Christmas Draws Near

Dear Parishioners:             

Christmas Day will soon be upon us.  And so we anticipate with great joy the celebration of the birth of our Savior.  We gather with family and friends, we exchange gifts, eat delicious and luscious foods, and we make merry!  Yes, we rejoice on Christmas like no other day during the year. “For a child is born to us, a son is given to us; upon his shoulder dominion rests. They name him Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero, Father-Forever, and Prince of Peace.”

Everyone of us, young and old alike—has a favorite image or memory of Christmas. Perhaps its  is a  Christmas song or movie.  For some,  favorite Christmas memories have more to do with religious and family celebrations. I often think of how as a child we waited to place the figure of the Christ Child in the manger until  Christmas night.

The Nativity Story is often a comforting one for us as believers. There are times when we can be comforted by the romanticized picture of the first Christmas with which we are so familiar: the crib, the animals, the shepherds, Mary, Joseph and the Christ Child. We are  comforted by this familiar  story as it evokes memories of the  Christmas rituals of our family and own childhood.

However, there are  also times  when we can see behind the story to the coming of God into the harsh realities of human life.  The death of a beloved, the sickness and addiction of a friend, or the loss of job are everyday occurrences that can often become a harsh reality at Christmas for many. Let us remember them in our prayers, knowing that Christ's birth is especially meaningful for those who suffer and who long for His coming.

We know that the birth of the Christ child is not simply a feel-good story, but it is rather a significant and life-changing story for us and for our world. Whenever we face some personal difficulty, or feel down about the state of the world, or are burdened with worries, we can be certain that God is in the middle of it all: the Word has become flesh, and really lives in our midst.

I’ve often heard it said that “Christmas is for children.” And if Christmas were only Jesus’ “birthday,” then I think that could be true. When we really enter into the mysteries of Christmas, we quickly realize that Christmas is more than just a birthday party. Our Catholic tradition celebrates that Christ, the Divine Messiah and Savior of the World comes to us at Christmas.

We celebrate the Incarnation—Christ coming among us in history—when we recall the world-changing event of the birth of Jesus. In Jesus, God became a human being, born of Mary, to fulfill promises made through the prophets. At Christmas, we also celebrate how Christ mysteriously comes to us today—in the sacraments most especially the Eucharist, in the words of Scripture, and in our encounters with one another. The Incarnation wasn’t a one-time event.

Christmas also reminds us that what happened that night in Bethlehem was only a beginning. Our faith tells us that, while Christ is always with us, a time will come when we will be fully united with God. So, as we praise God for the gift of Emmanuel at Christmas, we also look to the day when Christ will come again. Life and death have been transformed by what began in Bethlehem. Christmas is ultimately a celebration of what is possible.

The wise still seek Christ at Christmas. It is  a time of promise: the light of the star that guided those travelers to Christ is a symbol of how God’s grace still guides seekers today. On Christmas, we  pray for the gift of faith for those who might have lost their way  from Christ and His Church and for those who do not know God’s love.

For us as a people of faith, Christmas is truly a rich season that deserves to be celebrated as fully as possible. The truths that are at the heart of this holy time are fundamental to our lives as Catholic disciples. Celebrate the many  ways Christ is present among us and is still being born in each of us today. May each of us, like Mary, the Mother of God,  take the presence of Christ to all the world.

On behalf of Fr. Barrow, Fr. Connors, and our good Sisters, I wish you a truly Happy and Holy Christmas.  May the Christ Child bring you the joy, peace and love of that first Christmas now and forever.  Christmas blessings to all!

A Cause for Joy!!

Dear Parishioners:            

On this Third Sunday of Advent, the Church gives us a very particular mandate: Rejoice! And, during these days before Christmas Day, it seems that there is joy all around us. There are Christmas parties, cookie exchanges, gatherings of friends, and sending Christmas cards.   And yet, one spiritual writer reflecting upon Advent makes an observation that should give us pause: “For the greeting card sentiment and sermonic rhetoric, I do not think that much rejoicing happens around Christmastime, least of all about the coming of the Lord. There is, I notice, a lot of holiday frolicking, but that is not the same as rejoicing.”

Without Advent, the only thing to do is to "rush" Christmas, with celebrations without much purpose and little meaning.  That turns Christmas inside out and can even make it depressing. It is celebrating a kind of  “Superficial” Christmas that G. K. Chesterton, the great Catholic apologist and writer,  described as "joy without a cause.”

