Faith not Fear, Prayer not Panic!!

Dear Parishioners:             

By now we’ve all learned that the Coronavirus Flu has hit Rhode Island.  Some staff and students at St. Raphael Academy in Pawtucket have been diagnosed with it after traveling to Italy and France on a school trip. St. Ray’s cancelled school this past week.  It other parts of the world where there has been an outbreak, churches, schools and all public gathering locations  have been closed.  Also some local Bishops have suspended public Masses in Italy and other countries. Professional soccer teams in Europe have been playing in empty stadiums. 

We must stands in solidarity with those affected by the Coronavirus and their families, health workers who are valiantly trying to diagnose and treat patients, and those under quarantine awaiting results of their screening for the virus. We continue to offer our prayers for healing and support those organizations, both domestic and international, working to provide medical supplies and assistance to address this serious risk to public health.

Here at OLM we have already suspended the communal sign of peace. We have instructed our Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion to wash and sanitize their hands in the sacristy before and after the distribution of Holy Communion. We try to regularly clean surfaces lots of people touch in Church and change the Holy Water in the fonts frequently. It is also advisable to receive Holy Communion on the hand rather than directly in the mouth until this flu period has ended. But  perhaps one of the best way of protecting us from the flu’s spread is for everyone to use  common sense and good hygiene.

Here are some guidelines to follow: if you sneeze or cough, please do so into a tissue or into your sleeve not on the person in front of you or in your hand! If you do use a tissue please dispose of it properly.  There isn’t a day that goes by that dirty tissues are not found on the Church floor!  Wash and sanitize your hands before Mass. Do not touch your face unless you’ve washed your hands.  And please if you are sick, have flu or cold symptoms stay home and call you doctor!! 

Fear and panic are not the proper response to this Flu Crisis.  Rather we should  practice good hygiene and respond with common sense and faith.  So please pray for those suffering from the flu and for the crisis to end.  Pray for the intercession of St. Charles Borromeo, who as the Archbishop of Milan was so courageous and faithful in serving the sick and easing the sufferings of the victims of the plague in the 16th Century. 

I hope you made it to the Lenten Parish Mission! Fr. Macdonald our Mission Preacher did a fine job!   It was truly a grace filled time for our parish family to begin the Holy Season of Lent.  Father is a talented and terrific young priest who offered a great message for us to reflect upon and pray about as we take the up the Battle for Lent!  May we persevere with Christ in the desert during these forty days of renewal and conversion.  We had plenty of opportunity to make a good Confession each night of the Mission with four priests available to hear Confessions. 

If you haven’t made a good Confession in awhile, consider coming on Monday night at 6:00pm. There are two priests available in Lent including a Guest Confessor.   Also All Day Confessions are scheduled for Saturday, March 21st!

On Saturday afternoon our First Communion Class made their First Confessions.  What a great day for these children as they Sacramentally experience God’s mercy  for the very first time. It is truly an occasion of faith, hope and joy for these children, the priests and our entire parish family.   Saint Pope John Paul the Great teaches: “Confession is an act of honesty and courage - an act of entrusting ourselves, beyond sin, to the mercy of a loving and forgiving God.”  Trust in God’s love and mercy. Be courageous, go to Confession this Lent!  

In your name, I thank Fr. Tom Macdonald for preaching our Lenten Mission! He did an outstanding job and we are grateful for his priestly ministry. Please pray for him and his good work at St. John’s Seminary.  It’s Lent so pray, fast and give alms! And  remember that all Fridays during Lent are for fish and the Stations of the Cross! Be well. Do Good! God Bless.

Make Lent a Mission This Year

Dear Parishioners:             

Lent has begun! We have been marked with the ashen cross and we now take up these forty days of prayer, fasting and alms giving.   St. Benedict reminds us: “Renounce yourself in order to follow Christ; discipline your body; do not pamper yourself but love fasting.”  Lent is a time for us to sacrifice and do penance.  Often people give up some pleasure they enjoy like candy, dessert, alcohol, tobacco or these days technology (phone, computer, ipads)!  It is a worthy practice and can help us focus more on our relationship with Christ.  What did you give up for Lent?

The Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen once remarked about this practice.  He said: “Lenten practice of giving up pleasures are good reminders that the purpose of life is not pleasure.  the purpose of life is to attain to perfect life, all truth, and undying ecstatic love which is the definition of God, in pursuing that goal we find happiness.”

