Candelmas and the Flu

Dear Parishioners:             

Last weekend we heard from our outstanding OLM Students!  What a great job they did telling us why they love their school! The OLM School Open House saw many prospective students visit and see firsthand all the great things going on there. We thank you for your support of OLM School, and as Catholic Schools Week end, I ask you to please continue praying for our young saints and scholars!

This weekend we celebrate the great Feast of the Presentation of the Lord as this year it falls on a Sunday.  The feast of Jesus' presentation in the temple forty days after his birth, always celebrated on February 2nd, has a long history in the Eastern and Western Church. The Mosaic law prescribed that every firstborn male in Israel had to be consecrated to God forty days after birth and redeemed with a sum deposited in the Temple treasury. This was in remembrance of the firstborn sons being preserved from death on the night of the first Passover during the exodus from Egypt.

St. Joseph and our Lady entered the temple in Jerusalem, unnoticed among the crowd. The “desired of all nations” came to the house of his Father in his Mother’s arms. But as we are reminded in the liturgy of this feast, Jesus was unlike any other child for he is: “A light of revelation to the Gentiles, and glory for your people Israel.”

In commemorating the arrival and manifestation of the divine light to the world, the Church each year blesses candles as they are a symbol of Jesus’ eternal presence and the light of faith received in the sacrament of Baptism. The procession with lighted candles recalls for us the Christian life as a pathway always illuminated by the light of Christ.

This weekend we also anticipate the Feast of St. Blaise on February 3rd. He was a bishop and martyr of the early Church and became popular for centuries as many cures were attributed to his intercession. This began with the tradition  of his saving a child who was choking to death on a fish bone caught in his throat. St. Blaise is one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers and is invoked for all throat afflictions. The blessing of throats takes place at the end of all Masses this weekend.

Using two blessed candles placed on the throat the priest offers a blessing with a prayer as  he calls forth the powerful intercession of St. Blaise to protect us from all ailments of throat and all other afflictions and ailments! It is rather timely in this season of colds and flu! This is especially true this year as the flu is  so widespread.  So turn to St. Blaise for his powerful intercession to protect us from afflictions of the throat and every other ailment especially the flu.

Also out of an abundance of caution and with the strong recommendation of medical doctors, I have suspended the  communal “Sign of Peace” at at all Masses at OLM.  This is to continue until the cold and flu season has been abated. This precaution helps avoids the hand to hand contact that  often spreads germs that cause flu and colds.  If you are suffering from the flu, please stay at home and take care of yourself.  We promise to pray for you!

 We hope and pray that the flu subsides in our nation.  We also must pray that the deadly outbreak of the Corona Flu Virus in China and now spreading across the globe may also subside.   Let us pray for those suffering as a result of this deadly flu especially the millions who are now quarantined in China.  May St. Blaise, intercede for them all!

Fr. Barrow and his band of merry pilgrims report that they had a truly joyful and fruitful journey in the Holy Land.  Their trip was safe and peaceful with many tremendous opportunities for prayer, devotion and worship at the holiest sites of Christianity.  They worshiped and prayed where Jesus Christ did himself. We are happy they are home safe. Welcome back!

Next weekend our OLM School 8th Graders  head north to Quebec for the annual OLM graduation trip.  Fr. Barrow, the world traveler, is going along too!  Pray for their safe travel, as it is always very cold and snowy this time of year in Quebec. It is a very educational and fun trip for all!  Bon Voyage!

It’s cold and flu season so please wash your hands and say your prayers because Jesus and germs are everywhere! Be well. Do Good! God Bless.  Enjoy the Superbowl!

Celebrate Catholic Schools!

Dear Parishioners:             

This weekend we kick off Catholic Schools Week at OLM! Students from our parish school are speaking at all Masses about their experience at OLM School. The 9:00AM Mass will include many of our school families and alumni in attendance.  Following the Mass, there is an Open House at OLM School from 10:00am until Noon.  I encourage every parishioner to stop by and see all the great things going on in our school. We have an outstanding faculty and our young saints and scholars are a source of great pride for our parish.  Whether you went to Catholic School or OLM School or not, stop by and take a tour, meet a few students and enjoy some coffee and donuts! It’s well worth the time and effort to view firsthand the great education and the living faith at OLM School!

Annually sponsored by the National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA), Catholic Schools Week is a national celebration of Catholic education and an opportunity to recognize the importance, the value, and the contributions of Catholic education to the Church and also to the nation.  There are some impressive statistics available in the bulletin about the contribution Catholic Schools make to our nation, take a look and take some pride in our Catholic Schools.

There is no doubt Catholic Schools require a tremendous amount of sacrifice to continue making their great contributions to our Church and nation.  They require a financial sacrifice by parishes, parents and faculty.  They require a sacrifice of time by the faculty, parents, and students too.  They also require a sacrifice of talent by faculty, parents and students.  All done in order to develop the future saints and scholars of our Church and world. Even though I am a product of twelve years of public education, I firmly believe such a sacrifice is well worth it.  

The world today has great need of the educational excellence and living faith  offered at Catholic Schools.  God continues to be  pushed out of our society by  rapidly growing secularism, new fangled ideologies permeate our educational system and political correctness runs amok as truth and tradition are rejected. Catholic Schools are the faith-filled alternative to these societal trends.   Catholic Schools seek to develop virtues, discipline, duty, commitment, character, excellence and scholarship in a faithful, nurturing, safe and loving environment. 

