Helping Hands at Our Lady of Mercy!

Dear Parishioners: What a tremendous turn out we had for our “Helping Hands” Event for Catholic Relief Services and End Hunger Now. A couple of hundred parishioners of every age came to the OLM School Gym to help pack meals for the poor and hungry in West Africa. An assembly line of these volunteers packed 20,000 meals in just an hour and half! I wish to thank Dudley and Kathy Bennett who helped to organize this great event for our parish. All of the meal packages are to be sent to West Africa where each can provide six meals. I am grateful for the many people from our parish and school who volunteered to put mercy in action at OLM. In the name of the poor and hungry, I thank all those who contributed so generously to this OLM Outreach effort.

This week enclosed in the bulletin is the Annual Parish Financial Report which was approved by the Finance Committee and sent to Bishop Tobin last month. I wish it were a more positive report but unfortunately due to a large drop in enrollment at our parish school last year and a major increase in healthcare costs we ran a deficit of $100,000. On the positive side our income has remained consistent and some of our expenses last year were one time expenditures. The Annual Collection was strong last year and helped pay for one time projects. I am grateful to our Parish Finance Committee and Parish Auditors for helping with this report. Their guidance and advice are helpful in securing the future of our parish financially and fiscally. I hope you are able to review the enclosed report in the coming week.

Also sent to the Bishop with the Annual Financial Report is the Status Animarium Report. This report is about “the status of the souls” in the parish. This report includes the census of the parish and the number of people receiving the sacraments over the year from September 2013 through September 2014. We presently have 2,245 registered families at Our Lady of Mercy. There are 375 students in our parish school and 400 students are registered in our Religious Education Program. We baptized 50 new Catholics this year and received 4 adults into the Catholic Church. This is an increase from last year’s 40 baptisms. This year 83 children received First Holy Communion and 93 young adults received the Sacrament of Confirmation. These are great signs of growth and vitality for our parish. We don’t track the number of Confessions but we know that 83 First Communion Candidates went to First Confession. We estimate that nearly 30 people come to Confession a week. We offer Confessions on Saturdays at 3:00PM and Mondays at 6:00PM.

We had only 4 weddings this year and that is a sharp decrease from the previous year’s 12 weddings. The number of weddings both in churches and even civilly are down across the country. Many young people are choosing to either not get married and cohabitate before ever getting married. In other cases many Catholics choose to get married outside the Church with the increased popularity of “destination weddings.” We administered the Sacrament of the Sick to over 100 people this year. This includes people at Kent Hospital where Fr. Connors and I cover two days a month. And sadly we celebrated 46 funerals this year as we commended to God these faithful souls.

Again I would remind you that if someone is sick at home or hospitalized to please call the Parish Office to let us know. Due to privacy laws we are not notified when parishioners are hospitalized. We are happy to visit and offer the Sacrament of the Sick. If you know of someone who is homebound we can also arrange for them to regularly receive Holy Communion. I am away this weekend attending the Annual Winter Meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops where I serve as a consultant to the Marriage Committee. Let us continue to pray for the souls of the faithful departed during this All Souls Month of November. The Pats are off this week but what a game last week. God Bless.

Praying for Newly Confirmed, Remembering the Dead and Voting as a Catholic!

Dear Parishioners: What a wonderful celebration of Confirmation we had last Sunday. Ninety-three young adults were confirmed in their Catholic Faith and received the gifts of the Holy Spirit. We hope and pray these young people stay close to Christ and His Church. Pope Francis at a Confirmation Mass last spring invited the newly confirmed to: “Remain steadfast in the journey of faith, with firm hope in the Lord. This is the secret of our journey! He gives us the courage to swim against the tide. Pay attention, my young friends: to go against the current; this is good for the heart, but we need courage to swim against the tide. Jesus gives us this courage! There are no difficulties, trials or misunderstandings to fear, provided we remain united to God as branches to the vine, provided we do not lose our friendship with him, provided we make ever more room for him in our lives.”

We are grateful to Bishop John Noonan for celebrating the Confirmation Mass and for his great homily. We also thank our Parish Music Director, Henri St. Louis, our Parish Soloist Deirdre Donovan and the Parish Choir for the tremendous music they provided for the celebration. The Sacristans, Ushers and Altar Servers provided exemplary service for the celebration and we are grateful. Also I wish to thank all those who helped make the Confirmation Reception a spectacular affair. We thank Doug Green and Mickey St. Jean for leading our RE Program and the RE Teachers who helped to prepare these young people for this special occasion in their lives of faith. I am grateful to the parents and sponsors of our newly confirmed for being part of our Parish and for their commitment to ensuring their children grow in the Catholic Faith.

