The Spring Fling Success and Summer Seminarian On the Way!

Dear Parishioners:

Last Saturday night the OLM School gathered to celebrate the Annual Spring Fling. This event is a major fundraiser for our school and helps to maintain and support the many fine programs offered at OLM School.  We are grateful to the many benefactors who donated some fabulous auction items including Red Sox tickets, Patriot’s Box Seats, tickets to the Broadway sensation Hamilton, and many others.  There was also the Dinner with the OLM Priests always a popular auction item! All the proceeds directly benefit the students at OLM School.

I thank OLM School PTO President, Jaime Pedro, and her excellent committee for all their hard work and dedication to ensuring a great time was had by all.  Also we thank those parents and guests who came to the big night and gave so generously in support of OLM School. With the Spring Fling now over, it’s hard to believe butin just a few weeks school ends for the summer break!  On the horizon, is the First Annual OLM School Golf Open.  Mark your calendar now for this golf tournament scheduled for Monday, September 11th at Quidnessett Country Club.

We also give thanks this week that we have now surpassed our Catholic Charity Appeal parish goal of $193,000. Once again your generous support of the good works of our Diocesan Church surpasses the goal.  I wholeheartedly thank all those who pledged and gave a gift to the CCA. Your generous support helped us not only reach but go over the goal.  In the name of the poor and needy who benefit from your generosity, I sincerely thank you.

This week I received news from the Office of Vocations that a Seminarian for the Diocese of Providence is to be assigned for the summer to Our Lady of Mercy Church. Seminarian Hiep Nguyen is currently finishing his First Theology Year at St. John Seminary in Boston.  He has been assigned to live and work at OLM for ten weeks and arrives on May 18th.

Hiep is a native of Vietnam where he was raised.  He emigrated to the Untied States several years ago and his home parish is St. Philip in Greenville.  He has a brother who is a priest and serves as a Pastor in Vietnam anda sister who is a religious sister and works in the St. Louis area.  We are looking forward to having Hiep here and supporting his priestly vocation. While here at OLM he will be living and working with Fr. Barrow and me.  He will be helping with Masses, teaching at school, visiting the home bound and working with the OLM Outreach Office. Be sure to give him a warm welcome when he arrives on May 18th.

Hiep is to also help us with our Annual Vacation Bible School.  This great week of fun and faith for our OLM children is scheduled for June 26—30.  It is always a great week of faith-filled activities for our parish.  There are details in the flyer found in the bulletin this week.  Make sure to sign up your child or grandchild!

I hope you join us this Monday for May Devotions as Fr. Joseph Briody, a Priest of the Diocese of Raphoe, Ireland, is to lead our devotions in honor of Our Lady of Knock.  He is a Professor of Scripture at St. John Seminary in Boston. The Story of Knock began on the 21st August, 1879 when, at approximately 8 o’clock in the evening, fifteen people from the village of Knock in County Mayo, Ireland witnessed an Apparition of Our Lady, St. Joseph, St. John the Evangelist, a Lamb and a cross on an altar at the gable wall of the Parish Church. These witnesses watched the Apparition in the pouring rain for two hours, reciting the Rosary. Although they themselves were saturated not a single drop of rain fell on the gable or the vision.

There were fifteen official witnesses to the Apparition, most of whom were from the village of Knock and surrounding areas and ranged in age from just 5 years old to 74 years old. There is a beautiful shrine at Knock where I have had the privilege to celebrate Mass and seek Our Lady’s powerful intercession. Fr. Briody is to lead us in our devotions as we plead for the intercession of Our Lady of Knock for our parish. Please join us on Monday at 7:00PM for the Rosary, Eucharistic Adoration and beautiful music.

Be well.  Do good. God Bless.  Our Lady of Knock,  pray for us!

April Showers Bring May Flowers and Mary, Our Blessed Mother!