Also part of our Lenten practice is taking on more prayer and devotion in our daily lives.  We are blessed to have a parish with two priests and therefore we  are able to schedule two daily Masses in Lent.  We also have daily Confession and every Monday in Lent we invite a guest Confessor to join us.  We also have Stations of the Cross every Friday at 7:00PM. 

From the earliest of days, followers of Jesus told the story of his Passion, Death and Resurrection. When pilgrims came to see Jerusalem, they were anxious to see the sites where Jesus had walked, taught, performed miracles as well as the holy sites of his Passion, Death and Resurrection.  Eventually, following in the footsteps of the Lord, along the way of the cross, became a part of the pilgrimage visit. The stations, as we know them today, came about when it was no longer easy or even possible to visit the holy sites.  In the 1500's, villages all over Europe started creating "replicas" of the way of the cross, with small shrines commemorating the places on the way to Calvary. Eventually, these shrines became the set of 14 stations we  know today and were placed in  every Catholic Church in the world.

We pray the Stations of the Cross as a powerful way to contemplate, and enter into, the mystery of Jesus' sacrifice for us and our sins upon the  cross at Calvary.  “Apart from the cross, there is no other ladder by which we may get to heaven,” said St. Rose of Lima.  So please join us on Fridays for Stations as we walk with the Lord to Calvary.

We are truly blessed to have a Church that is open all day for prayer and devotion. So stop by during the day to spend  time in prayer with the Lord truly present in the tabernacle.  Perhaps make the Stations of the Cross privately.  Such quiet time in prayer and reflection is part of our Lenten discipline.

This weekend we welcome Fr. Thomas Macdonald to OLM.  Father is the Vice-Rector at St. John Seminary in Brighton, MA where Fr. Connors now teaches.  He is a terrific young priest and an outstanding preacher.  Father is here to lead our Annual Parish Lenten Mission and is preaching to us about “Taking Up the Battle of Lent: Persevering with Christ in the Desert.” Fr. Macdonald is preaching at all Masses this weekend and is preaching a Mission Talk on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights at 7:00PM.  Each night of the Mission four priests are available for Confessions beginning at 6:00PM.  So put the Mission in your calendar and add it to your schedule. Join us as we take up the “Battle of Lent”!

A Lenten Mission is a time to take a spiritual retreat from the normal routine of daily life.  We spend time together in prayer as Father Macdonald leads us in reflection and renewal.  It is a time of special grace for our parish and I hope you make every effort to come to the Mission this week. How is your  “Battle of Lent” going?  Let us persevere in our prayer, fasting and alms giving for these forty days.  May this Season of Lent truly be a time to convert our lives more fully to Christ. St. Teresa of Calcutta teaches: “As Lent is the time for greater love, listen to Jesus’ thirst. He knows your weakness. He wants only your love, wants only the chance to love you.”

See you at the Mission! Pray, fast and give alms! Remember that Fridays are for fish and Stations of the Cross! Be well. Do Good! God Bless.

Lent! Are You Prepared??

Dear Parishioners:            

Tuesday is Mardi Gras or as it is also known, Fat Tuesday.  Traditionally a day that finds us feasting on pancakes, chocolates, donuts, beer, whiskey, wine or even a cigar or two!  I presume you don't need much encouragement from me to celebrate Mardi Gras or make this Fat Tuesday a feast!         

So, allow me to direct your attention to Ash Wednesday. There was a time, and it's still the case in many places, when Ash Wednesday would see lines of people streaming into churches to be signed with a cross of ashes on their foreheads. My experience , however, tells me that the Ash Wednesday crowds are getting smaller than the regular weekend numbers. Granted, some folks  go to Ash Wednesday services near their work places but my guess is that a number of Catholics no longer count Ash Wednesday the important day their parents and grandparents did.

Happily this week is not school vacation so families are not away skiing in the snow or swimming in the sun. We have  an Ash Wednesday School Mass at 9:00am, so our students and their families can prayerfully begin the Lenten Fast of forty days. Ash Wednesday is not a holy day of obligation but nonetheless it's a unique day on the church calendar. It is truly a powerful way to begin the Lenten season.  I encourage you wherever you may be on Wednesday, to make an effort to go to Mass and to be marked with the sign of the Cross by which we are saved.

There are particular days of fast and abstinence in Lent when the whole Church participates in the Lenten practice. Ash Wednesday should be a day of fasting from eating between meals and also abstinence from the eating of all meat.  Fridays in Lent are also days of abstinence form meat. We take up the cross of Christ with our ashes and are told to “Repent and believe in the Gospel” and “Remember, you are dust and to dust you will return.”

