What a Week Ahead!! A Mission of Love and a Week of Mercy!! Celebrate Church and Parish!!

Dear Parishioners: What a week we have ahead of us! We look forward to the Parish Feast Day on Thursday, September 24th with a Week of Mercy. Each day leading up to the Feast Day there is a special event planned. Also this week our Holy Father, Pope Francis, makes his first Apostolic Visit to the United States. Today we gather for the Annual OLM Parish Picnic and I hope you will stop by.

Please join the good fun and enjoy some good food. We have pony rides for kids, games for kids and adults, hamburgers and hot dogs, ice cream and cold water, music for all ages, and the Annual Tug-A-War between Team Healey and Team Connors! As you know by now, Fr. Connors has promised to get Pope Francis to the picnic. Once he has arrived, he has promised to pose for photographs with OLM parishioners. Fr. Connors might even perform his juggling and unicycle act for the Holy Father! So stop by and celebrate the OLM Family at the Parish Picnic.

Of course, the Picnic is just the lead off event for the Week of Mercy. On Monday night at 7pm you are invited join a celebration in honor of marriage and family life. Pope Francis is coming to the US to attend the World Meeting of Families which is an international gathering in support of the Church’s rich teaching about marriage and family life. In anticipation of this great event we offer prayers and blessings in honor of marriage and family life here at OLM. One of our newly ordained priests, Fr. Ryan Simas, is to serve as our homilist.

On Tuesday at 7pm our superb parish musicians Henri. St. Louis and Deirdre Donovan along with the wonderful OLM Adult and Children’s Choirs offer music in honor of Our Lady of Mercy. It is always a beautiful time of prayerful and joyful music, so please join us. On Wednesday everyone is welcome to join our Work of Mercy night, “Sandwiches and Socks for the Homeless.” We gather to make sandwiches and ask everyone to bring a pair or two of new adult socks to distributed to the homeless at Emmanuel House in Providence.

On Thursday, September 24th we celebrate with a solemn Mass in honor of our parish patroness. Monsignor Jay Darcy, the Pastor of St. Margaret Church, who served here at OLM is to be our homilist. The children from OLM School are to join us for this great celebration of our Church and Parish. If you cannot join us for the Feast Day Mass, please offer a prayer for our parish on Thursday and ask Our Lady to intercede for us. I hope you join us for all or any of the Week of Mercy events. They are a great way to celebrate as a parish family as we dedicate ourselves and our parish to Our Lady of Mercy. This week we gather, pray, perform, work and celebrate Mercy!!

Also this week we as the Church in the United States celebrate as one family as we welcome Pope Francis. We are mindful of the words of St. Ambrose: "Ubi Petrus, ibi Ecclesia" (Where there is Peter, there is the Church). The Holy Father’s visit to our nation is a great opportunity for us to meet him and for him to meet us! Fr. Connors leads nearly 500 pilgrims from RI to Philadelphia for the World Meeting of Families. We pray for him and for all those on pilgrimage this week. I myself was lucky enough to be invited to attend the Welcoming Ceremony for Pope Francis at the White House on Wednesday morning. The Holy Father is also to address Congress, eat lunch with the homeless, visit with inmates in a prison, canonize Blessed Junipero Serra a saint, visit a parish school in New York and celebrate a few large Masses!

As I mentioned earlier, what a week we have ahead of us! A week of faith, joy and mercy! Let us pray for our parish as we celebrate our patroness, Our Lady of Mercy, and also for Pope Francis and his Apostolic Visit to the United States. May it truly be a time of faith, joy and hope for all of us at OLM and for all throughout our nation. May it renew and rekindle our faith, our parish and our Church! Welcome Holy Father! See you at the Picnic! Be well. Do Good. Go Pats. God Bless.

School's Back and Mercy Week is Coming! Good News Announced!!

Dear Parishioners: We had a wonderful celebration last week as we opened the School Year with the Mass. As you know every day at our parish school the children begin and end their day with prayer. The greatest prayer we can offer is the Eucharist and at OLM School we always open the School Year with a special Mass. We also have Mass the First Friday of every month throughout the school year. This year are also offering a simple Mass for the School once a week. It is on a rotating schedule and yet another great opportunity for our school children to gather and give praise and worship to God. Our “first simple Mass” was last Tuesday on the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It was an excellent start to another fine tradition at Our Lady of Mercy Parish School.