Dear Parishioners:

April Showers bring May flowers! Let’s hope that the rain we had this past week does indeed bring some spring blossoms!  April is ending and the Month of May is upon us already!  Where did the time go?

Of course, May is a month dedicated to Our Blessed Mother, Mary.  We will have May Devotions every Monday night during the month.  This May we also recognize that Bishop Tobin has declared a Year of Mary in honor of the 100th Anniversary of the Virgin Mary’s appearance at Fatima. To celebrate this, join us on Mondays in May to discover the various titles given to Our Blessed Mother.

We start with our own patroness, Our Lady of Mercy, tomorrow night with Deacon John Dowd.  Next Monday Fr. Joseph Briody, a native of Ireland and Professor of Sacred Scripture at St. John Seminary join us to discover Our Lady of Knock. On Monday, May 15th, Fr. Jorge Rocha, a native of Portugal and Associate Pastor at St. Francis Xavier Church, joins us in seeking the intercession of Our Lady of Fatima. Father Chris Murphy from the OLP Seminary joins us May22ndfor devotions to Our Lady of Providence, the patroness of our Diocese.

On May 29th, the last Monday of the month, Deacon Brian Morris, a native son of OLM, joins us for devotions in honor of Our Lady of Lourdes. He spent a summer working at Lourdes helping the many sick and infirm pilgrims who journey there seeking Our Lady’s powerful intercession.  Deacon Morris is to be ordained a priest of our diocese on Saturday, June 3rd! Leading us in devotions is to be one of his last duties as a Deacon!

Each of these special Monday Nights in Mayfeatures Exposition and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, recitation of the Rosary, a talk on Our Lady’s title and some beautiful and meditative hymns in honor of the Blessed Mother.  So mark your calendars and join us in celebrating the Year of Mary at Our Lady of Mercy!

We hope to continue the celebration of the Blessed Mother on Saturday, May 13th, the 100th Anniversary of the Apparitions at Fatima, Portugal.  A special celebration is planned at the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul in Providence.  It begins with a huge outdoor procession as hundreds of the faithful from across the diocese walk in procession with the statue of Our Lady of Fatima.

Every parish has been asked to send a delegation for the procession and the members of our Legion of Mary and Our Lady’s Rosary Makers are to represent OLM. The 11:00AM outdoor procession is followed by a multi-lingual recitation of the Rosary and Confessions.  Following the Rosary, a Mass in honor of Our Lady of Fatima is to be offered by Bishop Tobin.  It is the highlight of this Year of Mary, our year long re-dedication to the Blessed Mother as a local Church.  May the Blessed Virgin Mary intercede for us!

Our Holy Father, Pope Francis, is to travel to Fatima on the anniversary as well. He is to lead the Rosary and offer a Mass for the thousands of pilgrims there to celebrate the great day. It was also just announced that Pope Francis, while he is in Fatima, is to canonize two of the visionaries of the Marian apparitions there. Now the young shepherds Jacinta and Francisco Marto, are to become Saints of our Church!

We are also celebrating First Holy Communion for our OLM School Children and the children of the OLM Religious Education Program on Saturday, May 13th.  What a great day for the children to receive Jesus Christ truly present in the Eucharist for the first time.  May Our Lady of Fatima and Saints Jacinta and Francisco intercede for them on this most important day in their young lives.

Pope Francis recently spoke of Our Lady of Fatima.  He stated: “She asks us to never offend God again. She forewarns all humanity about the necessity of abandoning oneself to God, the source of love and mercy. Following the example of St. John Paul II, a great devotee of Our Lady of Fatima, let us listen attentively to the Mother of God and ask for peace for the world.”

So let the May flowers come and celebrate with great joy and a renewed vigor Mary Most Holy! Be sure to pick up your Rosary beads and join us for May Devotions this month.  Be well. Do good. God Bless!  Our Lady of Mercy and Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!

