Faith, Hope & Charity Alive at OLM!!

Dear Parishioners:             

We continue to celebrate the Easter Season with faith and joy.  We give thanks for the Risen Christ and his victory over sin and death!     Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI states: "Faith in the Resurrection of Jesus says that there is a future for every human being; the cry for unending life which is a part of the person is indeed answered.”      This faith was evident and alive on Easter Sunday.  We had over 3,000 people who viewed our live stream Easter Sunday Mass!  Even though our Churches were empty, our faith was alive!  We rejoice that so many isolated continue to strive to pray and live their Catholic Faith at home!!

I am most grateful to our OLM Music Director and Organist, Henri St. Louis, for the music he provided all of Holy Week and Easter Week. His beautiful music contributed greatly to the solemnity and joy of this unique celebration of Holy Week and Easter. 

We also must thank Erik Carlson who served as our Altar Server for Holy Week and Easter Week.  I am grateful for his dedication to OLM and to serving God at His Holy Altar.  Erik does an outstanding job serving our community especially in this most unique of times.  He does  this great work whilst  studying Physics at URI!!

In the name of Fr. Barrow, Fr. Connors, Bishop Evans and our good sisters, Sister Lourdes, Sister Emma and Sister Jeanne, I also thank the many parishioners who were so generous to us at Easter.  So many cards with well wishes and gifts and so many provided delicious food to celebrate Easter!  We thank you all for your generosity!

I also thank the many parishioners who continue to support the parish financially during this time of hardship.  So many have continued to send in their budget envelopes by mail or by depositing them in the safe in the vestibule and we are grateful.  I urge all parishioners to consider giving directly online at Parish Giving.  The link is located on our parish website.  It is a safe, easy and efficient way to support the parish.

In the name of Doug Green, our OLM Outreach Director, I also thank the many parishioners who have been so generous in donating food, paper goods and financial assistance.  There is a growing need of  food and paper goods in our community as well as increased financial hardship for so many..   Your support is a great witness to the charity alive at OLM.

Throughout Eastertide—starting on Easter Sunday and ending on the Seventh Sunday after Easter, Pentecost Sunday—the Regina Caeli is the Marian antiphon for the Night Prayer of the Church’s Liturgy of the Hours.  In Holy Week, Mary was at the foot of the Cross, her heart pierced by a sword of sorrow as Simeon had foretold at the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple. In the Stations of the Cross, she met Jesus on the way to Calvary, and each Station, with verses from the Stabat Mater, reminded us of His suffering and hers, seeing Him suffer. Now Our Lady rejoices as the Alleluia has returned!

Let us pray the Regina Caeli prayer each day: “Queen of Heaven, rejoice. Alleluia. For He, whom thou was worthy to bear. Alleluia. Has risen as He said. Alleluia. Pray for us to God. Alleluia. V. Rejoice and be glad, O Virgin Mary. Alleluia. R. Because the Lord is truly risen, Alleluia.”

Be well. Do Good! Stay safe! God Bless. Our Lady of Mercy, pray for us!

Let Us Easter in Him!!

Dear Parishioners:             

“Do not abandon yourselves to despair. We are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song.”  These words of Saint Pope John Paul II certainly speak to us this Easter Sunday.  The ongoing pandemic prevents us from celebrating the great feast of our faith together at Mass. It has prevented the initiation of candidates into the Church at the Easter Vigil.   We won’t be celebrating Easter Dinner with our family and friends this year. Yes, the joy and glory of Easter seem very muted this year. Despite the Coronavirus Pandemic and the tragic suffering and death we have witnessed these past weeks we must not give into despair. For as a people of faith who believe that Christ rose from the dead and destroyed sin and death, we must resist the temptation to lose hope. 

The Psalmist sings on Easter: “This is the day the Lord has made, Let us be glad and rejoice in it!” Yet on that first Easter morning it was neither gladness nor rejoicing that  Mary Magdalene experienced as she went three days after the death and burial of Jesus to visit His place of burial. She was full of fear and uncertainty and no doubt much sadness and despair after the event of Good Friday.  However, on Easter she arrived to find the Lord not in the tomb. And sent for  the apostles to join her.  They run to the burial site and  enter the tomb and see the burial cloths folded neatly. They see the tomb empty.  Their doubt converted into belief! Their despair converted into hope.  “Alleluia! He is risen as He said, Alleluia!”

