Christmas Draws to a Close as We Celebrate Baptism

Dear Parishioners:Wow! Winter arrived with a vengeance this week! Snow on Monday and below zero wind chills on Tuesday! It’s hard to believe that it was just 70 degrees on Christmas Day and we had the air conditioning on in Church! Looks like our old friend winter is here for awhile so put away the shorts and get out the snow shovels!

This week a friend called me from sunny Florida to tell me he was on the beach. He took great delight in telling me it was 75, sunny and warm! I quoted the great Russian writer Anton Chekhov who once said, "People don’t notice whether it’s winter or summer when they’re happy!” It was a good try! Can you really be as happy freezing in Rhode Island as you can be laying in the sun in Florida? Not so sure! Quite a few of our parishioners have flown south to sunny Florida for the winter, I don’t think they bought what Chekhov was saying! At least the days are getting a little longer in Rhode Island now!!

Sister Lourdes is returning from the Philippines next week after a month of meetings and conferences with her congregation at the Franciscan Apostolic Sisters Motherhouse. While she was away, Sister Emma was joined by the Franciscan Sisters who serve at the nearby Scalabrini Villa Home. So please be sure to welcome Sister Emma home when you see her next! We are happy to have her back and I know Sister Emma is too. The Sisters are truly a great addition to our parish family. They  often express to me how happy they are here at OLM and how welcomed the parishioners have made them feel. They certainly are a joyful and faithful presence at OLM especially in their work at the parish school, the food pantry, teaching Religious Ed Class and visiting our parish shut-ins.

This weekend we celebrate the Solemnity of the Baptism of Our Lord. It brings to an end the season of Christmas. On this feast the Church recalls Our Lord's second manifestation or epiphany which occurred on His baptism in the Jordan River. Jesus descended into the River to sanctify its waters and to give them the power to beget children of God. Many of the things which accompanied Christ's Baptism are symbolical of what happened at our own Baptism. At Christ's Baptism the Holy Spirit descended upon Him; at our Baptism the Trinity found its home in our soul. At His Baptism Christ was proclaimed the "Beloved Son" of the Father; at our Baptism we become the adopted sons and daughters of God. At Christ's Baptism the heavens were opened; at our Baptism heaven was opened to us. At His Baptism Jesus prayed; after our Baptism we must pray to avoid temptation and sin.

On Sunday on the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord we are to baptize six children into the Catholic Faith. It is a great day to celebrate the Sacrament of Baptism and a joyous day for these children, their families and our parish family of OLM.

Last year on the Feast, Pope Francis baptized several people. In his homily for the celebration , he stated: “Baptism integrates us into the body of the Church, into the holy People of God. And in this body, in this people journeying on, faith is passed down from generation to generation: it is the faith of the Church. This is really beautiful! It is a passing of the flame of faith from hand to hand: You, families, take the light of faith from Him in order to pass it on to your children. You receive this light in the Church, in the Body of Christ, in the People of God who are journeying through every time and in every place. Teach your children that one cannot be a Christian outside of the Church, one cannot follow Jesus Christ without the Church, for the Church is Mother, who makes us grow in the love of Jesus Christ.”

Let us all celebrate our own Baptism today. Let us also resolve to faithfully and joyfully live our Baptismal Promises! We congratulate our newly Baptized and welcome them into the Church, their Mother, and into our OLM Parish Family! Have a Happy and Joyful Feast of the Baptism of the Lord! Be well. Do Good. God Bless. Pray for the Pats, please!!!

Ringing in the New Year and Calling for God's Blessing!

Dear Parishioners: A Happy New Year to all! It’s 2016 has arrived and we begin a New Year full of new beginnings and new opportunities. We ask God , Our Merciful Father, to bestow His abundant blessings upon us, our families, our homes and our parish. May 2016 truly be year of Gospel Joy and Mercy for OLM!

Of the course the new year brings with it a new legislative session for the RI General Assembly this week. On Tuesday the Assembly begins its new session and I resume my duties as the Director of the RI Catholic Conference and lobbyist for the Diocese of Providence. Since 2016 is an election year I don’t think that many controversial matters will arise during the session. However, there is still a well financed and organized nationwide campaign to legalize physician assisted-suicide. Last year several bills were introduced and committee hearings held on the issue. So we must be vigilant about this issue especially since California recently legalized physician assisted suicide this fall.