Giving Thanks for Holy Week and Easter Blessings

Dear Parishioners:

We had a tremendous celebration of Holy Week and Easter! The Holy Week ceremonies were truly prayerful and reverent.  The Easter Liturgies were joyous! As St. Augustine said so long ago, “We are an Easter People and Alleluia is our song!”

None of the solemnity, beauty and glory of Holy Week and Easter is possible without the hard work of so many good people.  We thank all who worked to ensure that the most sacred time of our Church Year was possible and wonderful. We thank Celia Franzone and her dedicated crew of decorators who made the Church so beautiful with flowers and decorations. We thank Nancy Wray and her band of Sacristans who cleaned, polished, and prepared all the vessels and vestments for Holy Week.  We thank Henri St. Louis, Deirdre Donovan, the OLM Adultand Children Choirs for providing such beautiful music for the Sacred Triduum.

We must thank Paul Anderson and his hard working maintenance crew for ensuring the Church was so clean and the grounds so beautiful.  We thank our loyal Altar Servers who served each of the ceremonies with great reverence.  We thank our ushers for their service and hospitality to our many visitors.  We thank our Lectors and Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion for their faithful service during Holy Week.

Yes, all these good folks, and many others, deserve our gratitude for the hard work in seeing to all the details of Holy Week and Easter and for making the celebration of Holy Week truly beautiful and joyful. In your name I also thank our zealous young Associate Pastor, Fr. Barrow and our dedicated Parish Deacon, John Dowd, for their support and hard work in planning and executing all that goes into Holy Week and Easter.  They are a great blessing to our parish!

We must, however, give all thegratitude to the one who truly deservesour thanks and praise, Almighty God!  God is the great giver of all that is beautiful and joyful and so we thank Him for the many blessings received during Holy Week and the Easter Season! St. Ignatius of Loyal reminds us:  Ad maiorem Dei gloriam, All for the greater glory of God!

We give thanks to God also for those who were baptized and received into the Catholic Church at Easter. Across the globe thousands joined our Church and now share in confessing our Catholic faith each Sunday.  We welcome them all including those who were received into the Church here at the Easter Vigil.  Let us continue to pray that their faith flourishes in their lives.  We also had the great joy of baptizing infants on Easter Sunday.  Easter is all about new life and so it is always joyous when we witness that new life in Christ first hand.

Our celebration of Easter, the greatest feast of the Church, does not end in only eight days. As the Catechism reminds us:  “Easter is not simply one feast among others, but the ‘Feast of feasts,’ the ‘Solemnity of solemnities.” As such, the celebration of Easter extends for fifty days. The fifty days from the Sunday of the Resurrection to Pentecost Sunday are celebrated in joy and exultation as one feast day, indeed as one ‘great Sunday.”

We rejoice in the Risen Christ and celebrate the Easter Season with a joyful and lively faith.  In an ancient Easter homily, St. John Chrysostom reminds usas he reminded the early Church why we celebrate with such great joy:

"O Death, where is your sting? O Hell, where is your victory? Christ is risen, and you are overthrown. Christ is risen, and the demons are fallen. Christ is risen, and the angels rejoice. Christ is risen, and life reigns. Christ is risen, and not one dead remains in the grave. For Christ, being risen from the dead, is become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. To Him be glory and dominion unto ages of ages."

We thank Fr. Nathan Ricci for assisting at MassesduringEaster. Father washome from his studies in Rome visiting his family for Easter. He reports that Fr. Connors is studying very diligently as we might expect!   Fr. Barrow is on a well deserved vacation this week!  We thank our good neighbor, Bishop Evans, for helping to cover Masses.  Happy Easter! Christ is Risen! Alleluia!  So celebrate Easter with joy and faith.  Be well. Do good. God Bless!

The Lord is Risen, He Has Risen Indeed! Happy Easter!!

