Praying for Vocations, Making Pligrimages, and Helping Hands at OLM

Dear Parishioners: It’s been a busy week this week even though we started with the Columbus Day Holiday on Monday. On Tuesday, Fr. Connors joined with Fr. Chris Murphy, the Chaplain of Bishop Hendricken High School, and Fr. Joe Upton, the Prout Chaplain, and took a bus of high school students to St. John’s Seminary in Boston. These young men were able to tour the seminary, pray with the nearly 100 seminarians, and join them for a meal. They were also able to meet with Seminarian Brian Morris who is from Our Lady of Mercy Parish, and Nick Robenhymer, who served as our Summer Seminarian this past summer. It was a great opportunity for this group of young men to see first hand what life in a major seminary is like, but also to meet many other young men who are presently preparing for the priesthood. I am grateful that Fr. Connors, Fr. Murphy, and Fr. Upton took time out of their busy schedules to arrange this Vocation Awareness Trip.

However, vocations are everyone’s business not just the young priests of our diocese. Bishop Tobin has asked for all Catholics to pray with devotion and fervor for more vocations to the priesthood. He is holding monthly Holy Hours for Vocations across the Diocese. The next  Holy Hour for Vocations is scheduled for Thursday, October 23, 2014 at 6:30 PM at St. Joseph Church, 1200 Mendon Road, Woonsocket.  Bishop Tobin has called us to unite in prayer that many more men respond to God's call to the priesthood in the Diocese of Providence.

Bishop Tobin was with us on Wednesday night for Mass at Our Lady of Mercy and we had a great crowd. He came at the invitation of Fr. Connors as part the Diocesan effort to outreach to Young Catholics. Fr. Connors has been working with the Diocesan Office of Catholic Youth Ministry to develop programs for Catholics in their 20s and 30s. Bishop Tobin not only celebrated Mass here but following the Mass he joined many of these Young Catholics for a time of questions and answers.

On Thursday nearly 50 of our OLM Parishioners made a Pilgrimage to the Divine Mercy Shrine in beautiful Stockbridge, Massachusetts. They had a great day of prayer and devotion that included Mass at the Shrine, a talk by Fr. Michael Gaitley, who serves at the Shrine and is a noted spiritual writer, and also some time of private prayer at the beautiful shrine. It was truly a tremendous day of faith and a wonderful way to come together as a parish community.

Our parish community has a great opportunity coming on Saturday, November 1st. It is the Feast of All Saints but because the holy day falls on a Saturday it is not a holy day of obligation. However, we can celebrate our faith in the communion of saints by putting our efforts to be holy into action. OLM is hosting a “Helping Hands” Meal Packing event co-sponsored by Catholic Relief Services and End Hunger Now. We need volunteers to serve in one hour shifts from 5:00PM through 8:00PM on Saturday, November 1st as we pack meals in the OLM School Gym. We must package 10,000 meals to be shipped to the people of the West African country of Burkina Faso. An assembly line of packing takes place after a brief presentation by the folks from CRS. It is a event open to anyone in the parish, of any age, and a great way for a whole family to celebrate All Saints Day. Each of these 10,000 meals costs just 50 cents and we need to purchase them. So if you cannot attend the All Saints Day Event and would like to sponsor some meals please know that our monthly OLM Outreach Collection for November is dedicated to this worthwhile effort. Also, if you would like to donate some of these meals just make a check payable to OLM Outreach and mark “Helping Hands” in the memo line. I am grateful to OLM Parishioner Kathy Bennett for organizing this opportunity to put our mercy and faith into action. Have you come to October Devotions yet? Why not join us on Mondays at 7:00PM as we pray the Rosary before the Eucharistic Lord. It’s a wonderful way to start your week with prayer. Have a great week. God Bless.

October Means Mary and Praying the Rosary at OLM

Dear Parishioners: On Tuesday we celebrated the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. Known for several centuries by the alternate title of “Our Lady of Victory,” the feast day takes place in honor of a 16th century naval victory which secured Europe against Turkish invasion. Pope St. Pius V attributed the victory to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who was invoked on the day of the battle through a campaign to pray the Rosary throughout Europe. Pope Leo XIII was devoted to Our Lady of the Rosary, producing 11 encyclicals on the subject of this feast and its importance in the course of his long pontificate. In the first of them he wrote: “It has always been the habit of Catholics in danger and in troublous times to fly for refuge to Mary.”