This Easter Sunday is not just an anniversary of that first Easter morning. Nor, is this Easter  simply a memorial – a remembrance of that first Easter Sunday morning.  Today is Easter.  Today is the Day the Lord has made.  Today, Christ is Risen!  While we must remain safe and isolated in our homes on this Easter Sunday,  we are not simply recalling what happened to Jesus, nor the events of the first Easter. We are not simply spectators watching the reactions of the three disciples – Mary Magdalene, Peter and John.  Rather, as people of faith and hope this Easter Sunday we share in the triumph and victory of God.

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As the Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote, “Let Him Easter in us.”  We must let the victory and triumph of Easter touch our lives.  Today,  in the safety of our own homes as we celebrate this most  unique of Easter Sundays, we must allow Easter  to refresh and renew us with the joy and the triumph that emanates from Christ whom no tomb could hold in death. An ancient symbol for Christian Hope is the anchor. The anchor steadies the vessel and safely holds it secure. The Risen Christ holds us steady when life gets rough. Christ the anchor secures us closely to God when the waves of life  crash over us.  We are glad and rejoice today because Christ our Hope is Risen! The tomb is empty!!

Easter is the culmination of everything we believe as Christians and the virtue of Easter is hope. Timothy Cardinal Dolan of New York says the best definition of hope is this: “Hope is the virtue that keeps us going when we are tempted to think that Jesus is asleep.”  We may be tempted to think the Lord is asleep this Easter given the current crisis and the uncertainty of our future.  We might also be tempted to give in to despair and lose hope.   Easter calls us to resist such temptations. It celebrates that Christ conquers darkness and despair by his resurrection. 

St. Bernard of Clairvaux said: “You can fight with confidence where you are sure of victory. With Christ and for Christ victory is certain!”

Easter reminds us that every Good Friday has an Easter Sunday. With Easter the Risen Christ invites us to share the power of His Resurrection. Each time we love others, we share in the Resurrection.  Each time we forgive a betrayal, we share in the Resurrection.  Each time we continue to hope – even when our hope seems unanswered – we share in the power of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. In short, the message of Easter is that nothing can defeat us – not pain, sin, rejection or death not even a pandemic – because the Risen Christ  conquers all and we too can conquer them if we put our faith and hope in Christ. St. Padre Pio reminds us: “The most beautiful Credo is the one we pronounce in our hour of darkness.”  

Be well. Do Good! Stay safe! God Bless. Alleluia, He is Risen!! A Holy and Happy Easter!

Take Up the Cross This Holy Week

Dear OLM School and Parish Family:

“Why did all this take place?  Once again, it was done for our sake, to serve us.  So that when we have our back to the wall, when we find ourselves at a dead end, with no light and no way of escape, when it seems that God himself is not responding, we should remember that we are not alone.  Jesus experienced total abandonment in a situation he had never before experienced in order to be one with us in everything.  He did it for me, for you, to say to us: ‘Do not be afraid, you are not alone.’”

— Pope Francis

As we begin this Holy Week, I wish to express my deep gratitude to Mr. McNabb and the Faculty of OLM School for their tremendous dedication to ensuring that distance learning is so successful.  I also wish to offer my thanks to you students and your families on the great collaboration and cooperation you have shown these last few weeks. The good work done in such unusual and unprecedented circumstances is a great witness to the excellence our school continues to strive for every day. 

There is to be no distance learning class on Holy Thursday, Good Friday or Easter Monday. However, I would encourage you not take a break from prayer and devotion during the most sacred time of the year.  Join with us in prayer and tune into our online Holy Week Services from OLM Church.  Pray together as family and know that even as we are separated by distance, we are united as the Body of Christ. 

Last week I saw an all too familiar photo of a priest offering prayers several feet away from the casket of a woman who had died of the coronavirus. On the other side of the casket, also standing several feet away, was a lone mourner, the woman’s son, the only person who could be there to bid his mother goodbye. He was one of the fortunate ones.  Many of those who have lost loved ones aren’t allowed to be with them to bid farewell. Sadly many die without the final Sacraments of the Church and many without any funeral prayers. Tragically they die alone without any of their loved ones present.

As we ponder this, the words of our Savior in the Passion proclaimed on Palm Sunday still echo in our hearts. For Jesus cries from the Cross: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mt 27:46).  These are profound words spoken as Jesus suffers the abandonment of his own friends and followers, who had fled in fear.  The Savior himself experienced that desolation and isolation so many are experiencing now. The Crucified Christ experienced the utmost abandonment. 

