Spring has Sprung! Let's Fling!!! Supporting OLM School and Outreach!

  Dear Parishioners:

It seems like spring has finally sprung! Warmer weather and the long awaited sunshine have arrived. The plants and flowers around the parish grounds are flowering. In the next weeks we hope to remove any that didn’t fully survive the harsh winter. Also you have most likely noticed the sidewalks buckling up around the Church. We are waiting to see how they settle back during the warmer weather and then hope to fix them. They have been painted so you might see the raised sidewalks and cones placed where the walkway immediately in front of Church has slightly raised. So please be cautious when walking around the property.

Spring has indeed sprung and this Friday we have our most important fundraiser for Our Lady of Mercy School, the Spring Fling! This annual event raises critical funds for the operation of our school. Our tuition only partly funds the schools annual budget of $2.5 million. The Spring Fling is crucial to keeping the school financially secure and flourishing. I sometimes encounter people who think that OLM School doesn’t need any financial help since its located in “affluent” East Greenwich. However, that is a total myth. There are many families in our school who make great sacrifices to ensure their children a first-class Catholic Education at OLM School.

Annually we grant tuition assistance to families and last year it totaled $75,000. Our fundraising for the school is crucial for such assistance and also to keep up with the rising cost of healthcare and utilities. It helps fund the proper maintenance and updating of the school. Our fine faculty do not receive large salaries but have a great commitment to providing a first-class Catholic Education and willingly make great sacrifices to serve the school. If you haven’t had a chance to support the Spring Fling and would like to make a donation to the event in support of OLM School, please contact me this week. We need the entire OLM Parish Community to support the great success of our parish school. I thank all those who support our school so generously at the Spring Fling and throughout the year.

Recently I received notes of thanks from the many organizations and agencies that we have supported with funds from OLM Outreach. These include the House of Hope in Warwick which benefits from the OLM Food Pantry. We also sent $1,000 at Easter to both Mary House Soup Kitchen at St. Patrick’s Church in Providence and McAuley House in Providence. We were able to make a donation of $3,000 to the Keep the Heat Fund run by the Diocese of Providence thanks to your generous support of the Outreach Collection. Monthly our Outreach Office provides rental assistance, utility assistance and food assistance to the many needy families in our own community of East Greenwich. It is your loyal and generous support of our Outreach efforts that makes this possible. Thank you!

I also wish to thank the parishioners who have donated to the Catholic Charity Appeal. We are nearing our parish goal of $193,000 but need every parish family to pledge their support in order to reach that goal. We have asked every parish family to consider a gift of $250 pledged over time. Thankfully 387 families have pledged thus far including many who have been very generous with their pledge. In order for the Appeal to succeed at OLM we need all of 2,200 of our parish families to pledge their support and make a donation. All of the proceeds of the CCA go directly to funding the many good works of our Church throughout the state. The Month of May arrives this week! Join us on Friday, May 1st for our First Friday OLM School Mass at 9:00AM and for Eucharistic Adoration throughout the day. The Month of May is busy with First Communion, Mother’s Day, and graduations. It is a month dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary with Devotions every Monday of the month! They say that April showers bring May flowers! Enjoy the flowers! God Bless. Go Sox!

Giving Thanks for the Glory of Easter!

Dear Parishioners:Alleluia, He is Risen! We continue to bask in the glory of Easter! It was a magnificent Easter and Holy Week at Our Lady of Mercy. We had large crowds for our Liturgies of the Sacred Triduum and on Easter Sunday. We welcomed thirteen fully initiated Catholics into the Church at the Easter Vigil! These are great signs of faith and vitality for our parish and community.