This weekend we celebrate All Souls Day, a day on which we commemorate all the faithful departed. We do so by praying for the dead and most especially by offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass for the dead. The Church teaches us that the souls of the faithful departed if upon departing from the body are not perfectly cleansed from venial sins, or have not fully atoned for past transgressions must enter a time of cleansing or purgation before appearing before the Beatific Vision of the Godhead. So we the faithful on earth help them by prayers, alms-giving and having Masses offered. We remember all the souls in purgatory and in charity pray for all the dead on All Souls Day. The importance of All Souls Day was made clear by Pope Benedict XV (1914-22), when he granted all priests the privilege of celebrating three Masses on All Souls Day: one for the faithful departed; one for the priest's intentions; and one for the intentions of the Holy Father. Only on a handful of other very important feast days are priests allowed to celebrate more than two Masses.

This Tuesday is election day and I encourage everyone to go out and vote. It is our civic duty and a moral obligation to be good citizens and vote. There are many important elections this year for federal, state and local offices. As Catholics we must prepare our vote by praying for guidance from God and prepare our conscience by properly understanding the Church’s teaching on the issues especially foundational issues that concern the right to life. We must also learn where candidates stand on these most important issues and what policies they might enact or support once in office. When we have done this kind of preparation we can then go into the voting booth and cast a vote as a conscientious and informed Catholic citizen. Remember that the right to life is not merely one among many urgent issues, but rather the foundational one.  It provides the cornerstone for a whole architecture of human dignity found in such issues such as poverty, immigration, education and economics. So vote on Tuesday but do so as a Catholic with an informed conscience not a party member, union member, family member and not out of self-interest but rather vote for the common good especially for the unborn, the poor and the marginalized. God Bless! Go Pats!

Celebrating Confirmation at OLM! Preparing for All Saints and All Souls!!

Dear Parishioners: We celebrate the Sacrament of Confirmation this weekend for 100 young people of our parish. These students have been studying over the last year at RE Classes and have taken a Retreat in preparation of this milestone in their faith lives. On Monday night they came to October Devotions where Father Chris Murphy, the Chaplain at Bishop Hendricken High School, spoke to them about the importance of Confirmation in their lives. They also had the chance to receive God’s mercy and forgiveness in the Sacrament of Confession. I ask you to please pray for these young people that they may continue to stay close to Christ and His Church in the years ahead.

We welcome Bishop John G. Noonan, the Bishop of Orlando, to Our Lady of Mercy for the celebration of Confirmation. I first met Bishop Noonan when he was the Rector of the St. John Vianney Seminary College in Miami where two of my priesthood classmates teach philosophy. A few years ago when he was then the Auxiliary Bishop of Miami he visited my last parish in Albion for the celebration of Confirmation. It was that very weekend in October 2010 that he was appointed the Bishop of Orlando, Florida.

He is a native of Limerick, Ireland and studied for the priesthood in Florida. He is priest of the Archdiocese of Miami where he served as a parish priest, high school principal, and seminary rector. His Episcopal motto “God before me and God with me” originates in Exodus when Moses was leading the chosen people out of slavery and into the Promised Land. That same prayer was spoken by St. Patrick as he preached the Gospel in Ireland. Confirmation is an important event in the life of our parish and I am grateful to Bishop Noonan for taking the time from his busy schedule and the warm weather of sunny Florida to be with us. We also offer our gratitude to the newly confirmed young people of Our Lady of Mercy for their commitment to the faith. In your name, I offer our congratulations and prayerful best wishes to them all.

Daylight savings time ends next Sunday, November 2nd at 2:00AM as our clocks fall back one hour. Our 5:00PM Saturday evening Mass moves to 4:00PM beginning next Saturday. This also means that Confessions on Saturday afternoon move to 3:00PM beginning next Saturday. Next weekend we also celebrate the Solemnity of All Saints on Saturday. It is a feast that honors the saints both known and unknown, the obscure as well as the famous. This year it is not a Holy Day of Obligation because it falls on a Saturday. Therefore, the only All Saints Mass to be offered is Saturday at 8:30AM.

During November we are called to remember in a special way “our brothers and sisters who have fallen asleep in the hope of the resurrection.” The Feast of Souls, a day in which we remember all the faithful departed, falls on a Sunday this year. So next Sunday, November 2nd we remember in particular all the Our Lady of Mercy parishioners who have died since last November. Their families have been invited to join us at the 10:30AM Mass as their deceased loved ones are remembered. Following the Mass we are to process to St. Patrick’s Cemetery to pray for the faithful departed who rest in that sacred ground. The Church has encouraged prayer for the dead from the earliest times as an act of Christian charity. "If we had no care for the dead," Saint Augustine noted, "we would not be in the habit of praying for them." I encourage you to pray for all the dead during the Month of November. May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

I hope you can join us next Saturday night in the OLM School Gym following the 4:00PM Mass for our OLM Outreach “Helping Hands” Event for Catholic Relief Services . It is a great way for all parishioners to celebrate All Saints as we strive to be saints! Again we say congratulations to the newly confirmed of OLM! Also we thank Bishop Noonan for being with us for this special day. Have a great week. God Bless. Go Pats!

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.