Dear Parishioners:

Happy Easter! Jesus, the crucified one, has now been raised from the dead. He is risen. Utter defeat has been transformed into irreversible victory.  Alleluia, He has Risen Indeed!  Evil has had its way with God’s anointed, the Messiah. It did all it could to break down the courage and fidelity of God’s anointed Savior. It exhausted its arsenal of hate, injustice, humiliation, and pain. It fought a bloody fight – but God’s anointed came out victorious. And what does that mean for us? It means everything, absolutely everything. The resurrection is the stamp that validates everything Jesus did and said: His claim to be God’s Son, to have authority to forgive sin and reestablish communion between God and man; His universal call to abandon self-centeredness for love of God and neighbor as the path to truehappiness; His promise to give grace through a Church that endures forever.

If Jesus had not been raised, none of that would be worth listening to.  He would have been just one more nice guy who finished last, one more dreamer whose dreams were squelched by the harsh reality of real life.  Yes, he suffered and died for us and our salvation.  He did rise from the dead, the tomb was empty on the first Easter morning so long ago.  His victory over evil and falsehood, injustice and suffering is total, incontrovertible, and irreversible.  In the face of twenty centuries filled with the glory of the martyrs anda steady stream of saints making their way to the heavenly communion of saints, an incredible growth of the Church from a small band of disciples, and an unquenchable Christian vitality, no reasonable person can deny really deny the resurrection!

St. Paul reminds us that all faith flows from faith in the resurrection: “If Christ has not been raised, then empty is our preaching; empty, too, is your faith.” Yes, we are partakers in the Resurrection of Jesus.  At ourown death or in the death of loved onewe share in eternal life. This is the ultimate way we share in our Lord’s triumph of Easter.  We also share in the Resurrection of Jesusthrough the Sacraments of the Church.  Yes, Jesus wants to fill our souls with His new, risen life.  We call that life of Christ within our heart grace.  He gives us grace in many ways, but most profoundly anddramatically, through the Seven Sacraments of the Church.

On this EasterSunday 2017, we celebratethat thousands ofpeople professed our Catholic faith for the very first time at the Easter Vigil in Churches across the globe. They received theSacraments ofBaptism and Confirmation, andreceived Christ sacramentally in their reception of First Holy Communion the Easter Vigil Mass! Here at Our Lady of Mercy, we celebrate and rejoice that five adults were received fully into the Catholic Church!  Right before our eyes, we saw people rise to a new life as Jesus poured His light and life into theirthirsting, hungry souls. Thus, we sing with the Exultet: “Rejoice, let Mother Church also rejoice, arrayed with the lightning of His glory, let this holy building shake with joy, filled with the mighty voices of the peoples .”

The Easter Vigil is the “Mother of All Vigils.” Easter Sunday is the greatest of all Sundays, and Easter Time is the most important of all liturgical seasons. The word “Easter” comes from Old English, meaning simply the “East.” The sun which rises in the East, brings light, warmth and hope,  and is a symbol of the rising Christ, who is the true Light of the World. The Easter Candle reminds us of this divine light, which is Christ. It is kept near the pulpitall throughEaster. So during this Easter season , let us   bask in the wondrous light ofChrist and behold the beauty, the glory and the joy of Easter!  Easter truly is the joy of glorified life and the victory over death, expressed most fully in the great resounding cry of the Christian:  “Alleluia!”  So let us shake this holy building, we call Our Lady of Mercy Church, with true joy as we raise our mighty voices and rejoice, Christ is Risen!

Let us joyfully sing today with the Psalmist: “This is the day the Lord has made; Let us rejoice and be glad!” Behold the glory and proclaim Christ is Risen! A Blessed Easter! Be well. Do good. God Bless!

Entering into the Mysteries of Our Faith, Celebrating Palm Sunday and Holy Week

Dear Parishioners:

Last Saturday morning we had a grand celebration for Mrs. Claire Sharpe on her 107th birthday.  Bishop Evans celebrated the Mass and her family joined Claire.  All she wanted for her birthday was to receive the Eucharist at Our Lady of Mercy Church! Her words of faith and wisdom at the reception that followed the Mass were truly inspirational.  God Bless her!