At Catholic Schools the truth of the  Faith is not ridiculed or dismissed by rather cherished and proudly taught in our classrooms.  God is not banned but  rather invited every day by our students and faculty with prayer, devotions and the Sacraments. Jesus Christ is not just a  mere historical figure but rather the living heart and  true center of the school as students learn from the greatest teacher of all, the Savior of the World!

A recent study conducted for the Fordham Institute compared children in Catholic schools with those in public schools and other private schools, religious and secular.  The authors found statistically meaningful evidence that students in Catholic schools exhibited less disruptive behavior than their counterparts in other schools. The authors write that students in Catholic schools “were more likely to control their temper, respect others’ property, accept their fellow students’ ideas, and handle peer pressure.” In other words, they exhibited greater self-discipline.

The study’s authors also concluded,  that “the power of religion  positively influences a child’s behavior.” Religion isn’t the only way to foster such self-discipline but they suggest   it’s more effective compared to most of the alternatives in channeling youthful energy into productive self-control. At OLM School, each day our budding saints and scholars are taught to be self-disciplined. In other words, charitable, honest, generous, kind, considerate, polite, judicious, temperate, chaste, modest, obedient, prudent, as well as faithful, hopeful and loving!  These are the virtues and discipline that produced some of the greatest saints and scholars of our Church and world!

Come see what OLM School offers.  Speak with our  students and  faculty and I think you'll agree that Catholic Education is worth the sacrifice especially at OLM!

Be well. Do Good! God Bless. 

Being the Voice of the Voiceless

Dear Parishioners:            
For the Church, there is no distinction between defending human life and promoting the dignity of the human person. Important for us to remember as we mark Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day this weekend and the fight for Civil Rights in our nation. But also as we anticipate the anniversary on Wednesday, January 22nd of the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision which legalized abortion on demand in our country. 

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI writes in Caritas in Veritate: "The Church forcefully maintains this link between life ethics and social ethics, fully aware that 'a society lacks solid foundations when, on the one hand, it asserts values such as the dignity of the person, justice and peace, but then, on the other hand, radically acts to the contrary by allowing or tolerating a variety of ways in which human life is devalued and violated, especially where it is weak or marginalized.'"

Our Catholic Faith teaches us that as a gift from God, every human life is sacred from conception to natural death. The life and dignity of every person must be respected and protected at every stage and in every condition. The right to life is the first and most fundamental principle of human rights that leads Catholics to actively work for a world of greater respect for human life and greater commitment to justice and peace.

As we recall the fight for Civil Rights by our African American brothers and sisters and the witness of Dr. King in advancing that great cause in our nation, recall the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us: “The equality of men rests essentially on their dignity as persons and the rights that flow from it: ‘Every form of social or cultural discrimination in fundamental personal rights on the grounds of sex, race, color, social conditions, language, or religion must be curbed and eradicated as incompatible with God’s design.’”

So too as we celebrate MLK Day and all it means for our nation, let’s not forget that the battle for Civil Rights in our nation continues.  We must reject all racism, bigotry and prejudice with both our words and actions.  The sin of racism defiles the image of God and degrades the sacred dignity of humankind which has been revealed by the mystery of the Incarnation. It mocks the cross of Christ and ridicules the Incarnation. For the brother and sister of our Brother Jesus Christ are brother and sister to us.

In the spirit of Dr. King,  we also continue the fight for Civil Rights for innocent unborn children. This Wednesday we mark the national Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children. It is a day on which we must pray for the end of the evil of abortion.  We also pray for the unborn and all those expectant mothers especially those in crisis pregnancy.  For prayer is the foundation of all that we do in defense of human life.

I also invite you to attend the Pro-Life Rally at the RI Statehouse that is scheduled for 3:00PM this Tuesday.  There is more information in bulletin about the rally.  After last year’s expansion of abortion in RI with the passage of an extreme bill, consider coming and letting our elected officials know we reject the culture of death.  Be a voice for the voiceless unborn!  Pray, act and advocate for human life and human dignity!

This Sunday night Fr. Barrow departs for the Holy Land with 35 OLM Parishioners.  This eight day pilgrimage includes visits to the Se of Galilee, Nazareth, Cana, Mt. Tabor, Jericho, the Jordan River, Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Mt. of Olives, Via Dolorosa, the Holy Sepulcher, Emmaus and Cesarea.  All the places where the Lord himself walked, talked, prayed, preached, performed miracles and was born, suffered, died and rose from the dead.

Fr. Barrow will be accompanied by Fr. Unsworth from St. Bernard’s Church in Wickford and Fr. Carusi from St. Rocco’s Church in Johnston. They along with 35 pilgrims from OLM including Sister Emma, Sister Lourdes, Doug Green, Mickey St. Jean and our OLM Secretary, Sandra Demers, will be praying and touring the Holy Land.  Please keep them in your prayers for safe travel.  I know they will be praying for us and for OLM during this special time.  May God Bless them with peace during this special time of pilgrimage. 

Be well. Do Good! God Bless.  Pray for an end to abortion!!

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!