Dear Parishioners:
Last week our Holy Father Pope Francis released an apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia—The Joy of Love. This document is the fruit of two synods or gatherings of bishops in Rome to discuss the 
pastoral care of the family. Marriage and family are such important topics for the Church today. I am so glad that our parish has a vibrant Young Families Group that meet monthly to discuss issues of marriage and Catholic parenting. The future of the Church depends on strong Catholic families! Weekly attendance at Holy Mass, regular Confession, and family prayer are the important building blocks of any Catholic family.
This week I include some excerpts from the Pope’s exhortation The Joy of Love. Pope Francis explains: “This Exhortation is especially timely in this Jubilee Year of Mercy. First, because it represents an invitation to Christian families to value the gifts of marriage and the family, and to persevere in a love strengthened by the virtues of generosity, commitment, fidelity and patience. Second, because it seeks to encourage everyone to be a sign of mercy and closeness wherever family life remains imperfect or lacks peace and joy.”
Later, the Pope says: “Love always gives life. Conjugal love “does not end with the couple... The couple, in giving themselves to one another, give not just themselves but also the reality of children, who are a living reflection of their love, a permanent sign of their conjugal unity and a living and inseparable synthesis of their being a father and a mother”. The family is the setting in which a new life is not only born but also welcomed as a gift of God. Each new life “allows us to appreciate the utterly gratuitous dimension of love, which never ceases to amaze us. It is the
beauty of being loved first: children are loved even before they arrive”. Here we see a reflection of the primacy of the love of God, who always takes the initiative, for children “are loved before having done anything to deserve it”
Referring to the expense of many weddings today, the Pope explains: “Short-term preparations for marriage tend to be 
concentrated on invitations, clothes, the party and any number of other details that tend to drain not only the budget but energy and joy as well. The spouses come to the wedding ceremony exhausted and harried, rather than focused and ready for 
the great step that they are about to take. The same kind of preoccupation with a big celebration also affects certain de facto unions; because of the expenses involved, the couple, instead of being concerned above all with their love and solemnizing it in the presence of others, never get married. Here let me say a word to fiancés. Have the courage to be different. Don’t let yourselves get swallowed up by a society of consumption and empty appearances. What is important is the love you share, strengthened and sanctified by grace. You are capable of opting for a more modest and simple celebration in which love takes precedence over everything else. Pastoral workers and the entire community can help make this priority the norm rather than the exception.”
I encourage to read the document for yourselves. The Holy Father has rightly turned our attention to the family—the domestic Church. He wants us to do more for families, more to support 
marriage, and more to reach out anyone who feels marginalized. No teaching of the Church has changed—contrary to many media reports and no pastoral practice has been altered. But the Pope wants us all to do more for families, more to support marriage and more to live our faith in the world today. One thing we can all do is to pray for our families and pray for strengthening of married and family life in our parish. Perhaps we might take up praying the Rosary as a family. As the late Father Peyton always said: “The family that prays together, stays together!” Join us every Monday in May as we pray the Rosary before the Eucharistic Lord. May Devotions are a great way to pray together, please join us. Be well. Do Good. God Bless. Go Sox!
This week April School Vacation begins for our students and teachers. These school vacations continue to be reexamined and some communities have opted out of February and April vacations for a longer break in March. East Greenwich continues the traditional vacation periods. So this week OLM School and public schools are closed.
A great event on the horizon is the Annual OLM School Play. If their past performances are any indication this should be another great event for our community. The last two shows, the Wizard of Oz and the Lion King, were spectacular and quite entertaining. This year the OLM School Drama Club is planning a production of the Little Mermaid, Jr. We are grateful to the RI Youth Theater program for producing the play. Our talented students from almost every grade participate in this great opportunity for fun and drama. I hope you might come out for a performance and watch the students display their talent for all to see. The Little Mermaid, Jr. is to have two showings. One on Saturday, June 11, at 7:00pm, and the second on Sunday, June 12, at 4:00pm. Both performances are to be held in the East Greenwich High School Auditorium. Mark you calendar to come watch a Broadway style show!
our school. We are grateful for his generous spirit in giving to OLM School these great devices from his company, ServPro of Providence. Our excellent Technology Teacher, Mrs. Bea Lukens, is already putting them to good educational use! Thank you Frank and family for your generous support of OLM School. Implementing the use of these IPads in our school’s curriculum is another step in moving forward technologically. OLM School now has complete Wi-Fi for our faculty and students and these IPads are an excellent addition to enhancing our technology at the school. Just another great thing about our excellent school to be proud of as a parish.