The month of October is dedicated to Mary and her Holy Rosary. The Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to St. Dominic in 1206 after he had been praying and doing severe penances because of his lack of success in combating the Albigensian heresy. Mary praised him for his valiant fight against the heretics and then gave him the Rosary as a mighty weapon, explained its uses and efficacy, and told him to preach it to others.  Since the prayers of the Rosary come from such excellent sources — from Our Lord Himself, from inspired Scripture, and from the Church — it is not surprising that the Rosary is so dear to our Blessed Mother and so powerful with heaven. If we consider the power of the Rosary as seen in its effects, we find a great abundance of proofs of its tremendous value.

We are blessed in our parish to have many faithful parishioners dedicated to praying the Rosary on a daily basis. Many pray it by themselves and many others gather immediately following Daily Mass to do so as a group. These parishioners know well the power of praying the Rosary. We also gather as a parish every Monday night at 7:00PM for October Devotions to pray the Rosary before the Eucharistic Lord. As Father Connors noted in his homily last weekend Our Lady of Mercy is also truly blessed to have a dedicated group of Rosary makers who meet to pray and make rosaries to be distributed across the globe and here in East Greenwich. Since 2003, this dedicated band of Rosary makers led by OLM Parishioner Theresa Lee have made and distributed over 21,000 rosaries for use around the world. They have been especially generous in supplying many of these Rosaries to the missions in Africa and South America. This year they expect to distribute over 1,700 Rosaries. In your name, I think them for all they do to spread the Rosary here at OLM and to the four corners of the earth! When is the last time you prayed the Rosary? Not sure how to? Don’t remember all the prayers? Don’t worry as there are “How to Pray the Rosary” Guidebooks and Rosaries for you to take at every door of our Church. Pick up your beads and join us every Monday during October!

I would like to bring to the attention of all our young families a great opportunity here at OLM. Ron and Kate Jelinek are generously serving as leaders of our newly formed Young Adult and Young Family group. The group meets on the first Wednesday of the month at 5:30pm in the OLM School Gym. There is a dinner and some social time, with baby-sitting provided, and a short talk on some aspect of Catholic life. Fr. Connors gave the presentation at the first meeting on how to integrate prayer into our daily lives. I am to speak at November’s meeting on Catholic Faith and Political Life. If you are interested in learning more , please contact Kate Jelinek by email at (kate_jelinek@hotmail.com).

My thanks to all who so generously donated baby items for our “Baby Shower.” As a result of your generous support we received hundreds of much needed items. A great job by Nancy McDevitt and her band of volunteer pro-lifers who helped to make it a great success. October is for Mary! Pray the Rosary! Come to Devotions! Keep the faith! Happy Columbus Day! God Bless. Go Pats Go!!!

October is here! Pray with the Blessed Mother! Proclaim the Gospel of Life!!

Dear Parishioners: October is upon us and with it comes the fall weather, the colorful foliage, and football! However, as Catholics the Month of October means Respect Life Month. A time to pray and work for an increased respect for all human life from natural conception until natural death. Of course, there is much prayer and work needed to move our society from a culture of death to a culture of life. Pope Francis has stated: “All too often, as we know from experience, people do not choose life, they do not accept the ‘Gospel of Life’ but let themselves be led by ideologies and ways of thinking that block life, that do not respect life, because they are dictated by selfishness, self-interest, profit, power and pleasure, and not by love, by concern for the good of others.”