We owe a great deal of gratitude to many people for helping make it such a solemn and joyful celebration of our Catholic Faith. We must thank our OLM Maintenance Staff under the direction of Paul Anderson for all their hard work cleaning the Church and the property around the parish from the sandy debris of the harsh winter. We also thank the many volunteers who clean and prepare the Church for Holy Week. We are truly grateful for the dedicated work of Nancy Wray and our Sacristans who prepare all the vestments, vessels and other essentials for Holy Week Liturgies. The flowers and decorations that contributed to the beauty and joy of Easter and Holy Week are the result of the devotion and care of Cecila Franzone and her band of decorators. We thank them! The music provided by our OLM Choir led by our Music Director, Henri St. Louis and the singing of our Soloist, Deirdre Donovan, during Holy Week and Easter was spectacular and we are grateful! The service of our many Altar Servers was truly reverent and solemn and we thank them all! Also our Lectors proclaimed the Word of God with great faith and joy and we are grateful. The many Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion who so reverently distribute Holy Communion and those who bring the Eucharist to the homebound on Easter is truly appreciated. And of course our dedicated troop of ushers provided their usual strong support and warm welcome to our many visitors. We thank them all!

I must also thank our hardworking Associate Pastor, Fr. Connors, for his dedication to ensuring all the preparations and many details for Holy Week were not just completed but completed with care and concern. Father was able to serve as the celebrant the Mother of All Vigils, the great Easter Vigil, for the very first time as a priest. He did a magnificent job of celebrating the Mass as he baptized, received, and confirmed our thirteen candidates. If you didn’t get to the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday night then you missed an outstanding celebration of the Catholic Faith. We thank our thirteen new Catholics for their commitment to RCIA Class and for answering the call of Christ to follow Him in His Church. We also thank their many teachers of the faith in the RCIA who weekly taught and exemplified the joy of being a committed Catholic! Yes, we can certainly sing with the Psalmist that “this is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad!” Holy Week and Easter are the most important events of the liturgical year. Here at OLM we are truly graced with so many people who not just understand this but choose to celebrate it with faith and devotion.

Fr. Connors and I also were privileged this Holy Week to celebrate an extra special event. On Wednesday of Holy Week, longtime OLM Parishioner, Mrs. Claire Sharpe, celebrated her 105th birthday. Father Connors and I were able to celebrate a special Mass for her with her daughters and some friends from the parish. It was truly a great blessing to celebrate Claire’s long life but also her deep and abiding Catholic Faith. All she wanted for her 105th Birthday was to go to Mass! Happy Birthday and God’s Blessing to this wonderful Catholic lady!

After such a long, cold and snowy winter, the glory of Easter and the signs of new life are truly a welcome sight. We give thanks to God for the many blessings He has bestowed on our parish and in our own lives. I know I give thanks to God for allowing me the great privilege to serve such a wonderful parish community of faith and love. God is good and we thank Him! Alleluia, the Lord is Risen! He has Risen Indeed! Let us continue to celebrate the Risen Lord who is so alive in our lives and in our Church! God Bless.

He has risen as He said, Alleluia! Alleluia! Wishing You Blessings at Easter!

Dear Parishioners:Happy Easter! “He has risen as He said, Alleluia! Alleluia!” We pass over from darkness to light, from death to life! Jesus passed over from the cross to the resurrection! “This is the day the Lord has made! Let us rejoice and be glad in it!” This is the act of faith we profess Easter morning: our God is alive, present, active, with us, here and now. He is alive! Alleluia! On this Easter morn we shout out alleluia! We sing with joy Christ is Risen! We rejoice that even death on a cross could not stop Him; even a boulder in front of a borrowed tomb could not keep Him down. All our fears and tears, heartaches and hardships can be summarized in one word: death. Dying can seem the ultimate end. But, not this Easter morning! That Good Friday afternoon did not have the last word; that Easter Sunday morning did! That tomb is empty! It’s spring, not winter! We live in light, we go from death to life!

Each week at Sunday Mass in the Creed we recite: “I believe . . . he rose again on the third day.” The Resurrection is a real, historical event. The Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us that it was “attested to by the disciples, who really encountered the Risen One.” It is also a transcendent event which the Catechism states: “is mysteriously transcendent insofar as it is the entry of Christ’s humanity into the glory of God.” Calling it transcendent does not mean it was somehow “unreal,” or “mystical,” or, worst of all, “a delusion.” No, this real event was transcendent in that it went beyond any natural human or material power in creation. We can easily forget how significant the truth of the resurrection of Jesus Christ truly is. In fact, it is the solution to the greatest mystery that mankind has ever faced. And only Christ has revealed it to us. Only Christians know for sure what comes after death.