We also continue to fight for the de-funding of Planned Parenthood, the nations largest provider of abortions. Nationally we’ve seen this fight in the US Congress and I expect similar efforts to begin once the RI State Budget makes its way through Smith Hill. These issues along with issues that concern education for Catholic school students, helping the poor and elderly, immigration reform, criminal justice reform and a host of other issues are undoubtedly to be raised at the RI Statehouses.

However, introducing legislation and even getting a hearing are not necessarily indicators that something is likely to become law. This means that for the next six months I am at the RI Statehouse most afternoons on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Those are the days the General Assembly is in session and the session generally begins around 4:00PM. So I ask for your understanding if I am not readily available some afternoons for the next few months. I also ask for your prayers as I resume my lobbying duties at the RI Statehouse. The voice of the Catholic Church in the public square is truly needed to secure justice, protect human life and dignity and serve the common good of our state. I like to say that I lobby for the “virtues” while the highly paid lobbyists lobby for the many legal “vices” like gambling, alcohol and tobacco!

As the new legislative session begins, perhaps we and our elected officials might reflect upon the wisdom of Pope Francis once again. In his address to the Joint Session of the US Congress this past September, he said: “Each son or daughter of a given country has a mission, a personal and social responsibility. Your own responsibility as members of Congress is to enable this country, by your legislative activity, to grow as a nation. You are the face of its people, their representatives. You are called to defend and preserve the dignity of your fellow citizens in the tireless and demanding pursuit of the common good, for this is the chief aim of all politics. A political society endures when it seeks, as a vocation, to satisfy common needs by stimulating the growth of all its members, especially those in situations of greater vulnerability or risk. Legislative activity is always based on care for the people. To this you have been invited, called and convened by those who elected you.”

I ask you to please pray for all our elected officials, those you like and voted for and even those you dislike and voted against! May all elected officials especially the members of the RI General Assembly, our Governor and our General Officers, and our Congressional delegation serve with honor, honesty and integrity and may they always serve the common good of our nation and state. It’s also back to class, back to studies and back to learning this week for school students! We wish them a great new year and a renewed effort to strive to be both saints and scholars. I hope there aren’t as many snow days for them this year!  Welcome back! Happy New Year! Be well. Do good. Go Pats! God Bless.

Merry Christmas! The Season of Joy Has Begun! Rejoice and Give Thanks!

Dear Parishioners: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light,” as the reading from Isaiah announced at Christmas. We live in the joy of the Christmas season, and it has very little to do with holiday sales. Jesus Christ is Emmanuel – “God with us.”

Exchanging gifts and good times with friends and family is a tradition that springs forth from our Christmas joy. But the noise of these things should never drown out the quiet voice of God’s love made flesh in the birth of Jesus. Bethlehem, for each of us individually and the world as a whole, is the beginning of something entirely new and utterly beautiful if we ask God for the purity of heart to possess it. Christians celebrate the 25th of December not as just another secular holiday, but much more deeply as the day of birth of the messiah that is the birthday, in the words of St. Leo the Great, of life itself.

God loved us so much that He sent us His only Son. He loved us enough to take on our poverty, our indignities and fears, our hopes and joys, our sufferings and failures — and to speak to us as one of us. He became man to show men and women how much God loves them. He was born for that purpose. He lived for that purpose. He died and rose again for that purpose. It’s never too late to invite the Christ Child into our hearts. Surely this weary and war-torn world needs “the great light” born on Christmas Day. May God grant each of us, and those we love, the gift of welcoming Jesus Christ into our hearts this Christmas Season and all throughout the coming year.