We are still in the midst of Advent and so we celebrate both the coming and the presence of Christ in the world. As Catholic disciples this demands a certain response on our part—conversion and living lives worthy of his Kingdom.  However, as Catholic disciples we also rejoice because Christ is present among us, even in the midst of all the problems, trials, and tragedies that seem to overwhelm our world today.

What we prepare to commemorate and celebrate at Christmas has actually happened: God is in our midst. This truth calls for more than some sort of vaguely defined “cheery” disposition or “holiday frolicking” for Catholics. Rather, the radical joy that this Gaudete Sunday calls for is grounded in the confidence that, although all hell might be breaking out all around us, the Lord has come—and will come—to set us free.

The name Advent itself means “the approach” “the coming” –of the Lord and of nothing less than our Lord. We wait in joyful anticipation for that coming. Yet we know  we live in an age of instant gratification and guaranteed quick delivery. It is precisely  because we do not expect great things that we want them to come so quickly. Advent reminds us that our want of those  little and unimportant things to come immediately is no substitute for the patient anticipation of the great glory that is about to be revealed at Christmas.

Patience is a virtue precisely because it conditions the mind and the will to anticipate that for which the world was made.   Advent  calls for to a joyful patience and to truly wait for Christmas. As Chesterton suggests: “There is no more dangerous or disgusting habit than that of celebrating Christmas before it comes." While Advent requires patience it does not require the strict kind of penance and mortification of Lent.  It is rather a season of somber and  sober  yet joyful anticipation of Christ’s coming.    The very last line of the Bible cries out, “Come Lord Jesus!”

The Lord wants us to anticipate nothing less than Himself with patience and joy. During this Advent Season one of the best ways to prepare for a joyful Christmas Day is to make a good Confession of our sins. Confessions at OLM are available every Saturday afternoon and each Monday night.  On December 23rd, the Monday before Christmas, we will have two priests available for two hours  of Confession from 6pm until 8pm.  So rejoice in the Lord, rejoice in his mercy and forgiveness and rejoice that he comes to save us! 

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI reminds us: “True joy is not merely a passing state of mind or something that can be achieved with the person’s own effort; rather it is a gift, born from the encounter with the living Person of Jesus and, making room within ourselves, from welcoming the Holy Spirit who guides our lives. Those who have encountered Christ in their own lives feel a serenity and joy in their hearts that no one and no situation can take from them.”

I thank the many parishioners who continue to be so generous in supporting the Our Faith, Our Future Capital Campaign. If you have not yet made a pledge, please make your pledge today! We need every parish family to support this vital effort for our future. Rejoice in Advent! Be well. Do good. God Bless. Go Pats! Oremus pro invicem! 

A Wonderful Sign

Dear Parishioners:            

We continue the Season of Advent and with it our prayerful and joyful anticipation of the coming of Christ. It is a time for us to be more patient, more prayerful, more charitable and more hopeful.    As we ready ourselves for the joy of Christmas this year, let’s live Advent well and remember why we’re supposed to be joyful and hopeful. In the end, Christmas is not about the gifts, the carols or the parties, as joyful as these might  be for us. Christmas is about the birth of  our Savior, Jesus Christ, who brings meaning and hope to a world that needs redemption. In Christ, and only in Him, is our hope

Last week Pope Francis visited the town of Greccio, Italy.  It is the site of the first Nativity Scene, first instituted by St. Francis of Assisi. While there the Holy Father offered a brief reflection in which he called on the faithful to be like Mary and to let Jesus transform us and our ways of thinking.  He said: “Let us identify ourselves with Mary, who places her Son in the manger, because there was no room in a house. With Her and with Saint Joseph, her husband, we have our gaze turned to the Child Jesus.”

Also while there, the Holy Father signed and issued a wonderful Apostolic Letter on the Nativity Scene, entitled Admirabile Signum, meaning “A Wonderful Sign” in Latin.  In the letter, the Pontiff encourages all people to set up the nativity at home as a family, but also to set them up in schools, workplaces, hospitals, prisons and town squares.  We know that it is now legally prohibited to put up the crèche at government buildings, so all the more reason for us to be sure to set up a nativity in our homes, on our front lawns and at our own businesses for all the world to see what we celebrate at Christmas!