This weekend we mark Good Shepherd Sunday which is also the Annual World Day of Prayer for Vocations. Please take some time to pray for an increase of vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life. Pope Francis suggests: “Dear young friends, how wonderful it is to be surprised by God’s call, to embrace his word, and to walk in the footsteps of Jesus in adoration of the divine mystery and in generous service to our neighbors! ” A continued Happy and Holy Easter Season! Be well. Do Good. God Bless. Go Sox!
One such occasion for rejoicing was on April 1st. Our oldest living parishioner, Mrs. Claire Sharpe, celebrated her 106th Birthday! Fr. Connors and I were privileged enough to celebrate Mass with Claire and her daughters at their home. We were joined by our soloist, Deirdre Donovan, and members of our Children’s Choir. It was a truly joyous occasion. Claire also received a very special visitor after the Mass. Bishop Tobin stopped in for a visit to celebrate
Claire’s birthday and also his own. They share April 1st as the date of their birthdays. We had beautiful and delicious cakes for them both. We listened as Claire shared her wisdom and faith with us. Happy Birthday to Claire, may God continue to grant His abundant blessings upon her.
celebrating our school and its mission of developing saints and scholars for the Church and world. Of course, the night included good food, good conversation and a lively auction. We are grateful to OLM”s own Gene Valicenti for serving as our Master of Ceremonies for the evening. There were lots of great auction items including Patriot’s box seats, golf outings at exclusive country clubs, sailing and fishing trips in Narragansett Bay, VIP tickets to Good Morning America complete with hotel and lunch, Gym Teacher for a day and Principal for a day. They all raised much needed funds for our school. Some of the other auction items included dinner the OLM Priests in the Rectory.
with Sister Jeanne, our former OLM School Principal, and our Franciscan Apostolic Sisters, Sister Emma and Sister Lourdes, in the Franciscan Convent. We look forward to some great evenings with our generous donors. We are grateful to our Spring Fling Committee for the hard work they did ensuring a truly great night and grand celebration. We thank our many generous donors who gave us such great auction items. Also we thank the many school parents who bid so generously on the auction items. We give thanks for our school, its excellent administration, faculty and staff and our biggest asset, the wonderful children who make up our school.
I received word from Bishop Tobin that we are to receive a Summer Seminarian again this year. Our Seminarian for the summer is Billy Burdier who is finishing his second year of theology at the Pontifical North American College in Rome. He arrives to OLM in early June after completing his exams. I know you will give him your usual warm welcome when he arrives. Also I ask you to please mark your calendars for a very special event for our Diocese and our Parish.
Providence. Brian joins us the next day for 10:30AM Sunday Mass to preach for the first time as a newly ordained Deacon. It is a great day for his parents, John and Marybeth, and his family as well as for our OLM Parish Family. Keep Brian in your prayers as he continues to prepare for diaconate ordination.
“This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad!” So sings the Psalmist on Easter Sunday and so sang the large crowds at our Easter Masses. It was truly a day of rejoicing in our faith and hope in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ! Our Holy Week was truly a beautiful celebration here at OLM. Our Franciscan Apostolic Sisters, Sister Emma and Sister Lourdes, enjoyed their first OLM Holy Week. They offered our parish a compliment when they said it reminded them of the Philippines because it was “so solemn and so many people attended!”
gathered for the Sacred Triduum of Holy Week. It began with a beautiful performance of the
Living Stations by our OLM School Middle School students. If you have never made it to this moving event, please put it on your calendar for next Holy Week. The students did a terrific job offering a very prayerful and meditative Living Stations of the Cross.
We are grateful to Bishop Evans who baptized two people, received four baptized Christians into the Catholic Church and confirmed two adult Catholics on Holy Saturday at the Vigil Mass. It was a beautiful and joyful celebration of faith for our newly initiated and for our parish family. It was a solemn but joyous celebration of the Easter Resurrection alive in the Sacraments. We had large crowds at our Easter Sunday Masses and had the great celebration of a baptism at the 10:30am Mass. It truly was a day to rejoice and be glad!
Church look so spectacularly beautiful for Easter. We thank our team of Sacritisans for ensuring everything is set-up, cleaned, polished and starched. Also thanks to Paul Anderson and our hard working crew for all the work in cleaning, preparing, setting-up, taking-down and ensuring all things are spic and span for Holy Week and Easter. We thank our choirs and musicians, Henri St. Louis and Deirdre Donovan, for their great gift of music which contributed such joy, beauty and solemnity to our celebrations.