Also last week our OLM Middle School Students attended the RI Science Olympiad and did very well.  There is a complete list of winners in the bulletin.  We congratulate the entire teamon their hard work and success. We thank the many parents and volunteers who helped prepare the students for the event.  Also thanks to their Olympiad Coach, our outstanding OLM Middle School Science Teacher, Dr. Deborah Husak!  Great job by one and all, you made us proud!

We must also congratulate the OLM Girls Basketball Team who won the RI State Championship and last weekend made their way to the New England Tournament in Bridgeport. They went as far as the semi-finals.  The OLM Girls had a great season finishing 11-1.  We congratulate them on their hard work and success this season.  We thank their coaches Brenda Verdi and Dr. Steve Basler for their commitment to the team.

I bring warm greetings from our former OLM Associate Pastor FatherShemek. He is doing very well in Tiverton where he serves as Pastor of both St. Theresaand St. Christopher Parishes. I am grateful for his kind invitation to lead the parishes on a Lenten Mission last week. They are a vibrant community of faith and I truly enjoyedmy time there.

It’s hard to believe that our forty-days of Lenten prayer, fasting and alms-giving are coming to an end already.  We begin Holy Week by recallingChrist’s entrance into Jerusalem to accomplish the Paschal Mystery.  At the heart of our faith is the Paschal Mystery: the Passion, Death, Resurrection, and Ascension of Jesus Christ. All of salvation history leads up to and goes forth from these saving events. We callthisweek, “Holy Week” as Jesus’ public ministry culminates with his suffering, death and resurrection.

Our celebration of Holy Week begins this Sunday as we remember in faiththe triumphal entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem to begin his final week and initiate his Passion. TheGospels recount this triumphant entry that Sunday Morning so long ago. Today as we receive thepalm branches, perhapswe might consider ourselves as part of that vast crowd. How will we journey with Jesus this week? Let the palm remind us to praise Christwith our prayerful presence during the Sacred Triduum.

Holy Thursday marks the beginning of the Sacred Triduum. We celebrate the Mass of the Lord’s Supper at 7:00pm with the foot washing of parishioners. At this Mass we recall the institution of the Eucharist and the Sacred Priesthood by Jesus Christ.  The Church is to remain open until Midnight for private prayer and devotion before the Eucharistic Lord at the Altar of Repose.

Good Fridaywe recall the Lord’s Passion and Crucifixion.  It is a day of prayer, fasting and abstinence. Whenever possible,  we are urged to keep Good Friday free of work and social activities, as well as unnecessarydistractions like TV, radio, internet and movies. Rather we should devote ourselves to both private and communal prayer and worship. Join us on Good Friday at 3:00pm for the Stations of the Cross and at 7:00pm for the Liturgy of the Lord’s Passion where wevenerate the Cross and receive Holy Communion.

On Holy Saturday we recall Jesus in the tomb as we pray and prepare for the Easter Vigil.  The Easter Vigil Mass is at 8:00pm and is the only Mass that day.  We begin in the darkness as we recall the death of Christ and then the Church comes alive with light as we recall his glorious Resurrection. We rejoice as the tomb is empty!

At the Easter Vigil Mass we will also receive five people fully into the Catholic Faith. Pray for themas they join our Church. On Easter Sunday the tomb is empty and so we rejoice in the glory of the Lord’s Resurrectionwith Masses at 7:30am, 9:00am and 10:30am.  There is no 5:00pm Sunday evening Mass on Easter.

Join us this Holy Week and truly enter into the Sacred Mysteries of our faith. Know of our prayers for those who are traveling for Easter. Be well. Do good. God Bless!