Christ’s Resurrection is also a joyful event. We can cultivate joy by being close to the risen Christ. Because he is God he is every happiness and joy. Pope Francis reminded us of this last Easter Sunday in his homily when he stated: “We share a joy, a joy full of wonder, a joy that comes from within because Jesus has risen from the dead. We share the joy of the disciples to whom the women had brought the news that ‘Jesus is risen; we have seen him.” Let us experience this joy, and let us radiate this joy in our lives, in our thoughts, in our looks, our deeds and our words.”

This Easter I am reminded of the story of the great scientists Marie and Pierre Curie. They were two of the most brilliant scientific minds in the world during in the early modern period. In 1903 they received the Nobel Prize in physics. Sadly, however, in 1906 Pierre died tragically in a street accident. Marie was overcome with grief and every day wrote in her diary a message to her late husband, Pierre. One day she wrote: “Your coffin was closed and I could see you no more. We saw you go down into the deep hole. We wanted to see it to the end. They filled the grave and put flowers on it. Everything is over. Pierre is sleeping in his last sleep beneath the earth. No, science does not have the answer. The answer must come from the other side, God's side. It comes from the life and lips of the Man of Galilee. Into the darkness of death He brings light. Into the midst of our doubts He comes with His voice of promise: ‘I am the resurrection and the life, he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.’"

We have greater wisdom than the science of this world can ever give. We know death does not have the last word. We know what comes next! Christ has told us, Christ has shown us. This is our hope; this is our faith; this is the joy of Easter. St. Augustine said it best in the 4th Century: “We are an Easter people and alleluia is our song!” Fr. Connors, Deacon Dowd, and I wish you a Blessed Easter Sunday and a joyful Easter Season! May the celebration of Easter truly be a time of joy, faith and hope for you and your loved ones! Alleluia, the Lord is Risen! Alleluia, He has Risen indeed!

Celebrate Holy Week at Our Lady of Mercy Church

Dear Parishioners: Today is Palm Sunday and it is the beginning of the Great Week of the Church, Holy Week: the week in which we remember and witness to and relive in our own lives the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus.  Every other dimension of the Christian life finds its roots and inspiration in this Paschal Mystery. Holy Week is a time the Church sets aside each year so that we can experience in the liturgy the events of our salvation, renew our faith, strengthen our spiritual life and give strength to that vision of life that only our Catholic faith can provide us. And, as we make our faith journey we recognize that it is through the eyes of faith that we see so much more of what God intends for us. Palm Sunday calls us to begin this spiritual journey. It helps us approach the mysteries of salvation with lively faith and grow that much closer to Christ.

On Holy Thursday at 7:00PM, we celebrate the Mass of the Lord's Supper that commemorates the institution of the Holy Eucharist at the Last Supper. It is the only Mass allowed on this day. Also just as Christ did for his 12 Apostles at the Last Supper and as he commanded them to do likewise, during the Mass of the Lord's Supper, the priests who represent Christ ceremoniously wash the feet of 12 parishioners.  After the Last Supper and before he was arrested and condemned to death, Jesus went to pray in the Garden of Gethsemane, accompanied by two of the disciples.

So after the Holy Thursday Mass, the remaining sacred hosts are carried to an “Altar of Repose,” and the people go with the Eucharistic Christ in a procession to the altar of repose. People stay for a time, adoring the wondrous sacrament that Jesus instituted that day 2,000 years ago. Our Church is to remain open on Holy Thursday until Midnight for prayer and adoration at the Altar of Repose. The Mass of the Lord's Supper finished, the Church now without the Eucharist is truly empty. So the tabernacle light is extinguished and the tabernacle door is left open, exposing the vacant space inside. In silence the altar is stripped bare of its linens and candles, Holy Water is removed from the Church's fonts and the sacraments are not celebrated until the Easter Vigil.