The first two weeks of school despite some of the hot and humid weather have been just great. The children are happy to be back in the classroom and our excellent faculty have jumped right into the rigors of teaching them. With the additions of some fine new faculty members and the renovation of a few classrooms there is a great spirit of excitement at OLM School. Our parish school is a great blessing for our church.

It provides an opportunity for parish families to educate their children in a safe, secure and faith filled environment. There is a great learning environment that includes high academic standards, deep Catholic values, and strong discipline. Of course, all this is offered in a very friendly and nurturing environment that daily espouses faith, joy, and mercy. The vitality and esprit de corps at OLM School is a great sign for the future of our parish and Church.

Next Sunday we invite all parishioners to celebrate together as a parish family at the Annual OLM Parish Picnic. Once again we begin at 1pm and end at 4pm (just in time for folks to get to the 5pm Sunday Mass!) as we celebrate faith and family, parish and church. There are games for the kids, hot dogs and hamburgers, ice cream, pony rides for kids, and the Annual Tug-a-War! We don’t often get together as a whole parish in such a way and this is a great opportunity to celebrate and recreate together! I urge you to come along to the picnic and bring a chair and blanket, a picnic lunch, a cold beverage of your choice, a homemade desert for the communal desert table and a smiling face! Invite the whole family and ask a neighbor to come along too! It promises to be a fun filled day for everyone.

Fr. Connors continues to reassure me that through his many connections in Rome there is very good chance Pope Francis might stop by the picnic to meet and greet us and pose for a few family shots. I think Fr. Connors may also juggle and ride his unicycle for the Holy Father too! Be sure not to miss it!

I am happy to announce that we are to get a couple of new additions to our parish family. Sister Lourdes DeLeon, FAS and Sister Emma Salvador, FAS are coming to live and work at OLM! The good sisters are members of the Franciscan Apostolic Sisters, a religious women’s community established in the Philippines in 1953. Both Sisters are natives of the Philippines and have served in the Diocese of Providence for many years. More recently they have lived and worked at Precious Blood Parish in Woonsocket. Some of the Sisters of their community presently live and work at Scalabrini Villa.

Over the summer their Mother General inquired if OLM might be willing to have the Sisters come live and work here at OLM as their time at Precious Blood was coming to an end. After meeting them, Fr. Connors and I offer a warm invitation to them to join the OLM Family. They are to live in the former Filipini Convent across from the Rectory, now to be known as the Franciscan Convent and officially arrive on Sunday, October 4th, the Feast of their patron, St. Francis of Assisi! Sr. Lourdes and Sr. Emma are very excited to be coming to live and work here at OLM. See you at the Parish Picnic! Pray for fine weather for next Sunday! Be well. Do Good. Go Pats! God Bless.

A Prayer for Students on the First Day of School

A Student's Prayer

Dear God, Help me remember that you’re always by my side, at school and all day long.  Help me be the best student I can be, using all the gifts and talents you’ve given me.  Help me study well and often  – especially when I don’t feel like studying at all! Help me finish all my homework – on time. Help me listen to my teachers and coaches. Help me play fair and play safely. Help me be honest when I’m tempted to cheat. Help me always tell the truth.  Help me be kind to everyone at school and to treat others as I’d want them to treat me. Help me make good friends and help me be a good friend to others. Help me see how I can help others  and to ask for help when I need it myself. Help me love and respect, trust and appreciate my parents - and be honest with them. Help me remember that you’re with me always, Lord, and that you’ll never leave my side. Amen

Celebrating Labor Day and The Dignity of Work! Anticipating a Week of Mercy!

Dear Parishioners: Happy Labor Day! For an American Catholic, one of the gratifying things about Labor Day must be that it is celebrated in September. In much of the rest of the world, it’s celebrated in May. Instead of affirming the dignity of free working men and women, it has been traditionally used to celebrate the communist views of the revolutionary “worker” and worker collectives of “May Day” . Our own American bishops played a crucial role, in the nineteenth century, in convincing the larger Catholic Church that workers and free labor unions could be instruments of a just social order – not the anti-Christian forces they often were, and can be, in Europe. This may all seem like ancient history to Catholics and others today who assume that there is nothing necessarily anti-religious in associations of laborers.