The ashes we receive are a reminder to us of three things in our lives as disciples. First they are a sign of our mortality, that we are dust and unto dust we shall return. Lent reminds us that we all die and so, like at the beginning of creation, we need to be infused with the breath of life, with God’s life. Yes we all die, but God wants to raise us, even now. Lent is not just about a minor course correction in our life but about a death and resurrection, Christ’s and ours in him.

Second, as seen in the prophets of the Old Testament ashes are a sign of repentance. They are a summons to repent and believe in the Gospel. And third, they are a means of supplication and prayer for others and their salvation. We wear ashes for all three purposes.   Lent is about returning to the Lord with our whole heart, helped by him to make it clean. It’s a time of conversion as we repent and believe in the Gospel. It s a grace we should not receive in vain, but act on with urgency  in order to be reconciled to God, So take up the cross of Lent, by praying more, fasting more and giving more alms to the poor and needy.

We have added an extra daily Mass at 12:05 in addition to the 7:30am Daily Mass. Going to Daily Mass during Lent is a venerable tradition.  I encourage you to do it as it  makes Lent more prayerful, meaningful and can even change your life for the better! We  have scheduled daily Confession, Monday thru Friday, before the Lenten 12:05 Mass.  There is  an extra guest Confessor visiting during Lent at Monday Confessions at 6pm. In addition,  All Day Confessions take place on Saturday, March 21st! And Confessions every night of the Mission.  Ample opportunity for Confession this Lent to get reconciled with God and neighbor!

Stations of the Cross are  every Friday in Lent at 7:00pm.  It is a beautiful spiritual devotion and I encourage every parish family to come on Fridays. The Fridays of Lent are days of abstinence from meat and a time of penance as we recall our Lord’s crucifixion on Good Friday.   

Next weekend we begin our Lenten Mission with a terrific young priest and dynamic preacher. Fr. Tom Macdonald from Boston.  It’s a great way to begin Lent! So make the Mission! What are you giving up for Lent?  Make Lent a fruitful forty days of conversion! Pray, fast and give alms! Be well. Do Good! God Bless.

Grateful to God's Providence

Dear Parishioners:             

This week Bishop Tobin announced with great joy that as of January 28, the Grateful for God’s Providence Diocesan Capital Campaign  has raised over $51 Million. This diocesan campaign received nearly $20 million generated in Special Leadership Gifts and Bequests, with $7.1 million generated through a share from area parishes.    A total of $37,270,618 was pledged from 16,240 Catholic individual parish families. A total of 185 priests in the diocese pledged their support of $1,729,897 to the campaign. In offering his thanks and gratitude, Bishop Tobin also spoke of the campaign’s effort to strengthen the diocesan Church and its parishes as the Diocese of Providence prepares to celebrate our 150th anniversary in two years

Of the campaign’s goal, $30 million is earmarked to support the diocese.  This includes: $8 million for an endowment for seminarian education; $8 million for an endowment to support retired priests; $5 million for an endowment to benefit Catholic school tuition assistance;  $5 million to bolster the Catholic Charities and Social Services endowment and its operations and also $4 million to help pay for renovations to the Cathedral of SS. Peter and Paul. 

We continue here at OLM to move toward our combined campaign goal of $2 Million.  We have received close $1.6 million in pledges and gifts from just  353 parish families.  We are truly grateful to those parishioners who have made the sacrifice and been so generous in supporting this critical campaign.  We continue to receive pledges and I am confident we can exceed our goal. If you have not yet made your pledge to the campaign, I encourage you to please do so.  The great success of the Diocesan campaign across the state is a sign of the vitality of our local Church and the commitment of many Catholics. Your support of this much needed effort to support our parish and local Church is also a sign of your commitment to Our Lady of Mercy Parish. So please consider making a pledge of $4,000 or more, payable over four years.

Over these many months I have been humbled by the great generosity of so many parishioners who were so supportive of the campaign.  So many made sacrificial gifts because they are truly hopeful for our wonderful parish and are quite willing to generously support her future.  However, to be truly successful we need every parish family to make a sacrifice and support the parish they call home.  We cannot do it with just a third of the parish, so please make a pledge today! The good news is that we will soon be receiving some of the  campaign funds already collected. 

This past week we met with Mr. Mark Saccoccio of Saccoccio and Associates Architects, who is advising us about the many projects to be undertaken at OLM over the next four years. Among the priorities are the replacing of the original boilers in the two convents and the Rectory.  They are all over 50 years old, not too efficient and usually break down on the coldest days of the year!  Also the roofs on the two convents and the rectory are all over 30 years old and badly need replacing. You can see the shingles from the convent roofs falling off and ask Fr. Barrow about the leak in his bedroom in the Rectory!