While we enjoy the right to life, we also each have the obligation to defend it for others especially the most vulnerable in our society. Pious words about human dignity are empty unless we do something to make them happen. We are called to act on our convictions in proclaiming the Gospel of Life. One practical way is to support the Baby Shower we are holding this weekend at OLM. All of the baby items are given to women who are in a crisis pregnancy and have chosen human life rather the going to the abortion mills at Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood often portrays itself as an organization that is concerned with “women’s reproductive and preventative healthcare.” However, the truth is that it makes millions of dollars from abortions. Last year they ended the life of over 300,000 innocent unborn children. However, we know that pregnancy is not a sickness and abortion is not really a form of preventative healthcare but rather the direct killing of an unborn child. Far too many of our political candidates and elected officials, very sadly many of them Catholic, not only support abortion and ally themselves with Planned Parenthood but they also want us to pay for abortions with tax dollars and fund the abortion mills like Planned Parenthood. Shockingly some even advocate that abortion should be legal right up until the ninth month of pregnancy!

October is a time that we draw ever closer to the Lord Jesus in prayer and in the sacraments. We must ask the Lord for the grace to see ourselves and others as He sees: children created in His image and likeness. So I urge you during this Respect Life Month of October to pray with greater fervor for an increase in the respect for all human life. Each Monday night at 7:00PM during this month we gather together before the Eucharistic Lord and pray the Rosary. Our October Devotions are to be offered for an increased protection for human life and respect for human dignity. It is truly a wonderful opportunity for each of us to bear witness to the Gospel of Life with prayer and devotion. Practically we must also continue to support pro-life initiatives like Project Gabriel and Project Racheal that our Diocesan Family Life Office sponsor. We can also support the many good works of RI Right to Life who educate and advocate for life. And finally we must consider where our political candidates and elected officials stand on the issue of life.

Last Sunday night over twenty-five high schoolers gathered with Father Connors for “Pizza with Padre.” They prayed before the Blessed Sacrament, reflected on a theological topic with Father Connors and then enjoyed some great pizza! All OLM high school students are invited to join in this great time on Sundays immediately after 5:00PM Mass. The homework can wait for one hour of prayer, theology and community! I invite all the men of OLM Parish to join us this Tuesday for Movie Night sponsored by the Men of St. Joseph. It should be a night of fun and fellowship. Also I offer my thanks to the many parishioners who were so generous to our Annual Collection. It is a great start for this critical collection. Please pray for Life this Month. See you at Monday Devotions. Pray for the Pats too! God Bless.

Celebrating and Supporting Our Parish Family

Dear Parishioners: If you didn’t make it to the Parish Picnic last Sunday, you missed a great afternoon of fun! Our own Father Connors not only rode a 4 foot high unicycle but also juggled while doing so! It was a great day for our young Associate Pastor as his team also won the “Tug-of-War” against my much older and weaker team! There was a whole lot of fun for the couple of hundred parishioners who turned out for the festivities. We thank all those who worked so hard in preparing for the Picnic, working during the Picnic and cleaning up after the Picnic. In particular we thank our crack OLM Maintenance Staff led by Paul Anderson and Dave Belanger. We must also thank our Knights of Columbus for sponsoring the hamburgers and hot dogs (we served around 400!) and cooking all afternoon. Also we thank the Galleshaw Family of Wright’s Chicken Farm for lending us their tent for the day. Many others cooked and brought food and we are grateful for all those who helped to make the Parish Picnic a great day for all! We must also thank God who provided good weather for almost the entire time of the Picnic. It didn’t rain until almost 4:00PM and then only for a short amount of time. God is good and we thank Him for providing us a beautiful day of faith, family and friendship!

On Monday we had a good turnout for Father Chris Maher’s talk on the meaning of Mercy. His talk was inspirational and provided much food for thought for us who worship at Our Lady of Mercy Church. Tuesday was a great night of music with our very talented Adult and Children’s Choirs singing some truly beautiful hymns and songs dedicated to Our Lady. We are truly blessed to have such wonderful choirs and also such talented musicians as our organist Henri St. Louis and our soloist Deirdre Donovan. On the Feast of Our Lady of Mercy, we had a solemn celebration at 7:30AM Mass and a festive gathering immediately afterwards. We give thanks to God for the blessings of our faith and our parish family and we continue to turn our patroness, Our Lady of Mercy, to intercede for us and our parish. May she continue to lay her mantle of love and protection upon us! Our Lady of Mercy, pray for us!