I  recommend reading the Holy Father’s letter about the tradition of St. Francis and the nativity and its importance for our faith.  It is a beautiful reflection on the meaning of the crèche.  In it, Pope Francis reminds us: “In front of the crib we discover how important it is for our life, so often frenetic, to find moments of silence and prayer — the silence to behold the beauty of the face of the Baby Jesus, the Son of God, born in a lowly stable.”

Next Sunday is the Third Sunday of Advent which is also known as Bambinelli Sunday. It was St. Pope John Paul II  who first began a tradition of inviting the children of Rome to assemble in St. Peter’s Square on the Third Sunday of Advent.  He asked them to bring their little statue of the baby Jesus that would be placed in their Nativity set at home and then the Pontiff would bless the images of the baby Jesus.  It is a beautiful Advent tradition, one that sanctifies the home with the baby Jesus and makes his arrival in the manger scene an even more joyous and hopeful event. The tradition continues in Rome with Pope Francis and we also mark  the Bambinelli Blessing at OLM next weekend.

We ask all parishioners to bring the baby Jesus figurine from the manager scene in their home to Mass next weekend.  At the end of Mass, the blessing of these sacred images of Jesus is offered as they are held aloft in the Church.  “May the Infant Jesus, present in the Crib of your home, be the concrete sign of a clear and sincere faith, which will enlighten, guide and direct your life and that of your dear ones.”

While this Sunday is December 8th, it is also  the Second Sunday of Advent.  So the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary has been moved to Monday, December 9th and is not a Holy Day of Obligation this year.  Therefore, there is only the 7:30am Mass on Monday but I invite you to attend as we honor our parish patroness during this Advent Season.

Again I offer my sincere thanks to those parishioners who have been so generous in supporting  the Our Faith, Our Future Campaign. We are over the $1 Million mark and moving towards our final goal. It can only happen if every parish family makes a sacrificial pledge over four years in support of this vital effort for our parish.  Thank you for your support.

This week I am away on retreat at St. Joseph’s Trappist Monastery in Spencer, MA.  I ask for your prayers during this time as I also pray for you and your intentions. Have a Blessed Advent, prepare the way!

Be well. Do good. God Bless. Go Pats! Oremus pro invicem! 

Come Lord Jesus!!

Dear Parishioners:             

I hope and pray you had a nice celebration of Thanksgiving with family and friends.  It is a day to give thanks for blessings of the bounty we enjoy from God.  We thank the Almighty for our food, shelter, family and faith.  I had a wonderful celebration with my family at my sister’s home in Saratoga, New York.  Our family is growing with an additional newborn grand niece and nephew and a third on the way at Christmas time! God is good and we thank him. I also wish to thank the many parishioners who supported the Our Faith, Our Future Capital Campaign last weekend.  We are off to a great start of meeting our goal of $2 Million. 

In September, Our Lady of Mercy kicked-off the “Grateful for God’s Providence; Our Faith, Our Future” Capital Campaign to raise $2,000,000. To date, we have received over $800,000 in pledges, and we are very thankful for the support we have received from those parish families that have already donated to the campaign!   Although this is a significant accomplishment for our parish, it is of greater importance that we have the participation of every family that considers Our Lady of Mercy their spiritual home and close to their hearts. We hope that we can count on your support.

 Our Campaign is being conducted on the simple premise that not everyone can make the same size gift but everyone can make the same size sacrifice. Although each household is being asked to consider a pledge of $4,000 or more payable over the next four years, every pledge of every amount is welcome and is vital to the success of this project.  Please return your pledge today if you have nto yet done so!  This is an exciting time in our parish history. With your help and that of all those associated with Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church, we will be able to complete our improvements.I thank you for your support and sacrifice for Our Faith and Our Future.

  We begin the month of December this Sunday and so we enter into the Solemn Season of Advent. During Advent we prayerfully prepare for the coming Feast of Christmas when we remember with joy and faith the First Coming of the Son of God, the birth of Jesus Christ. But it is also a time for us to anticipate with faith and hope Christ’s Second Coming at the end of time.  It is a season of “devout and expectant delight!” We wear the violet color of the season and bless and light the Advent Wreath as we pray:

“Lord Our God, we praise Your Son, Jesus Christ, He is Emmanuel, the hope of the peoples, He is the wisdom that teaches and guides us, He is the Savior of every nation. Lord God, let Your blessing come upon us as we light the candles of this wreath. May the wreath and its light be a sign of Christ’s promise to bring us salvation. May He come quickly and not delay.”