In his homily on Palm Sunday, the Holy Father, Pope Francis reflects upon this abandonment. He says: “Why did all this take place?  Once again, it was done for our sake, to serve us.  So that when we have our back to the wall, when we find ourselves at a dead end, with no light and no way of escape, when it seems that God himself is not responding, we should remember that we are not alone.  Jesus experienced total abandonment in a situation he had never before experienced in order to be one with us in everything.  He did it for me, for you, to say to us: Do not be afraid, you are not alone.’”

This Holy Week perhaps we might take up the cross for others.  I ask you to join me in helping our brothers and sisters across the globe who are experiencing the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual anguish of social distancing and isolation. Let us in our prayer and devotion this Holy Week spiritually place ourselves beside one of the poor unfortunate souls who are dying alone in hospitals all over the world because of this pandemic.

Let us heed the call of God who walks with his people as “a pillar of cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night.”  For God in his immense love sent his Only Begotten Son, to let humanity know of his love through Christ’s Passion, Death and Resurrection. Let us offer our isolation, the occasional feelings of boredom and our cabin fever, anxiety and apprehension about what comes next – as a way of “accompanying” these men and women suffering  in sickness and dying alone. 

This most unusual of Holy Weeks, let us pledge to offer all our prayers and devotion, from the moment we open our eyes in the morning, to the last prayer our lips utter before we retire at night, to “spiritually accompany” the many men and women  suffering on their sick beds. Let us offer our studies and our work that we have been so fortunate enough to still continue through the internet; let us offer our meals that we are so blessed to still be able to have together with our family; let us offer our physical activities – our walk and our runs, our workouts and our sports; let us offer our nightly small gatherings as families which we are still able to have; let us offer the many blessings we continue to enjoy.  Yes, Holy Week 2020 let us offer all that we have at the moment – for the thousands who suffer in sickness, in fear,  loneliness, in solitude, in isolation.

May we offer our very selves to the Lord, so that in His mercy and love, he may make use of our humble gift, to be close to all those who, during these most distressful of times, need that human contact, that human touch, that comforting accompaniment and prayerful presence which, due to their illness and isolation, they are now denied.

Brothers and sisters, as we stand together at the foot of the Cross this Holy Week, may we entrust ourselves to the Mother of Christ and our patroness, Our Lady of Mercy, who accompanied her Son along his way of sorrows and stood beneath the cross at the hour of his death. May Mary our Mother lead our hearts and the hearts of every family through the vast desolation of suffering and death, towards that light which breaks forth from Christ’s resurrection and reveals the victory of love, joy and life over evil, suffering and death.

A Blessed Holy Week!

Father Healey

Essential and Holy

Dear Parishioners:            

We continue to live a new way of life as a result of the Cornavirus Pandemic.  We don’t socialize the way we once did instead we now text, call, email or Zoom!  Zoom is a way for many people to talk live together online.  It is being used by our OLM School Faculty for the new way we teach school children now with distance learning.      We don’t shop the way we once did as now we keep “social distance” and those over 60 have special hours.  We don’t drive the way we once did as now we only go out for the basics and watch  New Yorkers being  pulled over  and told to quarantine. 

The government has now deemed many businesses and activities as non-essential. The list of essential and critical businesses seems to be a reflection perhaps of what our society truly values.  Among the critical businesses are gun shops, liquor stores,  and marijuana centers.  They along with hospitals, grocery stores,  and pharmacies are essential to surviving the pandemic!  Sadly missing from the list of essentials is the worship of God. 

Yes the Church wishes to comply with public safety concerns and seeks not to spread the virus. Prayer, however,   is essential! Thus OLM Church is open every day for private prayer.  Confessions are still heard so sinners might be forgiven! This certainly is not an irresponsible act of defiance but rather because we know God is truly essential and quite critical in these days despite what any elected official or government bureaucrat decides!

Daily the priests of OLM offer Mass for you and your intentions. Daily the good sisters of OLM pray before the Eucharistic Lord for your well being and for an end to this pandemic. Daily individuals make their way into OLM to kneel before God and offer prayers.  This is  critical and essential and must continue!

On this Palm Sunday we begin the holiest week of the year.  It is perhaps the strangest of Holy Weeks  any of us may ever experience.  The glorious and solemn ceremonies of the Triduum now to be celebrated with  simplicity in empty churches.  The RCIA candidates are not be baptized and confirmed at the Easter Vigil.    A strange Holy Week lay ahead of us!  However, it does not mean  we must not celebrate it with prayerfulness and holiness even if from a distance.  The Holy Week Services at OLM are available online so that all our parishioners can and should participate from home. 

We must prepare for this Holy Week by ensuring we set aside the proper time and space in our homes to watch and pray together.  While we are not physically together in the same building, we are truly united as the Body of Christ in faith, hope and love.  So mark your calendar for Holy Week, and take the time needed to prayerfully enter into the great mysteries of our faith.

