Giving Thanks as Christmas Ends

Dear Parishioners:             

              With the celebration this weekend of the Baptism of the Lord, the Christmas Season comes to an end.  We now begin the Season of Ordinary Time and we return to green vestments.  This will be the last weekend to see all the beauty of Christmas in our Church as the decorations, trees, flowers and the crèche will all be taken down this week.         

I hope your Christmas Season was joyful and faith-filled.  Unfortunately for me I spent Christmas Week in bed with a severe flu.  My Doctor quarantined me to my room in the rectory and I missed all the Christmas Masses at OLM and also spending Christmas Day with my family.  It is the first time in my twenty-five years as a priest I have been unable to offer Mass on Christmas! I wish to thank both Fr. Barrow and Fr. Connors for their able assistance in assuring Christmas at OLM went on without a hitch during my sickness.  They both deserve great gratitude for all the extra work they took on and also for their great support of their ailing pastor! 

Christmas at OLM is the result of the hard work and dedication of many people.  We thank Paul Anderson and our excellent OLM Maintenance Crew for all the preparation of setting up for Christmas.  They always make sure that OLM is clean and beautiful and we are grateful.  The Church during Christmas is always decorated so beautifully.  I wish to thank Celia Franzone and her crew of decorators who do such a terrific job  in making OLM the most beautiful of Churches at Christmas.  Their hard work and dedication always enhances our worship of God at Holy Mass.

I wish to thank too  Henri St. Louis and our OLM Choir for their great gift of song and music at Christmas.  They add such joy and solemnity to our worship of the Christ Child!  Also we thank Shirley Medici and the OLM Children’s Choir for their terrific job of singing at Christmas Mass.  They are a great sign of joy and hope for us. We must also thank the many OLM Altar Servers who so dutifully and reverently serve Holy Mass at Christmas.  They add great solemnity to our celebration of Christmas and we are grateful.  Also we thank the many ushers who ensure the good order of Church during Masses and also provide a welcoming and helping hand to our many visitors during Christmas.  We also acknowledge the great job by our Lectors in proclaiming God’s Sacred Word with reverence and joy and also the tremendous help of our Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion who always make the celebration of Christmas at OLM a grand occasion of faith, praise and worship.  We thank them all for what they do for God and our parish!

We  thank too Nancy Wray and the many sacristans who helped prepare for all the Masses at Christmas.  They along with our good Sisters, Sister Lourdes and Sister Emma, provide so much help behind the scenes in ensuring all the vestments and sacred vessels are ready, clean and polished for our worship. We thank them for their dedication and hard work.

Along  with Fr. Barrow and Fr. Connors, I thank the many parishioners who were so very generous in recognizing our priestly ministry this Christmas.  We thank them for the many cards and well wishes, delicious baked goods and holiday foods, and the many generous personal gifts.  Indeed we are truly grateful for the loving support and encouragement you provide us as priests! 

We give thanks to Almighty God for the  blessings bestowed upon us, our families and our parish family.  They are signs to us of God’s great and generous love for us. Christmas truly is a time to celebrate God’s love as we rejoice in the greatest gift given to us, God’s only Son, Jesus Christ, the Savior of the World, born on Christmas Day!

Christmas ends but as Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI reminds us: “The joy that flows from the celebration of Christmas finds its fulfillment today in the feast of the Baptism of the Lord. In the sacrament of Baptism is in fact manifested the living and active presence of the Holy Spirit who, enriching the Church with new children, vivifies her and makes her grow and we cannot help but rejoice over this.”   Christmas is over but let us continue to rejoice with joyful faith in our loving God even during this Ordinary Time! 

Be well. Do Good! God Bless.

The Wise Still Seek Him

Dear Parishioners:            

We are just a few short days into our new  2020 calendar year, and perhaps already any resolutions we might have made for the new year have already fallen by the wayside. We may have realized that it takes more than a solemn pre-midnight declaration to change the course of our lives.   Yet our desire for change and a better future as we leave one year behind and start a new one is perfectly understandable, especially if the year we have left behind has been disappointing, sorrowful or painful in some way. And without the sense of a need for growth  what would our lives be like? What would we be without goals and ambitions to pursue?
Perhaps what does seem a little worrying about our desire for change, and our pursuit of new goals is that so often what we pursue, and the way in which we pursue what we want, very seldom speaks of the faith that we proclaim. What does it say to others if all we want is materialistic, or vain glory, or if our change is  fueled by only greed or avarice? And what does it say to others if our way of reaching our goals is self-satisfaction, egoism and self-centeredness? Anyone can have such goals and ambitions, but surely as Christians we should be pursuing more  than simply a self-directed attempt at self-improvement.

We celebrate the great Solemnity of the Epiphany today. The story of the Magi, the wise men, is truly a story of a life changing revelation and encounter with the Word Incarnate, the Christ child. The Epiphany was the most significant encounter in the lives of  the wise men. They lived their lives as men who sought the truth, and they find the very source of that truth in the Christ child. And having paid him homage, and offered him gifts they return to their place of origin by another route, transformed and changed by what they have encountered, taking the message of salvation with them.

