OLM Response to Crisis

Dear Parishioners,

This is truly a unique Lent for all of us. Like our Lord we are in the desert and like him we are learning to hunger for our neighbors, our families, and most especially for the Eucharist. Please be assured of our prayers for your safety and health.

Here at OLM we have been moving swiftly to try and adopt to our current situation and to ensure that parishioners stay are served materially and spiritually.

Here are some of the projects we anticipate launching in the next few days.

• Currently Fr. Barrow and I are celebrating private Masses to ensure that the Mass intentions are offered. We also use it as an opportunity to pray for your personal intentions.

• Fr. Barrow and I continue to hear confessions at the regular Lenten and normal hours.

• We are in the process of equipping the church with live streaming so we can post the Mass online on our website or through another suitable program (e.g. Facebook Live, Youtube, etc.).

• We are organizing our OLM Outreach efforts to serve the community, especially for those who are elderly or homebound. We may reach out to parishioners to volunteer their time to deliver food and supplies.

• We are in the process of setting up “Flocknote” which is an email and text platform to quickly send out updates and information to the entire parish.

• The church remains open for private prayer. We just ask that people maintain safe distance (6 ft.) from one another.

• Our maintenance crew are thoroughly cleaning the church and school on a regular basis.

• Our RE team is providing resources for home instruction

• Our OLM School faculty and students have begun online classes

These are just some of the efforts we are enacting as we adapt to these times. We remain in solidarity with all our brothers and sisters who are suffering and sick and for those who care for them.

In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus tell us, “Take courage. It is I. Do not be afraid!” (Mark 6:50). Like those who have gone before us in faith, the apostles, martyrs, and saints we are all called to boldly lead not only in response to people’s material needs, but to care for their even more important spiritual needs.

Please know of our continued prayers for you and your families.

Our Lady of Mercy, pray for us!

In Christ,

Fr. Healey

Cancellation of Masses at OLM

Dear Parishioners,

I am sad to tell you that we will not be having public Mass this weekend at Our Lady of Mercy (March 14th and March 15th) and until further notice for the week of March 16th. This decision comes after much prayer, consultation, and thought. We do not make it lightly. It comes after the Governor's and Health Director's request. We will still have confessions today, March 14th at 3:00pm and on Monday March 16th at 6:00pm. The Church will be open March 15th at noon for private prayer and throughout the week. Please spread the word. 

Spiritually we train ourselves to desire Christ in the Eucharist. Yet, there may come a time in our lives when we cannot attend Mass (whether due to sickness, age, political turmoil, and so on). Our Lord warned us that the bridegroom may be taken away from us. We call to mind that the Mass and the Eucharist are a supreme gift from God that we should not take for granted. At times like these we look forward to the day when we can once again go to Mass and receive our Lord. Until then, we ask our Lord to increase our desire for Him and not to let this be a time when our devotion decreases. We pray like the Psalmist in Psalm 63: "O God, you are my God—it is you I seek! For you my body yearns; for you my soul thirsts; like a dry, weary land without water." (http://www.usccb.org/bible/psalms/63). As St. Paul tells us in his letter to the Romans: "What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword? No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us."

We encourage the faithful to watch the Mass, continue one's prayers, and to make an "Act of Spiritual Communion." Please be assured of our prayers for your health and safety.  

In Christ,

Fr. Healey and Fr. Barrow

A Time to Confesss Sins

Dear Parishioners:             

How is your Lent going? We are entering our Third Week of this Holy Season and so let us review. How well is our prayer going? How frequent and faithful is our fasting?  How generous and sacrificial is our alms giving?      Don’t give up! Stay the course! And if you’ve fallen off, pick up the prayer, fasting and alms giving again!     

Pope Emeritus Benedict XV teaches that: “In Lent, each one of us is asked by God to mark a turning point in our life, thinking and living in accordance with the Gospel, correcting some aspect of our way of praying, acting, or working and of our relations with others. Jesus makes this appeal to us, not with a severity that is an end in itself but precisely because he is concerned for our good, our happiness and our salvation. On our part, we must respond to him with a sincere inner effort, asking him to make us understand which particular ways we should change.”

Yes Lent is a season of change!  It is a season of conversion to Christ!  We take up our cross daily and we follow him.  So let us strive to make Lent a time of welcome change and joyful conversion. It’s only three weeks into the season, if you haven't yet begun to pray, fast and give alms, start today! A truly joyful and helpful way to change and convert to Christ is to make a good Confession.  How long has it been since your last Confession? A month? A year? Ten years? Thirty years? Fifty years?  Then why not make the necessary change in your life to trust in God’s love, mercy and forgiveness.

Every Monday we have Confession at 6:00PM here at OLM.  In Lent, we invite a guest priest to help us with Confessions on Monday.  A great chance to change from sin to grace, from fear to faith, and from despair to hope!  Pope Francis says: “Be courageous! Go to Confession!”

Next Saturday, March 21st, OLM hosts  All Day Confessions. We’ve invited the most kind and merciful priests from across the state to help us.   Four priests are to be available from 9:00am until 3:00pm to hear Confessions here at OLM No lines! No waiting!  Come one, come all! Take some time amidst the busyness of life to experience God’s mercy and forgiveness in the Sacrament of Confession.  I promise you will not  regret it! I ask you to please pray for all those making their Confession during Lent especially those who have been away from the Sacrament awhile, may it be a true time of  conversion and grace;   pray too for all the Priest Confessors, may they be as kind and merciful as God and of course pray for those who are avoiding making a good Confession, may they have the courage and faith to humbly admit their sins to God the Merciful Father! 

St. Bridget offers sage advice on Confession. “Just as an animal becomes a stronger beast of burden and more beautiful to behold the more often and better it is fed, so too confession, the more often it is used and the more carefully it is made as to both lesser and greater sins. conveys the soul increasingly forward and is so pleasing to God that it leads the soul to God's very heart.”

We mark to great and important Feast Days in the life of our Church this week! The Feast of St. Patrick, the Apostle of Ireland and the Solemnity of St. Joseph, Patron of the Universal Church!  So remember to pray and celebrate these great feasts of faith! We turn to  St. Patrick and St. Joseph in prayer as we seek their powerful intercession for us and our world.  No matter our ethnic background let us celebrate our common faith and the heritage we’ve inherited! Remember Fridays are for fish and the Stations of the Cross! Be well. Do Good! God Bless.

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.