Renewed by Lenten Mission, We Prepare to Enter the Holiest of Weeks

Dear Parishioners: With great gratitude we offer our thanks to Father Chris O’Connor who led us on Mission this past week.  His witty and wise sermons provided much food for thought for all of us about what it means to be an authentic Catholic disciple.  I hope you were able to get to some of the Mission Talks as Fr. O’Connor is a gifted preacher and was well worth the time.  In your name, I thank Fr. O’Connor for taking the time to be with us and offer such inspirational words.  He is a busy priest who does great work at St. John’s Seminary preparing future priests. I am so grateful to him for his kindness and generosity in leading our Parish  Mission. Please keep Fr. O’Connor in your prayers as he continues his important priestly ministry.

I also thank the visiting priests who joined us for Confessions during the Mission.  They report that many people came forward to receive the Sacrament of Mercy and that is a great thing! Also I thank the many people who turned out for the Mission each night, it was a wonderful time for our whole parish to come together and deepen our understanding of our Catholic Faith.

We had a small celebration this Saturday morning at the 8:30am Mass.  Mrs. Claire Sharpe celebrated her 107th Birthday by coming to Mass!  It was a great celebration for her and her family and we were so delighted she was able to come to Church for Mass. She is a woman of deep faith and love of Christ and His Church and truly an inspiration to us all.  A very Happy Birthday  to Claire and God’s Blessings!

This is the last weekend of Lent as next Sunday we celebrate Palm Sunday and the start of Holy Week.  Palm Branches will be distributed and blessed at all Masses.  At the 10:30am Mass next Sunday, we will begin our Solemn Entrance from Mercy Park.  Pray for spring weather! Also at all Masses next Sunday we  solemnly proclaim the Passion of Our Lord according to the Gospel of Saint Matthew. Pope Emeritus Benedict teaches us:

“Palm Sunday is the great doorway leading into Holy Week, the week when the Lord Jesus makes his way towards the culmination of his earthly existence. May these days call forth two sentiments in particular: praise, after the example of those who welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem with their "Hosanna!", and thanksgiving, because in this Holy Week the Lord Jesus will renew the greatest gift we could possibly imagine: he will give us his life, his body and his blood, his love.”

I hope and pray that the Holy Season of Lent continues to help prepare each us for the coming glory of Easter.  Our prayer, fasting and alms-giving should help us to truly celebrate the great feasts of our faith with a sense of renewed faith. If you have not yet gone to Confession, I urge you to please do so before Easter. We have Confessions every Monday night at 6:00pm and Saturdays at 4:00pm.

Next weekend we also take up the annual Rice Bowl Collection for Catholic Relief Services.  Those humble paper bowls that were given out on Ash Wednesday are hopefully now overflowing with your sacrificial donations for the hungry of the world.  Catholic Relief Services was founded in 1943 by the U.S. Bishops to serve World War II survivors in Europe. Since then, they have expanded in size to reach more than 100 million people in 101 countries on five continents. For over 40 years, CRS Rice Bowl has provided material support to those who hunger for food throughout our world.

All the monies collected for the Rice Bowl Collection go directly to CRS efforts to feed the hungry.  We are grateful for the tremendous support that OLM has  shown over the years for this collection.  Again this year the hungry of the world are counting on us to help them through our prayer, sacrifice, self-denial and charity.  I ask that you please not return loose coins but either cash or a check as this makes it much easier for our Monday morning collection counters. In the name of the poor and hungry who are aided by Catholic Relief Services, I thank you for your generous support of the Rice Bowl Collection and  ask for your continued prayers for the good works of CRS.  As Catholics we should take great pride in the incredible work of CRS in bringing Christ to the neediest of the world.  It  is such works that we support here at OLM!

Please remember that the Saturday 4:00pm Mass is now moved forward to 5:00pm and Confessions from 3:00pm to 4:00pm!  I am away this weekend preaching the Lenten Mission at St. Theresa & St. Christopher in Tiverton.  Fr. Shemek, our old OLM friend, invited me months ago and I couldn’t say “No” to him! It is still Lent so don’t forget to  Pray, Fast and Give Alms! Be well. Do good. God Bless!