Picnics and more!!!! Happy Labor Day!

Dear Parishioners: As Father Connors announced at Masses last weekend, Bishop Tobin has appointed me to serve as the Dean of Deanery VII. Deans are appointed by the Bishop to represent him to the priests of the deanery; bring the concerns and needs of the priests to the attention of the Bishop; work with and provide support to the priests; and coordinate the pastoral activity of the deanery. A Deanery is a geographical grouping of parishes and there are eight in the Diocese of Providence. Deanery VII encompasses all the parishes from East Greenwich south to Westerly. There are 16 parishes including St. Andrew’s on Block Island. The duties of the Dean require I visit each parish once a year and hold meetings for the priests throughout the year. In June our previous Dean, Msgr. Paul Theroux, was transferred to a new parish in another deanery and caused the vacancy. I am grateful to Bishop Tobin in appointing me as Dean and for his trust and confidence in me. I ask for your prayers as I take on this new duty and also your understanding as I take on additional diocesan duties outside the parish. Of course, I continue my primary duty as the full-time Pastor of Our Lady of Mercy. But also continue to serve as the Director of the RI Catholic Conference and Chief Lobbyist for the Diocese at the RI Statehouse.

We must also thank Bishop Tobin for sending us such a very talented young priest in Fr. Connors. There are only a few parishes with an associate pastor and we are blessed to have him. He is a tremendous help to me and truly a great asset to our parish. In fact, Fr. Connors has been busy preparing for our Annual Parish Picnic on September 21st. He is organizing the activities for the day and tells me that there are some exciting new additions to the picnic. There are Pony-Rides for the children once again along with other games for the kids. The Knights of Columbus are grilling hamburgers and hot dogs. And I hear that our resident juggler, Fr. Connors, might be riding his unicycle on Picnic Day! So be sure to mark your calendar for this big day! Also please note the schedule of events for the Feast of Our Lady of Mercy in the bulletin this week. We kickoff our events with the Parish Picnic on Sunday, September 21st. On Monday, September 22nd we gather in prayer for our parish and an inspiring talk on “Mercy” from Fr. Chris Maher. On Tuesday, September 23rd our talented parish choirs and musicians offer a concert of music dedicated to Our Lady. And lastly on Wednesday, September 24th, the actual date of the Feast of Our Lady of Mercy, our 7:30AM Mass is to be celebrated with great solemnity and followed by a reception. Join us for all of these special events in the life of our parish. We look forward to our patronal feast and turn to Our Lady of Mercy for her powerful intercession for our parish. It is a great time to celebrate the joy of our parish family with faith and hope. So join us as we gather for fun and fellowship, prayer and praise!

We began our new school year with a Mass on Monday for the dedicated and talented teachers of our parish school. We welcomed our returning teachers and also our new teachers along with our new principal. On Wednesday we saw the smiling faces of our school children on the first day of school. The excitement on Wednesday was incredible especially for those beginning school for the very first time! On this Friday, September 5th at 9:00AM we celebrate the Opening Mass of the School Year. At this Mass of the Holy Spirit we call forth the power of the Holy Spirit upon our school community especially our new principal. May it truly be a year of faith, hope and love and may our school children continue to grow in faith, holiness and wisdom. Monday is Labor Day and a day to relax but also a day to give thanks to Almighty God for the gift of work in our lives. Let us also remember in prayer the unemployed and all those struggling to find work. Work brings dignity and security to life so please pray for those seeking it. Happy Labor Day! God Bless

Back to School this week!