We give thanks for so many people who make our celebration of Christmas so very joyous at OLM. The Church is beautifully decorated, the Christmas music was superb, our altar servers are outstanding and the crowds were overflowing! It was truly a joyful and faithful Christmas at OLM. We thank Celia Franzone and her loyal band of decorators for their tremendous work in making OLM so beautiful at Christmas. We thank Paul Anderson and his maintenance crew for ensuring the Church is clean, for hanging the wreaths and stringing the lights on the trees and so many other things. We thank our dedicated sacristans and all those who help clean the Church for ensuring the sacred vessels were polished, the linens cleaned and starched, the vestments wrinkle free and for taking care of all the little details for our worship of God. We also thank our wonderful Altar Servers for their reverent and solemn service at Christmas Masses.

We thank our ushers for their warm welcome and hospitality. We are grateful for our Lectors and the Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion for their good service to the parish. We must also truly thank our musicians, Henri St. Louis, Deirdre Donovan, the OLM Adult Choir and Children’s Choir for providing such beautiful music for the Feast of Christmas! We are truly blessed to have such good people dedicate themselves to our parish! So please take a moment to offer a prayer of thanksgiving for all these dedicated people who work so hard for our parish! In your name, I offer our deep gratitude and continued appreciation for all they do!

Finally, on behalf of Fr. Connors, Deacon Dowd and myself, I offer our thanks to the parishioners of Our Lady of Mercy Parish for your faithful witness and joyful spirit in celebrating Christmas. We thank the many parishioners who are so supportive of our priestly and parish ministry here at OLM. Your well wishes, greeting cards and the many generous and thoughtful gifts at Christmas are truly appreciated and we are so very grateful. May God bless you and your families and our parish with continued joy and happiness of this season.

I hope you join us for the holyday on New Year’s Day, the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God. There is a Vigil Mass at 4pm on New Year’s Eve and Mass at 7:30am and 10:30am on New Year’s Day. Attending Mass on New Year’s is a great start to the New Year. So please join us as we honor Mary, the Mother of God! Happy Christmas and a Holy and Happy New Year.

Christ is Coming! Are You Ready?! Make Time to Stop, Pause, Pray and Reflect on Christmas

Dear Parishioners: Christmas is coming once again. Our Advent Season of prayerful and patient preparation, along with its sense of joyful expectation is drawing to a close this week. Soon we are to rejoice at the Good News that a Savior has been born! Christmas arrives this Friday! Let every heart prepare Him room!

One of the best ways to make room for Christ’s coming is to cleanse our hearts. Making a good Confession before Christmas is the greatest gift you might receive this year! So to help you “prepare Him room” we are adding an extra hour this week to our regular Monday Night Confessions. Confessions will be heard this Monday, December 20th, from 6:00PM until 8:00PM. Fr. Connors and I are to be joined by visiting priests for Confessions.The recently begun Jubilee Year of Mercy calls us to seek out God’s mercy. Pope Francis speaks of this mercy in his homily for the Year of Mercy Mass, he states: “Yes, dear brothers and sisters, this Holy Year is offered to us to experience in our lives the sweet and gentle touch of God’s forgiveness.”

This week before Christmas Day is traditionally a busy time for many people. They hurry to finish up the last minute things like writing cards, baking cookies, shopping for special gifts, preparing foods, cleaning houses and trimming the tree! It is also a busy time at the parish as we prepare to celebrate the Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord. The Church is cleaned, sacred vessels are polished, linens are starched, plants and flowers arranged, the crèche set up and choirs and altar servers rehearse! Yes it is undoubtedly a busy week ahead of Christmas! We have been preparing during Advent for the great feast of our faith, Christmas!

So a midst the busyness and the frenzy of the final days before Christmas, let us stop, pause, pray and reflect. Stop to remember the reason of the season, God gave us His Only Son on Christmas. Pause to ponder Christ’s real presence here at Mass and in our lives today! Pray to the Lord for his coming especially for those who suffer because war and terror, violence and poverty, those who struggle with addiction and isolation, loneliness and grief. And finally let us truly reflect in our lives and in our words and deeds, the great gift of God’s love given to us on Christmas!

So before Christmas Day take some time to stop by Church to simply pause and pray, ponder and reflect. In a Christmas homily, Pope Francis reminds us: "The shepherds were first to receive the news of Jesus’ birth. They were the first because they were among the last, the outcast. Together with them, let us pause before the Child, let us pause in silence. Together with them, let us thank the Lord for having given Jesus to us, and with them let us raise from the depths of our hearts the praises of his fidelity: God loves us, he so loves us that he gave us his Son to be our brother, to be light in our darkness.”