In continental Europe, however, large numbers of workers were swept by their economic struggles into communism, atheism, and opposition to the Church. But that did not happen here in the United States. One reason was the Knights of Labor, in the 1880s which was the largest union in the country and Catholic. Still, there were many European bishops who wondered about Catholics belonging to such associations. It took the collaboration of the legendary James Cardinal Gibbons of Baltimore with Terence Powderly, the Catholic president of the Knights of Labor, to reassure Rome that groups like the Knights served the Catholic vision of a just social order. The Vatican gave its approval to Catholic membership in the Knights in 1888. Labor Day became a holiday in 1894.

This Labor Day as we take rest from our work, let’s not forget those who have gone before us and made it possible. Let us also thank the Lord for the great gift of serving Him and His Kingdom in whatever work we do or labor we find ourselves. Celebrate the dignity of work on Labor Day and remember the words of the Catechism: “Work honors the Creator’s gifts and talents received from Him.”

School work began this past week with the return of the our school children to OLM School. Summer fun is truly over now as a new academic year begins for students across the state. Students begin to get homework, projects and papers to do, and teachers begin to correct papers, quizzes and tests! The work of school has begun, may God Bless it!

In just two weeks we celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of Mercy. We begin the week with our Annual OLM Parish Picnic on Sunday, September 20th! This great event commences the Week of Mercy in celebration of our patroness, Our Lady of Mercy. A full schedule of events is planned that week, a special Prayer of Mercy on Monday in anticipation of Pope Francis’ visit to the US, a Concert of Mercy on Tuesday night as we sing in tribute to Our Lady, a Work of Mercy on Wednesday as we feed and clothe the hungry, and a Celebration of Mercy with a Feast Day Mass on Thursday, September 24th at 9:00AM.

There are more details in the bulletin about the events. We are in need of some volunteers for the picnic and sign-ups are to take place after Masses. We need some folks to help set-up, serve as greeters, help with food and games, and help clean-up. It is always a great day to celebrate together as a parish family. We will also have our traditional tug-of-war between Team Healey and Team Connors. So be sure to put the picnic on your calendar. We hope you can make all or some of the Week of Mercy Events! It is truly a sign of our vitality and life as a parish family as we gather to celebrate our faith and our blessings with one another.

I have been told there is a slight chance that Pope Francis may stop by our parish picnic in order to pose for pictures with OLM parishioners. Fr. Connors is working on it with his connections in Rome and I have every confidence in his ability to pull something off for the picnic as he has in years past! So say a pray! Have a Happy Labor Day! Enjoy some rest from labor! Welcome back students and teachers! Be well. Do good. God Bless. God Bless America!

Summer Ending! School Begins This Week! Welcome Back Students!!

Dear Parishioners: Last Saturday morning over 500 people gathered at Planned Parenthood of RI. Fr. Connors and I along with a few parishioners from OLM were among them. We gathered there to pray for an end to abortion and an increased respect for human life. We were also there to protest the depraved practices of Planned Parenthood. The large crowd was led in prayer by Bishop Tobin who called for the conversion of heart of Planned Parenthood workers. A host of speakers included our own Fr. Connors who reminded the crowd that “the Church stands ready to receive with open arms all those hurt and wounded by abortion. The God of mercy and love stands ready to forgive and to convert our ‘throw-away culture’ into a culture of life and a civilization of love.”

All during the peaceful and prayerful protest Planned Parenthood was blaring music from their building. It was a rather obvious attempt to “shout down” the speakers calling for their defunding. No matter how loud the music got during the protest it did not and cannot drown out the voice of the voiceless unborn. Let us continue to give the unborn a voice as we call for the defunding of Planned Parenthood. Our tax dollars should not be used to kill innocent unborn children and then sell their bodies and body parts as part of a macabre scientific experiment. Pray for an end to abortion and an increase in respect for all human life.

This Monday we welcomed our new OLM School faculty members at an orientation session. We are so happy to have such excellent additions to our outstanding faculty. The new teachers were joined on Wednesday by the entire faculty as they spent the day preparing for the start of school this Tuesday! On this Monday our OLM School Faculty gathers for a day of retreat at the Enders Island Retreat Center in Mystic. Their retreat is being led by Fr. Joe Upton, the Chaplain at the Prout School and the University of Rhode Island. I ask you to please pray for our teachers that this time of retreat might be one of renewed faith and zeal as they begin another school year.

This Sunday we welcome the many new families who are entering OLM School this year. We are overjoyed that they have decided to entrust their children and their education to our parish school. There are many educational choices available to parents and we are happy they think OLM School is the best way to go!