Dear Parishioners: It’s back to school this week! Summer is over for our students and teachers as Wednesday is the first day of school. The summer vacation seemed to fly by but I am sure our school children and perhaps even their parents are ready for the return to the classroom! When I was a school kid summer didn’t end until Labor Day and school didn’t begin until after the holiday. However, most school districts in our state including East Greenwich now begin school the week before Labor Day. So as school begins I ask for your prayers for our students, teachers and staff as they begin another academic year of learning. Our parish school follows the East Greenwich Schools Calendar so we begin this Wednesday as well. Of course our dedicated teachers begin this Monday in preparation of the school year. We are most grateful for their service to our parish school and wish them the best this year. We also wish our new OLM Principal Scott Fuller all the best as he begins his first year of leadership of our great school. We will officially mark the beginning of school with a Mass of the Holy Spirit on Friday, September 5th at 9:00AM. We will call forth the Holy Spirit to guide and direct our faculty and students this year and help them grow in faith, hope, charity and wisdom. Mr. Fuller will be officially installed as our new Principal at this Mass. We invite you to join us for this celebration for our parish community. The OLM Maintenance Staff under the leadership of Mr. Paul Anderson have been working especially hard these last few weeks finishing up some of the renovations of the school. This includes installing the new security system for the school, refurbishing the main corridor and front hallway with new paint, new flooring and a new ceiling tiles as well general maintenance and painting of classrooms. Also the crew from RISE, a part of the National Grid that provides free energy efficiency services, have been installing all new lighting in the school classrooms and corridors. This new lighting will work more efficiently and will likely save on our electricity costs for the school. The lighting and work of installation are free of charge.

We’ve also are presently looking into replacing the boilers for the Church and Rectory. They currently use heating oil and our oil bills during the winter months are very high as you can image. Both boilers are old and not as efficient as they should be and we hope to replace them with natural gas boilers. The cost of natural gas is much less than oil and can provide great savings for our parish. I wish to offer my deep thanks and gratitude to the many parishioners who were so generous in our Back-Pack Drive. On Monday we delivered over 100 back-packs full of school supplies to St. Patrick’s Parish in Providence. Fr. James Ruggeri and his parishioners were overjoyed at the response to their call for help. We also gave nearly fifty back-packs filled with school supplies to some families in need here in East Greenwich. Your tremendous witness to charity is deeply appreciated and in the name of the needy, I offer my thanks. Now that he has settled in after a year here, Fr. Connors is serving as the Chair of our Annual OLM Parish Picnic. On Sunday, September 21st it kickoffs our celebration for our Patronal Feast of Our Lady of Mercy on September 24th. We hope to have yet another year of good food, good fun and good times with parish family and friends. Sign-ups for volunteers to help with this great time is to take place in the coming weeks after Masses. So mark your calendar now for this great event in the life our parish and please pray for good weather! Pope Francis was in South Korea last week where he beatified 124 martyrs at a Mass for Korean Youth. In his homily he said: “The martyrs challenge us to think about what, if anything, we ourselves would be willing to die for.“ A most challenging question for us who worship so freely and without fear in this time of violent and murderous persecution of many of our Christian brothers and sisters. Indeed, what would we die for?

Benches, School, Catholic Charity and Prayers for Iraq

Dear Parishioners: I hope you noticed the newly installed benches at the front entrance of Church. They were installed by Paul Anderson and our OLM Maintenance Staff last week. These stone benches were made possible thanks to the generous, hard work of  Don and Angela Conte of Structural Stone. Also, we thank the DiGianfilippo family and Mark Mainelli for their generous memorialization of the benches in memory of their loved ones. The benches look terrific and are a nice addition to the continuing beautification of God’s House. They look as if they were always there and last week I watched as many parishioners rushing into Mass missed them altogether. Yes, you can sit on them! They are there for that very purpose but please don’t sit there during Mass, come in and join the congregation!! This coming week we hope to begin the new landscape design of the rest of the Church and School property. This entails removing most of the hedges, removing some dying trees and planting new bushes and flowers. Kyle Alfred, who designed the landscaping at the front entrance of Church, has designed this project as well. He is working with OLM Parishioner John Pontarelli of Pro-Scape  Landscaping on this project. John generously donated his landscaping costs of the project and we are truly grateful. When it is completed we will have a new and truly beautiful physical plant surrounding both the Church and School. Included will be the installation of new Church sign as well as the installation of the refurbished sign that was blown down in the wind months ago.