Advent is time to pause and prayerfully recommit and convert our lives to Christ.  We  recall the ancient cry of the early  Christians: “Maranatha! Come  Lord Jesus!” During Advent let us all ask how can we welcome Christ into our lives?  More faithful attendance at Sunday Mass? More time in prayer and reflection? Making a good Confession of our sins? Helping the needy and the poor with greater generosity and  charity?  During Advent 2019, let us cry out in both our words and works: Come Lord Jesus!

Reflecting upon this solemn season, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI teaches us: “Advent, this powerful liturgical season that we are beginning, invites us to pause in silence to understand a presence. It is an invitation to understand that the individual events of the day are hints that God is giving us, signs of the attention he has for each one of us.”

Next Sunday is December 8th which is normally the  Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  However, as it falls on the Second Sunday of Advent, the solemnity is moved to Monday, December 9th and therefore the Immaculate Conception is not a Holy Day of Obligation this year. Please join us  this Friday at 9:00AM for the OLM School Mass for the Feast of St. Nicholas! I hear St Nick might make a   appearance!

Thank you for your support of the Our Faith, Our Future Campaign. Be well. Do good. God Bless. Go Pats! Oremus pro invicem! 

Gratitude to God

Dear Parishioners:             

I thank the many parishioners who have so generously responded in support of the Our Faith, Our Future Capital Campaign.  Thus far we have over $750, 000 pledged toward our goal of $2 Million. It is a great start to this vital campaign for the future of our wonderful parish. I offer my thanks also to Joe and Carol Cavanagh and Michael and Brooke O’Connell who serve as the Our Faith, Our Future Campaign Chairs.  Their leadership and support has helped to get us off to this great start for the campaign. 

This weekend we are asking every parish family to make their pledge in support of the campaign. We are asking every one of our 2,200 parish families to consider a pledge of $4,000 over four years. We know that some may be unable to afford this size gift but also that many others can afford to do more.  However, everyone can make the same size sacrifice.

This campaign is part of the larger diocesan campaign called Grateful for God’s Providence.  It’s total goal is $50 Million and already $42 million has been pledged by Catholics across the state.  Our portion of the campaign that will support the Grateful for God’s Providence Campaign is $535,000. We have already gone beyond that amount, so please know that every dollar pledged this weekend goes directly in support of the projects at OLM.  These critical projects are estimated to cost $1.5 Million and will help ensure the future of our beloved parish. 

We are truly blessed to live in such a community as East Greenwich and worship at Our Lady of Mercy.  God has been generous with the blessings bestowed upon our town, our parish and our families.  One of the sincerest ways to express our gratitude to God is to share our blessings.  I am very hopeful that each and every parish family will  make the necessary sacrifice and share their blessings in support of the Our Faith, Our Future Capital Campaign.  With such sacrifice and support, we are certain to be successful in reaching our goal of $2 Million! I thank you in advance for your sacrificial support Our Faith and Our Future!

We need every parish family to participate to be successful in this vital campaign for our parish. As we consider our support of this noble effort,  I am reminded of the words of St. Pope John Paul the Great: “Remember the past with gratitude.  Live the present with enthusiasm.  Look forward to the future with confidence.” May we remember those who have gone before us at Our Lady of Mercy and by whose sacrifices left us this parish. May our  present effort  in support of our parish be full of enthusiasm and sacrifice. And may we always be confident of our future as a family of faith!

It is gratitude that we celebrate this week as a nation on Thanksgiving Day as we gather with family and friends and share a meal.  Although it is a civil holiday, it is primarily a spiritual occasion for us  to stop, reflect upon our blessings  and offer prayerful thanks to God the Almighty Father.    On Thanksgiving Day before we eat our turkey, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie, even before we enjoy the football games and good times with family and friends, we must offer prayers and thanksgiving to God. We give thanks to God for bestowing  so many blessings upon us. We give thanks for  the blessings of freedom and liberty, prosperity and good fortune, family and faith! The great spiritual writer, St. Teresa of Avila reminds us: “In all created things discern the providence and wisdom of God, and in all things give Him thanks.”