It’s hard to believe but school starts this week. East Greenwich Public Schools begin on Monday and OLM School begins on Tuesday. The first day of school is always a great day for children and families. Do you remember your first day of school? I remember my very first day in 1970! My Dad brought me to school and into the classroom. I saw some friends, he said “So-Long” and my school career commenced! I hope and pray that all our students enjoy their first day of school! Having a parish school is a true blessing for our community.

Pope Francis reminds us about the mission of Catholic Schools: “Our generation will show that it can rise to the promise found in each young person when we know how to give them the material and spiritual conditions for their full development; to give them a solid basis on which to build their lives; to guarantee their safety and their education to be everything they can be.” We pray for OLM School that the new school year is truly a year of faith, hope and love for all!

We invite all parishioners to join us on Friday at 9:00AM for the Mass of the Holy Spirit. Join us as we celebrate the Beginning of the New School Year at OLM. We pray together as a parish family that the Holy Spirit continues to guide Principal Fuller, the OLM Faculty and Staff, OLM students and families. May they grow together in wisdom, understanding, piety, knowledge, counsel, fortitude, and awe. Welcome back students and teachers, have a great first week of school! Saint Thomas Aquinas, the patron of students, intercede for us. Be well. Do Good. God Bless.

New Study Reveals that the Happiest People Are Found in Church!! Live the Gospel of Joy!

Dear Parishioners: I recently read about a new study that found that the secret to sustained happiness is to be found in the regular participation in religion. The researchers examined four areas: volunteering with a charity, taking educational courses, participating in religious organizations and participating in political and community organizations. They found that participation in a religious organization was the only social activity associated with sustained happiness. Now the study also suggests that going to church plays an important role in coping with depression and illness. It also found that joining political or community groups lost their benefits over time because they were not overly fulfilling. The research seems to suggest that the happiness expressed in those who go to church was found in “the sense of belonging and not being socially isolated.”

I am not sure how exhaustive the study is but it does point to something positive about religion. It can bring happiness and fulfillment to one’s life. So often people fall into the trap of seeking their happiness in worldly things like money, power, or sexual promiscuity. Sadly they are usually left very empty by such worldly pursuits. True happiness is found in a deep and devout relationship with the Lord and His Church. This happiness we might properly call the joy of the Gospel. It is as Pope Francis has said: ““Without joy that person is not a true believer.”

Yet we all know people who go to Church and even receive the Eucharist daily who seem less than joyful! People who don’t say hello to a neighbor, people who hold a grudge against someone, people who delight in other’s mistakes and misfortunes, people who cannot wait to share some juicy gossip, people who like to ridicule and harshly judge others, and people who seem just plain miserable. Where’s the joy? Why is it that the joy of the Gospel and the happiness found in practicing religion escape even those who come to Church? Perhaps it’s because of a burden they bear or a mistake they’ve made in life. Maybe they’ve been hurt and betrayed by someone in their life. Or it could be they cannot escape from the cynicism and despair in our world.

Blessed Mother Theresa of Calcutta once said: “Joy is a net of love by which we catch souls. “ So we might ask ourselves how joyful are we? When we leave Mass are we joyful that we have shared in the Body of Christ and received the Bread of Life? Do people around us recognize the joy of the Gospel in us, in our words and actions? We all know there are many things in our world and sometimes in our own lives that are less than joyful. War, famine, poverty, sickness, unemployment, death and violence are but just a few to be found in our world and in our own lives. Yet Jesus Christ calls us to share our joy in knowing and loving Him despite the sinfulness and brokenness of our world. It may be difficult at times to overcome the sadness and cynicism of our world.

We need only listen to the Lord to realize we can overcome this. Jesus Christ tells us: “Do not let your hearts be troubled”; “Do not be afraid”; “I am with you always” and “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete!” So if “joy is the net of love by which we catch souls,” how are we doing? When is the last time we invited a friend, family member or neighbor to come to Mass with us to experience and share the joy of the Gospel? When is the last time someone asked us why we seem so happy and joyful in our lives despite perhaps our own hardships or burdens? How joyful are we of the many blessings God has bestowed upon us? If joy is the mark of “a true believer” and scientific studies demonstrate that those who go to church are genuinely happy, why not share the Good News? After all, the great hymn of joy reminds us: “Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee, God of glory, Lord of Love, Melt the clouds of sin and sadness; drive the dark of doubt away; Giver of immortal gladness, fill us with the light of day!” Be well. Do good. Have a great week. Be joyful! God Bless.