The OLM Maintenance Staff are finishing up the projects in our school building. This includes removing the old carpeting from the walls, installing new flooring and ceiling tiles, installing a new camera security system and security door, and cleaning and painting the classrooms. All this is just in time for the opening of school on August 27th!  Also, all new lighting is being installed throughout the school as part of the National Grid program to promote energy efficiency. The total cost of the lights is well over $50.000 but it is totally underwritten by National Grid and costs our school nothing. Principal Fuller has been working hard these last few weeks meeting with teachers, staff and school families. He has great zeal for his new job leading our school community into the 21st Century. There are some limited openings for new students for our Pre-K Program and some in other grades. If you are interested, stop by for a visit and say “Hi” to Principal Fuller. There is Parish Tuition Assistance available for those who qualify.

I wish to offer my thanks and gratitude to the 615 OLM Parishioners who helped us go well over our 2014 Catholic Charity Appeal Goal. The CCA just finished up and this year it raised the most ever in the history of the Appeal. OLM raised just over $248,000 with over 600 OLM families supporting the Appeal. It is a great sign of your generous support for this truly important charity of our Church in Providence. I once again thank Mr. and Mrs. Kevin McDevitt and Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Zubiago for their leadership of the Catholic Charity Appeal here at OLM.

No doubt you have watched as the violence in the Middle East escalates.  The violent persecution of Christians and the tiny Yazidi community in Iraq continues with many being killed, beaten and driven from their homes. Pope Francis continues to urge world leaders to intervene with more humanitarian aid. Please pray for the persecuted in Iraq and for peace in our world. His Beatitude Louis Rafael Sako, Chaldean Catholic Patriarch of Iraq authored this prayer: “Lord, the plight of our country is deep and the suffering of Christians is severe and frightening. Therefore, we ask you Lord to spare our lives, and to grant us patience, and courage to continue our witness of Christian values with trust and hope. Lord, peace is the foundation of life; Grant us the peace and stability that will enable us to live with each other without fear and anxiety, and with dignity and joy. Glory be to you forever.” God Bless

Finding Happiness...the Holy Father's Top Ten Tips!

Dear Parishioners: I just read about Pope Francis’ recipe for happiness in life. He suggests slowing down, being generous and fighting for peace. In an interview published last week, the pope listed his Top 10 tips for bringing greater joy to one's life:

1. Live and let live. "Everyone should be guided by this principle,’ he said, which has a similar expression in Rome with the saying, "Move forward and let others do the same." 2. "Be giving of yourself to others." People need to be open and generous toward others, he said, because "if you withdraw into yourself, you run the risk of becoming egocentric. And stagnant water becomes putrid." 3. "Proceed calmly" in life. The pope, who used to teach high school literature, used an image from an Argentine novel by Ricardo Guiraldes, in which the protagonist -- gaucho Don Segundo Sombra -- looks back on how he lived his life. "He says that in his youth he was a stream full of rocks that he carried with him; as an adult, a rushing river; and in old age, he was still moving, but slowly, like a pool" of water, the pope said. He said he likes this latter image of a pool of water -- to have "the ability to move with kindness and humility, a calmness in life." 4. "A healthy sense of leisure." The pleasures of art, music, literature and playing together with children have been lost, he said. "Consumerism has brought us anxiety" and stress, causing people to lose a "healthy culture of leisure." Their time is "swallowed up" so people can't share it with anyone. Even though many parents work long hours, they must set aside time to play with their children; work schedules make it "complicated, but you must do it," he said. Families must also turn off the TV when they sit down to eat because, even though television is useful for keeping up with the news, having it on during mealtime "doesn't let you communicate" with each other, the pope said 5. Sundays should be holidays. Workers should have Sundays off because "Sunday is for family," he said. 6. Find innovative ways to create dignified jobs for young people. "We need to be creative with young people. If they have no opportunities they will get into drugs" and be more vulnerable to suicide, he said. "It's not enough to give them food," he said. "Dignity is given to you when you can bring food home" from one's own labor. 7. Respect and take care of nature. Environmental degradation "is one of the biggest challenges we have," he said. "I think a question that we're not asking ourselves is: 'Isn't humanity committing suicide with this indiscriminate and tyrannical use of nature?'" 8. Stop being negative. "Needing to talk badly about others indicates low self-esteem. That means, 'I feel so low that instead of picking myself up I have to cut others down,'" the pope said. "Letting go of negative things quickly is healthy." 9. Don't proselytize; respect others' beliefs. "We can inspire others through witness so that one grows together in communicating. But the worst thing of all is religious proselytism, which paralyzes: 'I am talking with you in order to persuade you,' No. Each person dialogues, starting with his and her own identity. The church grows by attraction, not proselytizing," the pope said. 10. Work for peace. "We are living in a time of many wars," he said, and "the call for peace must be shouted. Peace sometimes gives the impression of being quiet, but it is never quiet, peace is always proactive" and dynamic, he said.