Like the first Christians bereft of Jesus and mourning the two days after the crucifixion, the Church stands unadorned until the Easter Vigil Mass. Good Friday is a day of strict fasting and abstinence. Those over 14 and under the age of 60 are required to fast, which means that they can eat only one complete meal and two smaller ones during the day, with no food in between. We refrain from eating any meat, or any food made with meat, on Good Friday.

The Stations of the Cross devotion is focused on the Passion of Christ. While many pray the meditative prayer on their own throughout the year, it can be an especially poignant experience during Holy Week, when the entire Church recalls the way of Jesus' suffering and death. The Stations are to be celebrated on Friday at 3:00PM.  On Good Friday, the Church gathers for the Liturgy of the Lord's Passion, which includes a reading of a Gospel account of the Passion, Holy Communion (consecrated at Mass on Holy Thursday) and veneration of the Cross. The faithful process to the cross at the foot of the sanctuary, as if to receive communion. There each person reverences the crucifix with a kiss or a solemn bow. Join us on Good Friday at 7:00PM for this solemn liturgy.

On Holy Saturday, the Church waits at the Lord's tomb, and meditates on His Passion and Death and His descent into Hell. With prayer and fasting we await His glorious Easter resurrection. We celebrate the great Vigil of Easter at 8:00PM on Saturday. At the Vigil we baptize adults and receive into the Church those baptized in other faiths becoming Catholic. Also First Communion and Confirmation are celebrated. On Easter Sunday morning we celebrate the glory of the Resurrection with Masses at 7:30AM, 9:00AM and 10:30. Holy Week is here! Please join us as we celebrate our Catholic Faith with devotion and solemnity. God Bless.

Lenten Mission begins! Confessors Available! Holy Week is coming!!

Dear Parishioners: Over the last two weeks we celebrated First Confession for our First Communion Class. For the very first time in their young lives nearly 100 children of our parish experienced God’s mercy and forgiveness in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. It was a great day for them and their families. Also at these celebrations we had four priests available to hear Confessions for the many adults present. It was truly an experience of deep faith as the children, parents, grandparents and siblings celebrated God’s mercy in Confession. This week Confessions are to be heard Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday night beginning at 6:00PM. Four priests are available each night to hear Confession before our Lenten Mission. Also we continue to have Confession daily, Monday through Friday, from 11:45AM until Noon.

Have you gone to Confession yet? Pope Francis recently spoke to a group of priests about Confession. In an address he offered advice to the gathered priests about how to hear Confessions with true mercy and compassion. “Confession should not be a ‘torture,’” the Pope said, “but everyone should leave the confessional with joy in his heart, his face beaming with hope,” even if sometimes “wet with tears of conversion and the joy that comes from it.”

We welcome Father Michael Najim to Our Lady of Mercy this weekend for the Lenten Mission. His theme is “The Simplicity of Holiness.” Over the next few nights Fr. Najim explores this theme as he speaks to us about the theological virtues of faith, hope and love. Father serves as the Chaplain at LaSalle Academy and the Director of Spiritual Formation at the Seminary of Our Lady of Providence. He is a dynamic preacher and I am sure you will enjoy his time with us this week. The Mission is our opportunity to take a “retreat” from our regular schedule and from our busy lives to put God at the forefront. As we “retreat” to pray, ponder and reflect we prepare ourselves to reenter our daily lives refreshed and renewed in the faith. I am grateful to Fr. Najim for taking time from his busy schedule to be with us. He is to offer a Mission Talk at 7:00PM on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday night. Also on Wednesday night exposition and benediction of the Blessed Sacrament is to be offered. It is a great opportunity for our parish and I hope you are able to make it to the Mission.

Next week we begin Holy Week with the celebration of Palm Sunday. Palm branches are to be distributed and blessed at all Masses. At the 10:30AM Mass on Sunday, we are to gather outside for the Solemn Procession of Palms. We mark Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem and hear once again the gospel account of His Passion. With the celebration of Palm Sunday we begin the holiest week of the Church Year. A complete schedule of Masses, Confessions and Liturgies for Holy Week is available in the bulletin.