These projects and all the others are very needed and the campaign will help finance them and secure our parish’s future. All the projects  go out to bid as we follow the Diocesan protocols and guidelines for capital improvement projects.  Mr. Saccoccio is working with Mr. Paul Anderson, OLM Facilities Director, and also with the Diocesan Building Commission and Facilities Director in securing the right contractors to help us with the projects.

I thank those who so willingly pledged their support and generous gifts to the Our Faith, Our Future Campaign. We also thank Joe and Carol Cavanagh and Michael and Brooke O’Connell for their tremendous leadership of the campaign.   

 I wish all our students and teachers a restful and healthy winter break this week.  Enjoy it because Lent begins when you return! Please look at the Lenten schedule  in the bulletin.  Be well. Do Good! God Bless. Happy President’s Day!

Our Lady and The Sick

Dear Parishioners:             

On Tuesday of this week we celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. This Feast celebrates the appearance of the Blessed Virgin Mary to St. Bernadette on February 11, 1858 in Lourdes, France.  Today Lourdes is a pilgrimage site known for its miraculous healing of the sick and suffering.                           

On December 8, 1854, Pope Pius IX proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in the apostolic constitution Ineffabilis Deus. A little more than three years later in 1858, a lady appeared to the young Bernadette Soubirous. This began a series of visions. During the apparition on March 25, the lady identified herself with the words: “I am the Immaculate Conception.”

Bernadette was a sickly child of poor parents. Their practice of the Catholic faith was scarcely more than lukewarm. Bernadette could pray the Our Father, the Hail Mary and the Creed. She also knew the prayer of the Miraculous Medal: “O Mary conceived without sin.”

During the questioning of the young Bernadette, she gave an account of what she saw. It was “something white in the shape of a girl.” It was “a pretty young girl with a rosary over her arm.” . She wore a white robe and veil. There was a yellow rose on each foot and a rosary was in her hand.

Through that humble girl, Mary revitalized and continues to revitalize the faith of millions of people. People began to flock to Lourdes from other parts of France and from all over the world. In 1862 Church authorities confirmed the authenticity of the apparitions and authorized the cult of Our Lady of Lourdes for the diocese. The Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes on February 11th became worldwide in 1907.

In the years after the apparitions, Bernadette devoted her own life to prayer and the care of the sick, as a Sister of Charity of Nevers. She was never very healthy herself and she died of tuberculosis while she was still quite young. It may seem surprising that Bernadette never took the opportunity to return to Lourdes seeking a cure for her illness. I think she realized that she had already been healed. Through her encounter with Mary the Mother of Jesus, her whole life had been changed.

She died in the Sainte Croix (Holy Cross) Infirmary of the Convent of Saint-Gildard at the age of 35 on April 16, 1879, while praying the holy rosary. Even on her deathbed Bernadette suffered severe pain. Her last words were, "Blessed Mary, Mother of God, pray for me. A poor sinner, a poor sinner." She was canonized a Saint of the Church in 1933. Saint Bernadette is the patroness of illness, people ridiculed for their piety, poverty, shepherds, shepherdesses, and Lourdes, France

There still may be people who doubt the apparitions of Lourdes. Perhaps the best that can be said to them are the words that introduce the 1943 film The Song of Bernadette: “For those who believe in God, no explanation is necessary. For those who do not believe, no explanation is possible.”

In 1993, St. Pope John Paul II instituted The World Day of the Sick. This day of prayer and remembrance of the sick  is celebrated annually on February 11th, the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. In his message for the 2020 World Day of the Sick, Pope Francis states: “Jesus’ words, ‘Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest’ (Mt 11:28) point to the mysterious path of grace that is revealed to the simple and gives new strength to those who are weary and tired. These words of Christ express the solidarity of the Son of Man with all those who are hurt and afflicted. How many people suffer in both body and soul! Jesus urges everyone to draw near to him and he promises them comfort and repose.”

Join us on Tuesday for Mass at 7:30am as we celebrate World Day of the Sick and turn to Our Lady of Lourdes for her powerful intercession on behalf of the sick and suffering.  The beautiful statue of Our Lady of Lourdes that is in our candle room will be displayed and we will pray for the sick, ill, infirm and homebound of our parish. If you cannot make it to the Mass, please stop by Church on Tuesday to pray for the intercession of Our Lady of Lourdes for the sick.

Remember 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.  

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!