One place you can certainly find happiness is at Mass! This week we honor the Blessed Virgin Mary as we mark the Solemnity of the Assumption. There will be three Masses for this Holy Day of Obligation on August 15th. A Vigil Mass at 5PM on Thursday and two Masses, 7:30AM and 7PM on Friday. Also please join us in Church on Friday for a day of Prayer for Persecuted Christians in Iraq and Syria. We shall offer prayers for them as we turn to Our Lady of Mercy for her help, intercession and assistance. Hope to see you on the Assumption! God Bless.

Saying So Long and Praying for Our Seminarians!

Dear Parishioners: We offer our Summer Seminarian, Nick Robenhymer, a fond farewell this weekend. Nick has been with us just over ten weeks as part of his preparation for priesthood. After graduating from Providence College this past spring, he came to OLM for the summer. Now he departs to begin his priestly formation and theological studies at St. John’s Seminary in Boston. I hope you can stop by to wish Nick well after the 10:30AM Mass in Mercy Park. He was a joy to have at the parish this summer and helped in many ways. Nick provided some much needed help with our new Vacation Bible School and we learned then that he can play the Ukulele!! His help coordinating and serving Masses, visits to the sick, catechetical instruction with both individuals and parish groups were a great experience for him as well as our parish. We thank Nick for his joyful and prayerful presence at OLM. Keep him in your prayers as he enters the next stage of priestly formation at St. John’s Seminary. I am grateful to Fr. Carl Fisette, the Director of Vocations, for choosing OLM to participate in the seminarian program and assigning Nick to our parish.

Our own native-son of OLM, Seminarian Brian Morris, spent his summer serving at St. Pius Parish in Westerly and leaves today to serve two weeks at the Shrine in Lourdes, France. While there Brian is to assist pilgrims especially those who have come in need of healing and suffer from physical disabilities. I have asked Brian to pray for our parish and the intentions of all of our parishioners while he is there. Lourdes has long been a place of pilgrimage since Our Lady appeared to St. Bernadette in 1858. Many come to be cured in the waters of the beautiful grotto where the Blessed Mother spoke her message to the young French farm girl. The core of the message was that God comes to tell us that he loves us, and he loves us as we are with all our successes but also with all our wounds, our weaknesses and our limitations. Let us turn to Our Lady of Lourdes and beg her intercession for our parish and for our seminarians preparing for the priesthood.

Last week I received a call from my classmate, Father James Ruggeri. He is the Pastor of St. Patrick’s Parish in the Smith Hill section of Providence. Father James is one of the finest priests of our Diocese and is commonly called the “the Saint of Smith Hill.” He is tireless servant of the poor and has established a new Catholic high school for economically disadvantaged students, runs a weekly soup kitchen and provides aid and assistance to the poor and needy of his parish. He called and asked if the good parishioners of OLM might help provide school supplies for the students of his parish as they prepare to go back to school this fall. Father James knows well the generous and supportive nature of OLM as we routinely send him financial support from our Outreach Collection. The details of the “Backpack Drive for St. Patrick’s” are in this week’s bulletin if you care to help out. In the name of Father James and the poor he so faithfully serves, I offer thanks and gratitude for your support.