We have five scheduled Masses for the Celebration of the Nativity of the Lord. Our celebration of Christmas begins with the 4PM Vigil Mass on Christmas Eve. Where we are joined by the angelic voices of our OLM Children's Choir. This is perhaps one of the most crowded Masses of the year at OLM. So to ensure yourself a seat you might consider attending one of the four other Mass times. We celebrate the Solemn Mass of Christmas Night at 12:00AM along with the OLM Adult Choir and a Brass and Timpani Ensemble. Midnight Mass is preceded by a Concert of Christmas Carols at 11:30PM. The celebration of the Solemn Mass of Christmas Day is at 7:30AM, 9:00AM and 10:30AM.

On behalf of Fr. Connors, Deacon Dowd and the OLM Parish Staff, I wish you and your family, a truly Happy and Holy Christmas! You remain in our prayers as we humbly ask for yours. If you are traveling at Christmas or away from the parish, know our prayers for your safe travel. May Christ, the Son of God, born on Christmas Day renew our hope, faith and love, and bring peace and joy to our world, our homes and our lives. Gloria in Excelsis Deo! A very Merry Christmas!

Open the Door to Mercy! A Jubilee Year for Mercy

Dear Parishioners: God have Mercy! How many times have we used or heard that phrase in our lives. We have just begun the Jubilee Year of Mercy which calls us to rejoice in the reality that God does have Mercy! The Year of Mercy began on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary on Tuesday. Across the world the Church is united in celebrating God’s Mercy. We celebrate in the Sacrament of Confession and we celebrate each time we take up a Spiritual or Corporal Work of Mercy.

On Monday night, the Vigil of the Holyday, some visiting priests, Fr. Connors, and I were all blessed to celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation with the children of our RE Program and their parents. It was a fitting way to anticipate the great Jubilee of Mercy with the forgiveness of sins!

On Tuesday as we celebrated the great feast of the Immaculate Conception with Holyday Masses, we were joined by Bishop Tobin. He celebrated the 9AM OLM School Mass and officially opened the Year of Mercy for the Diocese of Providence. We thank him for his pastoral visit to our parish dedicated to mercy and we are grateful for his wonderful message of mercy offered at the Mass. The Year of Mercy is only beginning and so we continue to celebrate and acknowledge God’s mercy and also realize the great need of God’s mercy many people have across the globe.

I hope you are able to join us for one of the best events we have at OLM. On this Saturday we gather to “feed the hungry.” It is a truly terrific event sponsored by Catholic Relief Services and hosted by OLM. We anticipate packaging 20,000 meals for the hungry and poor in Africa. It is our first parish Work of Mercy as we kickoff the Year of Mercy.

On his recent Pastoral Visit to Africa, Pope Francis delivered a homily at a Mass at the University of Nairobi where some hundreds of thousands of Kenyans gathered to pray with the Holy Father. In his words he spoke of the need for mercy. He stated: "The health of any society depends on the health of its families. We are called to respect and encourage one another, and to reach out to all those in need. Always be concerned for the needs of the poor, and reject everything that leads to prejudice and discrimination, for these things are not of God. Men and women who are channels of God’s grace, who enable his mercy, kindness and truth to become the building blocks of a house that stands firm.”  The Holy Father urges us to always be concerned for the poor no matter who they are and no matter where they are from. As Catholics we serve all of God’s children not matter their race, religion or nation of origin.

At OLM we are doing this in many ways. We continue our winter coat drive for the homeless until December 18th. Also many of our RE students are adopting for Christmas the elderly residents of the Little Sisters of the Poor Jeanne Jugan Home, and many in our OLM School have recently adopted refugee families who are in need this Christmas. In addition to these acts of mercy and thanks to your generous support of the OLM Outreach collection, we are able to support some great charities.