We also thank our Altar Servers, perhaps the best in the Diocese, for their reverent and solemn service at the Sacred Liturgies! We thank our ushers for their welcome and hospitality to our many parishioners and visitors. We thank our Lectors for their solemn proclamation of God’s Word. We thank our Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion for ensuring the reverent distribution of Holy Communion at Mass and to the many ill and shut-in of our parish.
A blessed Easter! It took us 40 days to prepare for Easter—that’s what Lent was all about—so now it takes us 40 days to celebrate Easter. That will bring us up to the Feast of the Ascension, when Jesus, risen from the dead, after spending 40 days with His disciples, returned to His Father in heaven. Actually, it doesn’t even end there, because then, on the Ascension, we’ll unite with Our Lady and the Apostles in a novena, nine days of prayer, bringing us to Pentecost Sunday and the gift of the Holy Spirit. So join with me in saying “Happy Easter” for the 50 days after the great Feast! And, of course, every Sunday is a “little Easter,” as we come together on the first day of the week at Mass to profess our faith in the Resurrection of Jesus.
family. Our young teens are finishing preparation for the wonderful sacrament of Confirmation and await the gift of the Holy Spirit as they enter high school. Couples approach the altar for the holy sacrament of matrimony, eager to seal their love and conform it to divine love: forever, faithful, and life-giving. Our young parishioners graduate from eighth grade at OLM School and from high schools and colleges, trusting in God for a future full of promise and hope. And, during these paschal days, candidates for Holy Orders kneel before a bishop to be ordained deacons and priests, and bind themselves to the Risen Jesus and His Church.
The earth itself is alive; winter is over; gardens are being planted; grass, flowers, trees growing; each day sees more light than darkness. Nature mirrors super-nature, as God’s life flourishes in our souls and in the Church. It’s all about the paschal mystery: the dying and rising of Jesus, and our share in it. Jesus invites us to die with Him to sin, selfishness, and Satan, and rise with Him to new life. That’s the sacred rhythm of Christian discipleship: at times we’re on the cross with Jesus; at other times we’re risen to new life with Him.
Pope Francis in his Easter homily last year reminds us: “We cannot live Easter without entering into the mystery. It is not something intellectual, something we only know or read about. It is more, much more! To enter into the mystery means the ability to wonder, to contemplate; the ability to listen to the silence and to hear the tiny whisper amid great silence by which God speaks to us. To enter into the mystery demands that we not be afraid of reality: that we not be locked into ourselves, that we not flee from what we fail to understand, that we not close our eyes to problems or deny them, that we not dismiss our questions, To enter into the mystery means going beyond our own comfort zone, beyond the laziness and indifference which hold us back, and going out in search of truth, beauty and love. It is seeking a deeper meaning, an answer, and not an easy one, to the questions which challenge our faith, our fidelity and our very existence.” 
Palm Sunday sets the stage for the final showdown between Jesus and his detractors. Today, Passion Sunday, the final scene is to be played out. This is Holy Week, when the whole Christian world comes together to commemorate the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the fulfillment of his mission, and the fruition of the task that the Father had sent him to do. Everything Jesus had done so far, every word, every action, every miracle, had been building up to the climactic events of this coming week. All the players are now in place, all the elements of the play are now ready, and Jesus enters into his passion after a life of faithful service to his Father and to the people whom he loved.
Passion Sunday begins Holy Week on this sad note. It sets the tone for the somber and solemn days ahead. But there is inserted into this sadness, an unmistakable element of triumph. For we all know that the play doesn’t end with the crucifixion and death of Jesus on the cross, at the hands of those who rejected him. We know that death would not be the final word, that after the agony of Good Friday and the silence of Holy Saturday, will come the glory and triumph of Easter.
raising him from the dead and destroying death forever. The life of Jesus, his works and his deeds, did not happen in vain. This is the real end or point of the story of Jesus. It is also the point of the story of our own lives, the glory of the resurrection is the promise that awaits us all. On that glorious Easter morning, when the women rush to anoint Jesus’ body in the tomb, they discover, not a dead Jesus, but an angel who tells them that he is no longer there, for he has been raised up. This is complete vindication. Jesus had been right all along, death is not the final word. Neither are suffering and pain. The joy of Easter is what awaits all who remain faithful to God’s promise.
On Good Friday, we mark the Passion and Death of the Lord. No Mass is allowed to be celebrated on this day. We walk the Way of the Cross at 3pm and celebrate the Solemn Liturgy of the Lord’s Passion and Death at 7pm. Good Friday is not the end of our story, just was it wasn’t the end of Jesus’ story.