This weekend we take up our Annual Parish Collection at all Masses. This important collection helps us continue to provide for much needed capital improvements and maintenance projects. We are finalizing the installation of a new natural gas boiler for our Church. The cost of this project is nearly $40,000. It includes the removal of the old oil burner that is on it’s last legs and the installation of a new highly efficient natural gas burner. This change will bring us great savings on our heating bills as the cost of natural gas is far less than heating oil. We spent over $30,000 heating the Church last winter! We also are planning to replace the old oil burner in the Rectory but it is much more involved as it requires removal of asbestos material. Of course this means it will be more costly too. We are still reviewing the bids for this project and unfortunately will not be able to begin it until the spring.

I’ve received many compliments on the new landscaping around the parish and school. Mercy Park certainly looks beautiful and more inviting! We are grateful to OLM Parishioner John Pontarelli and Proscape Landscaping for their generous work on the project. Also we thank Kyle Alfred who provided the landscape design and oversaw the planting of the new flowers, bushes and trees. Our new parish sign is up and hard to miss. It comes complete with an accurate Mass schedule and is quite well lit at night. We hope to put the old parish sign, now newly refurbished, up very soon in another location. The new sign and new trees around Mercy Park are available to be memorialized. If any parishioner cares to dedicate them in memory of loved one, please contact me at the Parish Office. Once again I offer my sincere thanks for your generous response to the Annual Collection. Without your continued generosity OLM wouldn’t be such a beautiful and lively parish. God Bless. Go Pats!

Turning to Our Lady and Celebrating Our Parish Feast!

Dear Parishioners: On Monday we celebrated the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows. We always turn to our Mother, Mary, in times of trouble but in a special way we do so on this feast. Our world seems to be full of the bad news of war and violence, suffering and sorrow and so we need especially to turn to Our Lady for her powerful intercession. Pope Francis said last weekend that “war is madness.” Standing at an altar beneath the towering Redipuglia memorial entombing 100,000 Italian soldiers fallen in World War I, the pope said "even today, after the second failure of another world war, perhaps one can speak of a third war, one fought piecemeal, with crimes, massacres, destruction."

The President and Congress are considering how to engage the war on terror against the Islamic terrorists who continue to brutally attack innocents across the Mideast and beyond. Last week this blood-thirsty band of madmen know as ISIS or ISIL beheaded another journalist. Their savagery knows no bounds as we continue to wait to see how the world might stop their campaign of evil and destruction. So if there were ever the time for us to turn to prayer and ask for the powerful intercession of Our Lady it is now.

We began this past week by turning to Our Lady of Sorrows asking her to intercede for those who suffer in sorrow for the death of loved one but also for those who suffer the sorrow of war, disease and violence. We certainly need the maternal closeness of the Sorrowful Mother to sustain us when overcome by the terrifying trials of life in this world. And while we looked to Our Lady of Sorrows last week, we now look forward in faith, hope and joy to Our Lady of Mercy’s Feast this week!

We begin the celebration of our parish feast this Sunday with the Parish Picnic. It should be a great day of sun and fun, good food and good times for parishioners of all ages. So skip the Patriot’s game, tell the kids they can play soccer next Sunday, play golf another day, sail sometime later and instead join us for a great family celebration as a parish. The celebration continues this week with three more special events in the life our parish.

On Monday night at 7:00PM we have a time of prayer and reflection that includes Eucharistic Adoration and a reflection on the meaning of mercy by Father Chris Maher. Father served as an Associate Pastor here at OLM and now serves as the Rector of Our Lady of Providence Seminary where he oversees the young men preparing for the priesthood. I hope you can attend this time of prayer and reflection in honor of Our Lady of Mercy. Also plan on joining us on Tuesday night at 7:00PM for a concert of Marian Music. Our very talented organist Henri St. Louis and soloist Deirdre Donovan along with our wonderful Adult and Children’s Choirs perform a selection of beautiful hymns and songs dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Following the concert you are invited to join us a reception in the Church vestibule as we continue our celebration of our parish feast.