Don’t forget to put Sunday, September 21st on your calendar as we look forward to another celebration of the Feast of Our Lady of Mercy. We will once again have our Annual Parish Picnic complete with all the fun and games, good food and good times we have had the last two years. So put it in your book or on the kitchen calendar now! Who knows we may even be able to see Fr. Connors not only juggle but perhaps ride his unicycle this year!!

Tomorrow, August 4th, is the Feast of St. John Vianney, the patron saint of parish priests. He is often referred to as the "Curé d' Ars". He became internationally known for his priestly and pastoral work in his parish because of the radical spiritual transformation of the community. His holiness and zeal were apparent to all who met him. He spent hours and hours hearing confessions and was devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary. I kindly ask for your prayers for Fr. Connors and myself and also for all priests on this special feast day. God Bless.

More To Do Before Summer's End, An August Update!

Dear Parishioners: Summer is flying by! August arrives this Friday as we say good-bye to July! As August arrives we also say good-bye to our Summer Seminarian, Nick Robyenhymer, who finishes his time at OLM next weekend. His twelve weeks at OLM went quickly and now he prepares to go on to theological studies at St. John’s Major Seminary in Boston. So next weekend please be sure to say farewell to Nick. We will have a small reception for him after the 10:30AM Mass next Sunday where you can officially wish him well. Keep Nick and all our seminarians in your prayers as they discern and study for the priesthood. Pray for more vocations to the priesthood and religious life for as the Lord reminds us: “ The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.”

Next weekend we will also take up the Peter’s Pence Collection at all Masses. The Peter's Pence Collection derives its name from an ancient custom. In ninth-century England. King Alfred the Great collected money, a "pence," from landowners as financial support for the Pope. Today, the Peter's Pence Collection supports the Pope's philanthropy by giving the Holy Father the means to provide emergency assistance to those in need because of natural disaster, war, oppression, and disease. I hope you can generously support this very important collection that helps aid the poorest and neediest in the world. I wish to thank you for your generous support of last week’s Missionary Co-op Collection for the Maryknoll Lay Missions. Your support of this missionary effort to proclaim the Gospel across the globe is admirable and I know that Erik Cambrier was very grateful for the warm welcome and great support he received.

As summer rolls on we continue to prepare for the coming school year. Our new Principal, Scott Fuller, has been busy getting ready for a new school year and learning “the ins and outs” of OLM School. Also, our maintenance staff continue to work on cleaning and painting the classrooms, remodeling the entry way and installing a new security system. It has been a busy time over at OLM School even though its summer! There are other maintenance projects we anticipate this summer including the redesigning of the landscaping surrounding the Church and School. It has been designed by the same landscape designer, Kyle Alfred, who did the front of the Church and should look truly as beautiful. We are grateful to OLM Parishioner John Pontarelli of Pro-Scape Landscaping for his generous donation of the work. We hope to get this project underway in the coming weeks. Sister Jeanne is now residing full-time in the Mercy Convent here at OLM. We welcome her to the neighborhood and look forward to her continued presence in our parish community. So be sure to say “Hi Neighbor” next time you see her around the parish.

Last weekend Fr. Connors, Seminarian Nick, and a small group of OLM Youth attended the Annual Steubenville East Conference held on the URI Campus. Thousands of Catholic young people from across New England gathered to pray, sing, interact and learn more about their Catholic faith. It is a life changing event for many of these young Catholics and I am so happy Fr. Connors was able to take some kids from our parish. The Steubenville East Event (named after the University of Steubenville where it first started) is held every summer with the hopes of strengthening and inspiring teens in their faith journeys to Christ and His Church.  Evangelistic in nature, these weekend conferences are both a great “introduction” to the Gospel message for new and younger teens, while offering deep and moving experiences of prayer and fellowship for those veterans who have attended in the past. This annual event continues to grow and we hope to get even more of our OLM youth to attend next summer. Have a great week! Get ready for August and enjoy the summer while its here! Don’t forget to say “Farewell” to Nick next week. God Bless.