consumed immediately before returning to our seat. It should be done reverently, solemnly and prayerfully. We congratulate Robert Legare and Grant Lewandowski who serve their last Mass this weekend at OLM. They have served as Altar Servers since the 4th grade but now they are off to college. We thank them for their many years of faithful service and dedication to God and Parish. We are blessed at OLM to have such great Altar Servers. Also we welcome Mr. Scott Fuller, the new Principal of Our Lady of Mercy School, to our parish this weekend. He assumes his new duties on July 1st. Please keep Mr. Fuller in your prayers as he begins to lead our school. Have a great week. Schools out, be safe!! God Bless.

Praise the Holy Trinity, Undivided Unity, Perfect Charity! Celebrate Fatherhood!!!

Dear Parishioners:

This past Wednesday evening thirty-one of the young men and women of our 8th grade graduated from Our Lady of Mercy School. It was a great celebration for our parish and for the graduates and their families. We wish them congratulations and good luck as they head off to high school. We pray that they continue to build on the great foundation of faith and wisdom received at our parish school. This week school ends in East Greenwich at both our public schools and at Our Lady of Mercy School. Of course, summer arrives officially on June 21st and so begins those lazy, hazy days of the season. We begin the celebration of summer with its vacations away from home, trips to the beach, picnics, cookouts, golfing, boating, sailing and family gatherings. I pray the summer provides you some time to rest and relax from the regular routine. The summer also means a decline in Mass attendance at OLM as many parishioners go off to summer homes or travel away on vacation. I encourage those parishioners travelling to take a look at a fabulous website called Masstimes.org which provides the Mass times at Catholic Churches across the globe. Please don’t take a vacation from Mass this summer! When you do go to Mass while travelling be sure to bring back a parish bulletin and throw it in the collection basket when you return to OLM. I always like to see where people have been traveling and also to see what’s going on at Catholic parishes outside of Rhode Island. This coming Wednesday we celebrate the retirement of Sister Jeanne Barry as the Our Lady of Mercy School Principal. She has been at OLM for 17 years with 13 of those years serving as our Principal. We will gather on Wednesday at 5:00PM to offer a Mass of Thanksgiving for Sister Jeanne’s many years of dedicated and faithful service to the Church, our parish and school. Following Mass we gather at the Quidnessett Country Club to pay tribute to Sister with dinner and enjoy a little roast! We thank Sister Jeanne for all she has been for us and all she has done for our parish and school. She certainly has earned such a celebration and tribute. We wish her well as she begins her much deserved retirement. God Bless you Sister Jeanne, ad multos annos! Next weekend we celebrate the great Feast of Corpus Christi, the Holy Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. We mark the feast at OLM with our Annual Eucharistic Procession following the 10:30AM Mass ending with Benediction at Mercy Park. The Eucharist is the source and summit of our Catholic Faith and so we celebrate with great solemnity and deep prayer. We officially welcome our new OLM School Principal, Mr. Scott Fuller, next weekend. He and his wife join us at 10:30AM Mass and there is a Welcome Reception in the OLM Gym following Mass. I ask you to pray for Mr. Fuller as he prepares to lead our school and I hope you can stop by to welcome him to our parish next Sunday. We celebrate Fathers’ Day today, a day that pays tribute to God’s gift of Fatherhood and we give thanks for our own Fathers. We offer Masses this weekend for all Fathers, both living and deceased. Fathers need our prayers and support, please pray for them. We need look no further than to the patron saint of fathers, St. Joseph, for the ultimate model of fatherhood. St. Joseph sacrificed whatever self-centered inclinations he might have had for the greater good of his foster son, Jesus Christ – and not just once at the news of the Incarnation, but repeatedly in protecting and rearing the Son of God into adulthood. St. Joseph is the model of fatherhood for all fathers to aspire. May he, intercede for fathers and inspire them to be strong, loving and wise. May God bless all OLM Fathers! Happy Fathers’ Day! Also may God bless and protect all our school children this summer. May they be happy, healthy and holy during this time away from school. We look forward to their return in September. Summer is coming, so enjoy it while it lasts! God Bless. Go Sox, please!!!!!

Celebrating Graduates with the Holy Spirit!!

Dear Parishioners:This weekend we begin a new tradition at Our Lady of Mercy as we celebrate a Mass for our 8th Grade Class. At the 10:30AM Mass each of our graduating 8th Graders is to receive a newly designed Our Lady of Mercy School Graduation Medal. Gathering with the 8th Grade Graduation Class at a parish Mass provides the entire parish an opportunity to acknowledge their hard work, academic achievement and growth in the Catholic Faith over these last eight years. These thirty-one young men and women are to graduate from our parish school on Wednesday night. So as they prepare for this milestone in their young lives, we as their parish family offer them our heartfelt congratulations and the promise of prayers as they go off to high school. As we pay tribute to the OLM Graduation Class, it is also an opportunity to congratulate all those who graduate from school this year. Our parish has many parishioners graduating high school, college and graduate school. We wish all of them the best of luck and offer our prayerful congratulations. We pray for their continued success as they mark a new chapter in their young lives. Let us pray for the Class of 2014: “May you have wisdom in heart and mind, success in every challenge you find, courage to seek God’s purpose for you, belief in yourself to make it come true, strength to do your best and endure in trial, and the guiding light of faith to ensure that wherever you go, whatever you do, God’s love will always see you through the years ahead. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.” We had a good start to the sign-ups for our new OLM Vacation Bible School scheduled for the week of June 23rd. If your child is in Grade Kindergarten through 6, we encourage them to sign up for this great time to discover more about their Catholic Faith. This is an exciting new program and we look forward to helping the children of our parish learn about their faith and have some summer fun too! I encourage parents of children in our Religious Education Program to re-register them for next year’s program. Forms can be obtained online at the parish website or picked up at the Parish Office during business hours. We also remind parents of all students entering the 8th Grade whether Catholic, private or public schools that your child needs to register for the Confirmation Program. The Sacrament of Confirmation is celebrated in the fall of their 9th Grade and the program should be completed in the 8th Grade. For more information, please contact our Religious Education Office. I am very appreciative of the many parishioners who offered a warm welcome last weekend to our Summer Seminarian, Nick Robenhymer. He is here for about ten weeks working and living with Fr. Connors and me. If you have not introduced yourself yet, please do so after Mass or when you see him around the parish or in town. It can be tough to be the new guy in town, so please be sure to welcome him to OLM! Today is Pentecost Sunday, a feast that ranks with Christmas and Easter as one of the great feast of our Catholic Faith. On Christmas we celebrate the birthday of Christ in His Physical Body. On Easter, we celebrate the new birth of Christ in His Resurrected Body. Today is the birthday of the Church, of all those who have been reborn into His Mystical Body. Pope Francis preaching on Pentecost says: “The Pentecost of the Upper Room in Jerusalem is the beginning, a beginning which endures. The Holy Spirit is the supreme gift of the risen Christ to his apostles, yet he wants that gift to reach everyone. It is the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, the “Comforter”, who grants us the courage to take to the streets of the world, bringing the Gospel! The Holy Spirit makes us look to the horizon and drives us to the very outskirts of existence in order to proclaim life in Jesus Christ.” Happy Pentecost! Summer is coming soon. One sure sign was the number of parishioners Fr. Connors and I saw last Saturday night at the Hilltop Creamery! Congratulations to our OLM 8th Grade! God Bless. Go Sox!

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