Certainly the best way for us as Catholics to offer prayerful thanks to God is at the Thanksgiving Day Mass at 9:00am on Thursday. Together we gather as a parish family to offer praise and thanksgiving to God as together we pray and worship at Holy Mass.  There is no better way to begin Thanksgiving Day then to gather as family of faith and celebrate the Eucharist, which itself means thanksgiving in the Greek. Following  Thanksgiving Day Mass, I make my annual trip up to my sister’s home in Saratoga, NY for the holiday dinner.  This year as an added blessing, I get to baptize my new grand-niece on next Saturday afternoon in NY.

Happy Thanksgiving! Be well. Do good. God Bless. Go Pats! Oremus pro invicem! 

Sacrifice for Our Faith, Our Future

Dear Parishioners:                          

Our Lady of Mercy Church circa 1920s. Original Church on Main Street

For over 160 years the Catholic faithful of Our Lady of Mercy Church have been generous in supporting their church and living their faith. We honor “Our Faith” as we build on the rich foundation of the many people who have gone before us in faith, we build “Our Future” as we strive to carry the mission to live the life of Christ in humble service to others.

  At times in our lives, we find ourselves at a crossroads: significant moments that define and shape who we are and what our future will be. This is also true in the life of a parish. We are so grateful and appreciative of those individuals who, in the past, saw themselves at such a moment. They put their faith into action, responded to the needs and built the parish facilities we enjoy at this time. Because of them and their and your ongoing support, Our Lady of Mercy continues to be, “A family of faith.”

Now it is our time. Standing at this crossroad we can see how current and future generations will benefit from the work that we are now challenged to embark upon. Your ongoing support and spirit of volunteerism shows how much you care and desire to be the instruments of the Lord. Our fundamental mission as a parish family is to lead all people to the Lord Jesus.

The Our Faith, Our Future Capital Campaign is a serious and important challenge to all of us in the parish. We must pray for its success, lend our many God-given talents to its completion, and make equal financial sacrifice on all our parts to make it happen. Working as one Body in Christ, we can ensure that our Legacy of serving those who come to worship our Lord with us and outreach to the wider community will endure far into the future. With prayers, gratitude and having full faith that God who has begun this good work in us will also bring it to a successful completion. 

Our Campaign is off to a great start! To date, more than $450,000 in pledges has been received towards our campaign goal of $2.0 million. While it is important that we reach our goal, it is of greater importance that we have the participation of every parishioner who calls Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church their spiritual home.

Every member of our parish is being asked to consider a pledge of $4,000 or more to this Campaign, payable over 3 years. This pledge can be paid with an optional down payment of $400 and then with monthly installments of $100. A $4,000 pledge is only $3.29 per day.

Groundbreaking for the new Our Lady of Mercy School 1950.

A few parishioners have asked us, “why do we have to make a pledge?” The reason we are asking all parishioners to consider making a three-year pledge is that it allows us to budget and plan for the future of our parish. We are conducting this campaign on the premise that not everyone can make the same size gift, but that everyone can make the same size sacrifice. All pledges and donations are welcomed, needed and greatly appreciated. I realize that every family has different circumstances. I only ask that you consider a pledge to the best of your financial ability. If you have been financially blessed and are able to give more, please consider doing so. Your generosity and sacrifice is needed and would be most appreciated.

Next weekend, November 23 and 24,  is our “Commitment Weekend.”  We would ask all families to make a  commitment to Our Faith, Our Future Campaign with a  pledge. With your help and prayers, we will be successful in raising the necessary funds for these much needed projects for our parish.  Your generous and sacrificial pledge to the campaign helps to ensure that Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church a sign of God’s generous love and a beacon of God’s mercy in East Greenwich. All of us have been called to be stewards of the gifts God bestowed upon us. I have faith you will be as generous as you are able. Every parish family is being called upon to make the same sacrifice in support of this vital campaign for Our Faith and Our Future. We thank you for your financial support and prayers for the campaign.

We thank the many parishioners who have already pledge and made the sacficie needed for Our Faith and Our Future.  Thank you for your time and consideration. With your support and sacrifice, Our Faith and Our Future will flourish! Our Lady of Mercy, prayer for us!

Be well. Do good. God Bless. Go Pats! Oremus pro invicem!