On the actual Feast of Our Lady of Mercy, Wednesday, September 24th, we gather for Mass at 7:30AM. We sing and pray for the powerful intercession of Our Lady of Mercy, the Patroness of our parish. Join us for the Mass and the reception to follow immediately afterwards. If you cannot celebrate at these events I do ask each parishioner to offer a prayer on Wednesday on her feast day to Our Lady of Mercy. We turn to her with all our sorrows and joys and ask her to intercede for us and our parish family.

Let us pray: “O Mother of Mercy, Healer of the Sick, Refuge of Sinners, Comforter of the Afflicted, You know my wants, my difficulties, my suffering. Look with Mercy on me and comfort me in my time of trouble and lay your healing love upon me. Amen.”

On behalf of my family, I offer my sincerest thanks for your many acts of kindness and expressions of sympathy on the recent death of my brother. I am truly grateful for being part of such a supportive, caring and merciful parish family as OLM. God Bless. See you at the Picnic!!

Summer ending, Fall and Retired Priests coming!

Dear Parishioners: The first day of autumn is until September 23rd but for all practical purposes summer ends on Labor Day! As summer ends we once again ask, where did it go? It went so quickly and seems to go quicker the older I get! Speaking of getting older, next week Fr. Frank O’Hara, one of our senior priest, will be preaching at all the weekend Masses. Fr. O’Hara is here to speak on behalf of the Senior Priest Retirement Collection. Last year Fr. Nick Smith preached so powerfully preached about this collection that we raised nearly $17,000 here at OLM! Once again the Diocese has asked us to let a Senior Priest preach on the vital need of the collection which is scheduled for the weekend of September 20 and 21st.

The many senior priests of the Diocese of Providence are self-supporting. Diocesan priests live independently in retirement, no longer relying upon the support of a parish. Since they are paid a modest wage during their years in active ministry, priests receive a minimal Social Security benefit. In 1966, the diocese established the Senior Priest Retirement Fund in an effort to help retired priests meet the basic needs of food, housing, transportation and medical care. There are currently 95 senior priests in the diocese. Often retiring between ages 70-75, many continue to serve after more than forty years of active ministry. Still others require assisted living, or nursing home care. The Church of Providence faces an important challenge today in supporting this fund. As with other retirement benefit programs—such as Social Security— the fund is burdened by increasing current and projected costs that exceed its income. Priests are living longer, more active lives. A large percentage of priests in the diocese are nearing retirement age. The rate of those drawing on the fund is projected to only increase in the foreseeable future: in fifteen years some 50 percent of our priests presently active in ministry will be eligible for retirement. Fewer active priests also impacts fund revenues since one revenue source is a premium (from parish assessments) that is based on current active priests. Your generosity answers that challenge and says thanks to the many faithful priests who have served our Church.

The Annual Retirement Fund Collection is a major support for our retired priests. With a thoughtful, generous contribution you can help the Senior Priest Retirement Fund meet its obligations to those who depend on it for today and tomorrow. It’s also our way of thanking them for their many years of faithful service. Fr. O’Hara has been retired for several years and still is active helping out parishes around the state. In fact, Fr. Connors will be out covering Masses for Fr. O’Hara while he is with us at OLM next Sunday in Cranston and Warwick. In full disclosure, both Fr. Connors and I both stand to benefit from the Priests’ Retirement Fund in the future. For me it will be in the year 2035 when I am eligible to retire and Fr. Connors is eligible to collect his pension in the year 2053! So when I am about 88 years old, the young Fr. Connors can join me at the Senior Priest Residence on Mount Pleasant Avenue!! But we are only able to retire if we have a strong retirement fund for retired priests, so your generous support is deeply appreciated by all the priests of Providence, young and old!

I received a note from St. Patrick’s Parish this week thanking the all of you for your tremendous support of the Back-Pack Drive. Fr. James Ruggeri, Pastor of St. Patrick’s in Providence, wrote that they were able to help over 50 families including one family of eight children and two with six children. They gave out 100 back-packs full of school supplies. Your generosity in supporting the needy of Smith Hill is appreciated. Fr. James writes: “On behalf of all our volunteers, staff and especially the happy children who walked through the door, thank you!” I know you will give Fr. O’Hara a warm welcome to OLM next weekend. Have a great week! God Bless! Go Pats!