Also on Palm Sunday we take up the Rice Bowl Collection at all Masses. Those humble cardboard boxes we’ve been filling with coins over this Season of Lent serve an important purpose. They help us live out our Lenten call to give alms but also provide much needed financial support to Catholic Relief Services. The money collected goes directly to buy food for the poorest and hungriest of our world. I ask you to please count your collected coins in advance and instead make your donation with a check or cash bills. This makes it much easier for our volunteer counters on Monday morning. I thank you in advance for your generous support of this very important collection. We continue to move toward meeting our parish goal for the Catholic Charity Appeal. I thank your for your support and urge those who have not had a chance to pledge their gift to please do so. With the support of all parishioners we can reach the goal of $193,000. Welcome to OLM Father Najim! See you at the Mission this week. Remember Fridays are for fish and Stations of the Cross. God Bless.

Praying for Our Persecuted Brothers and Sisters, St. Patrick and St. Joseph Intercede for us!

Dear Parishioners: Recently Bishop Tobin wrote a letter asking all people to take up prayers during this month for persecuted Christians. He wrote: “I invite all members of the Church to undertake some personal acts of prayer, sacrifice of charity for our suffering brothers and sisters. Perhaps you could dedicate the Lenten practices you have already begun to this specific intention. Perhaps you could undertake additional prayer, sacrifice or good works for this attention.”

In this letter he reminds us of the plight of persecuted Christians in Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Libya, Nigeria and North Korea. In these places and others Christians have seen their churches and schools attacked and even destroyed. There are reports of personal attacks upon Christians who have been kidnapped, raped, tortured, crucified and beheaded. This is being done, Bishop Tobin reminds us, “precisely and solely because of their faith in Jesus Christ.”

In light of this continued persecution, perhaps we can all take on some prayer and penance in solidarity with our suffering brothers and sisters. We might offer this prayer from the Roman Missal: “O God, who in your inscrutable providence will that the Church be united to the sufferings of your Son, grant, we pray, to your faithful who suffer for your name’s sake, a spirit of patience and charity, that they may be found true and faithful witnesses to the promises you have made. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.”

On Tuesday we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with a solemn Mass at 12:05PM. St. Patrick lived in at time when enslavement, imprisonment and death for one's faith in Christ were not uncommon. We ask for his intercession and celebrate his bringing the Gospel of Christ to Ireland. Fr. William O’Neill is our homilist at the St. Patrick’s Day Mass. He is the Pastor of St. Mark’s Church in Jamestown and a native of Ireland. Our Mass is to feature Irish hymns, music and readings in the Irish language. We invite you to the Mass and the light reception of Irish Bread and coffee that follow.

On Thursday we mark the Solemnity of St. Joseph, the Patron of the Universal Church, with a Mass in Italian celebrated by Bishop Evans. Fr. David Procaccini, the Pastor of St. Francis de Sales, is our homilist. We invite you to join us for Mass and the reception of zeppoles and coffee to follow. The Mass features Italian hymns and readings. Please join us for these parish celebrations of such great feast days. May Glorious St. Patrick intercede for us and our parish! May Good St. Joseph intercede for us and our parish! May they both intercede for persecuted Christians across the globe.

Next weekend we begin our Parish Lenten Mission with Fr. Michael Najim. Father serves as the Director of Spiritual Formation at Our Lady of Providence Seminary and Chaplain at LaSalle Academy. He is preach all the Masses next weekend and then next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday night at 7:00PM preach a Mission Talk. Each night Confessions are to be heard beginning at 6:00PM with four priests available. This Parish Mission is a great opportunity to take some time from our busy lives to focus on prayer and reflect on our faith. Fr. Najim is a dynamic preacher and I think you will truly enjoy this time of Mission with him.

I thank you for the generous response to the Blanket Drive for the Homeless. We collected nearly 200 new blankets for Emmanuel House. These blankets go to provide our homeless brothers and sisters some small measure of warmth during the winter season. Thank you for your generosity! Also I offer my continued thanks to those who have generously supported the Catholic Charity Appeal. We are moving toward our parish goal of $193,000. If you have not yet made your pledge, please do so today. In the name of the poor and needy I thank you for your support. God Bless. Remember Fridays are for fish and Stations of the Cross! Happy St. Patrick’s Day and St. Joseph’s Day!