Over the last weeks we have donated $1,000 to Mary’s Soup Kitchen at St. Patrick’s Church in Providence, $600 to the Whitmarsh Home for Boys, and $500 to the Assumption Parish Food Pantry in Providence. Also the OLM Outreach Office serves many local families in need on a daily basis. Thanks to your donated food and gift cards we are able to help the hungry. We are also able to help with rents, utilities and prescriptions. These are truly difficult financial times for many families and they truly need our mercy and our charity. Thank you for your support!

We can be truly proud as a Church of the many ministries of mercy across the globe helping the needy and also of the great ministry of mercy at our parish. So join the celebration of Mercy: go to confession, help the poor pray for the sick and reach out to the isolated! Be well. Do Good. Live Mercy! God Bless. Go Pats?!

Celebrating A Year of Mercy at OLM! Join Us!!

Dear Parishioners: Advent is here! We don purple vestments and sing the ancient hymns as we call out: “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel!” We acknowledge that Christ is indeed with us and at the same time we await His glorious return. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI in an Advent homily stated: “In Advent, Christians relive a dual impulse of the spirit:  on the one hand, they raise their eyes towards the final destination of their pilgrimage through history, which is the glorious return of the Lord Jesus; on the other, remembering with emotion his birth in Bethlehem, they kneel before the Crib.” Yes, Advent is here! Prepare the way for Christ to come!

We can do that at OLM in many ways. First, by coming to Mass faithfully we deepen our relationship with the Eucharistic Lord. We can also cleanse our souls in Confession. It is truly a great way to prepare the way. This week the Church across the globe begins the Jubilee Year of Mercy called forth by Pope Francis. It is a time for the Church to celebrate God’s mercy. The Year of Mercy begins on Tuesday, December 8th on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This Jubilee Year of Mercy concludes on the Feast of Christ the King in November 2016.  Pope Francis declared this year and called upon the entire Church to reflect on God’s mercy—His love for those who are suffering, those who are in need, and those who are afflicted by sin. He has called for a renewed commitment to God’s Mercy in the Sacrament of Penance. He has also asked that we gain a deeper understanding of the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy.

On the Holyday on Tuesday Bishop Tobin celebrates the 9AM OLM School Mass and inaugurates the Year of Mercy for the entire Church of Providence. We will also have the regular schedule of Holyday Masses with a 5PM Vigil on Monday and Holyday Masses at 7:30AM, 9AM and 7PM on Tuesday. I hope you make it to Mass for the Holyday and if you can I invite you to join with Bishop Tobin at the 9AM Mass. It is as special time for our Church and for our Parish which is dedicated to Our Lady of Mercy.  I hope and pray it may strengthen our commitment to the Works of Mercy as a Church and as a Parish. It is an opportunity to encourage Christians to meet people’s “real needs” with concrete assistance, to experience a “true pilgrimage” on foot, and to send “missionaries of mercy” to forgive even the most serious of sins.

Next Saturday following the 4PM Mass we gather as a parish for a Work of Mercy, “Feeding the Hungry.” We are to pack 20,000 meals for the hungry in Africa as part of the Catholic Relief Services Helping Hands initiative. Last year was our first time with this project and it was a sterling success. I am grateful to Kathy Bennett for organizing it here at OLM. If you are interested in helping us and also having a fun and faith-filled evening please sign up. It is truly a great family event and open to every man, woman and child of any age in the parish. Help us take up the Year of Mercy by offering your helping hands to feed the hungry!

We have planned other Works of Mercy events throughout the upcoming year. Also there is to be an All-Day Confession event across the entire state in March during the Lenten Season. Pope Francishas said: “This Jubilee Year, may the Church echo the Word of God that resounds strong and clear as a message and a sign of pardon, strength, aid, and love .” Advent continues on and so should our preparation for the coming of Christ. As the Year of Mercy commences let us commit as individuals and as a parish family to making Mercy flourish in our community, our state and our nation. Let us seek out God’s mercy in Confession and let us put into action the Works of Mercy. I am away this weekend at a meeting of the National Association of State Catholic Conference Directors in Washington, DC. I am grateful to Vocation Director Fr. Fisette for covering in my absence. See you at Mass on the Holyday. Be well. Do Good. God Bless. Go Pats!