The story of the Magi remains an important message for our times. The need to set a different course in our life which so clearly manifests itself at this time of year is an expression of a deeply rooted desire to find fulfillment and meaning.  Yet in that search for fulfillment, so many things are sought which simply cannot satisfy. And some of the goals and targets can even be damaging to the individual and to others. Truth seekers will always be restless in their hearts unless they allow themselves to be drawn into an encounter, and then a living relationship with Christ and his Church. As St. Augustine said: “Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.”

If we truly change and redirect our lives then life should no longer simply be a self-directed search for self-improvement, because our encounter with  Jesus Christ and our  relationship with him and his Church must be  the defining influence of lives as Catholic disciples.  It is through this encounter and relationship with Christ nurtured by prayer and nourished and sustained by the Sacraments of the Church that our quest for happiness, meaning and fulfilment is shaped and guided. And it is  by  the grace of God that we can be shaped towards the  ultimate goal of every human life, which is God himself.

As we  celebrate  the Epiphany we must pursue  an encounter with the Child in the Crib   as we turn back to the object of our faith. And having encountered Christ again, and worshiped and adored him, as the wise men did, we should go on our way by a different path, with lives lived in and through a growing relationship with the Lord.  The invitation for us on the Epiphany is to reflect on the full meaning of the Christmas Mystery in our lives. And also for us to recognize who it is who has been born for us and to offer a prayer of thanks and adoration for the gift of this newborn King.

St. Bruno offers a good way to do this in  his Epiphany Sermon from the 11th Century.  He writes: “We offer the Lord gold when we shine in his sight with the light of heavenly wisdom. We offer him frankincense when we send up pure prayer before him, and myrrh when, mortifying our flesh with its vices and passions by self-control, we carry the cross behind Jesus.”

Let 2020 be a year to renew our faith and commit more fully to Christ and His Church. God Bless. Go Pats!

Come to the Holy Stable

Dear Parishioners:             

We continue to celebrate the miracle of Christmas, centered on the birth of Christ.  I hope and pray you had a joyful celebration of the Savior’s birth with family and friends.  Christmas reminds us of the beauty and holiness of the Holy Family as we witness Mary and Joseph adore the Christ Child. This weekend we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family. The importance of their example of faith and love is essential for all families. As Saint John Paul II said, the Holy Family is “the prototype and example for all Christian families.”

Today many laws and cultural trends seem to undermine the family. Therefore, families most especially Catholic families must model themselves on the Holy Family, living as domestic churches, to counter these anti-family forces. Pope  Emeritus Benedict XVI urged families to “resist the disintegrating forces of a certain contemporary culture which undermines the very foundations of the family institution.”

The Holy Family serves as a model first and foremost, because their lives were centered around Jesus, the living Son of God, Every family is called to center their lives around Jesus the Lord. The family that does this grows in holiness and faith. The family that does not simply will not grow in holiness.

Secondly, all the members of the Holy Family strived to do God’s will in their lives.  In fact, the Holy Family was holy because they always sought to do God’s will not their own. Every family that desires to be holy is called to do the same echoing the Blessed Mother’s “Thy Will Be Done!”

Mother Mary gave her “Yes” to God at the Annunciation; Joseph obeyed God by caring for Mary and Jesus. St. Luke recounts that Jesus at  age 12 “was obedient to” to Mary and Joseph. And as Jesus advanced in “wisdom and age and favor before God and man” He always obedient, even to death on the cross.

To be Christ-centered, families must inspire one another to become holy. We need to encourage each other to do God’s will by doing God’s will ourselves always with faith and joy. Every family, no matter its size or experience should  help each other to do this by offering a witness to their faith in their daily living.

In the Holy Family, Joseph teaches husbands and fathers, whose primary role is to love and serve their wives and children in all things by providing, sacrificing and inspiring them with examples of strong faith, deep love  and great joy.

The Blessed Mother is  a great model and intercessor for wives and mothers in how to make their homes true schools of sanctity.  Like Mary, wives and mothers must be on fire for the faith and make their love for God contagious especially for their children.

The Holy Family was holy because they prayed. From the earliest days, the Holy Family went regularly to the Temple. They celebrated the major feasts. His parents taught Jesus Hebrew, like all Jews, by reading and learning the sacred Scriptures.

Because families are little churches in the large Church, the celebration of Holy Mass — the greatest prayer — always needs to be the heart  and center of the Catholic family, Prayer must be the basic structure of family life, particularly daily prayer, rosary and grace at meal times. Also faithful attendance as a family at Sunday Mass even before sporting events and frequent Confession of sins must be part of any faithful Catholic family. As a model for all families, the Holy Family truly  loved each other, sacrificing for each other, bearing one another’s burdens and always forgiving. .  So turn to the Holy Family this weekend in faith and love and learn from them.

We thank Deborah Caparco Runshe and Betsy Caparco Harris  of the Hill Funeral Home for once again sponsoring the beautiful parish calendars for 2020.  Please take one home with you this weekend.  Also if you know of a shut-in or neighbor who needs a calendar, please take one for them as well.

On behalf of Fr. Barrow, Fr. Connors, and our good Sisters, I wish you many blessings for the New Year! Join us for Mass on New Years Day, there is no better way to begin 2020!  It’s a holy day of obligation and the schedule of Masses is in the bulletin.  Happy New Year! God Bless. Go Pats!

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!