In many ways this Holy  Week each one of us is on retreat in a monastery  albeit one with all the comforts of home!  While it is comfortable for us we must strive all the more to make it more prayerful and holy! It has been said that the contemplative life of the monastery is the highest form of life that a Christian may live. For in responding to God’s call to holiness, a contemplative monk or nun fulfills an important role in the Church: they visibly witnesses by a  life of prayer and contemplation to the absolute priority of God. It is often called “the angelic life,” because the contemplation of God continues in heaven and throughout all eternity. The life of the monastery is already a foretaste of what is to come as we contemplate our great and loving God.

This Holy Week make your home a monastery for contemplation and prayer.  Turn off the computer and cell phone. Disconnect from the worldly distractions! Prayerfully enter into the contemplation of the mysteries of the Sacred Triduum. On Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter stop to contemplate in prayer and worship the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

St. Benedict said the monastery is “the family of love.”  Make your home that monastery this Holy Week, worship with us online, and pray for an increase of faith, hope and love in our world.  Lift up your hearts and give thanks to the Lord our God.  For it isn't only right and just it is truly essential! Be well. Do Good! Stay safe. God Bless. Oremus pro invicem! A Blessed Holy Week!

Pray, Hope, Don't Worry

Dear Parishioners:             

Pope Francis in his morning homily on Monday reminds us of the importance of prayer during this global crisis. He said: “Faith, perseverance and courage. In these days, it’s necessary to pray more. Imagine if we were to pray like this. With faith – that the Lord can intervene; with perseverance and with courage. The Lord never deceives. He makes us wait. He takes His time. But he never deceives. Faith, perseverance and courage.”

We called to be people of faith, perseverance and courage  as Catholic disciples. In many ways this time of isolation and quarantine is a time of renewal of our faith.  It is a Lent within a Lent, a time we are forced to refocus the priorities of our lives.  It is time for us to focus on what is truly important and essential, the health and well being of ourselves, our family, friends and our community.  The health and well being not only in the physical  and financial sense but also in the spiritual sense.

While being in a comfortable and secure location, all of us might be tempted to reduce this  time of lock-down into an opportunity to catch up on sleep, reading, or even our hobbies. We must  fight these temptations and choose instead to renew our commitments to prayer, sacrifices and worship. There are many opportunities to support these efforts available  online. We can reflect upon the Word of God and the truths of the Faith.

At the OLM parish webpage (olmparish.org) you will find links to resources to help you with prayer and worship while at home.  These include Word on Fire with Bishop Barron, Magnificat which is offering free access and Formed which offers informative ways to be formed in the Catholic Faith. We are expecting  to install a new live-streaming system at OLM. We hope this will help us as a parish family as we are able to live-stream Mass at OLM.  More information about this is available on the parish webpage (olmparish.org). 

Also we are signing up for a  new communication system for parishioners called Flock Notes.  This will enable us to email or text parishioners updates and invitations on a regular basis.  It is easy and efficient and we hope to launch it this week. In the meantime, I encourage you to read the bulletin online at the parish webpage.  We have a limited number of bulletins being printed but it will be posted weekly on the webpage along with any updates or messages, please check our parish website daily.

I must thank Fr. Barrow for his technological genius and help with all these matters.  Much of this is new to me as I expect it is to many of us of  a certain age and generation.  However, it is the best way for us to stay connected in these strange times of separation.  Fr. Connors has returned to OLM as St. John Seminary has closed. He is living with us and teaching his classes via the internet much like our dedicated faculty at OLM School. It’s good to have him home with us!

I commend our OLM School Principal, Patrick McNabb, and our faculty for the great job of implementing the distance learning for our parish school students. The teachers are teaching and the students are learning!  We are grateful for the hard work, dedication and cooperation of our school family!

OLM Outreach continues to supply food and assistance to those in need on a daily basis.  If you are in need or know someone who is, please contact Doug Green at 401-884-4410 or    reach him via email at outreach@olmparish.org

As your parish priests, we are truly heartsick that we cannot minister directly to our flock. However, Fr. Barrow, Fr. Connors and I offer Mass privately everyday for you and your intentions. We are joined by our good sisters who daily pray for you.  Please continue to pray for us.

I ask you to please mail in  your budget envelopes or put them in the newly installed depository in the vestibule. I ask all parishioners to please consider giving online sign up at Parish Giving at olmparish.org.  We need your continued financial support in this  time of crisis as we still have employees and bills to pay.  I thank you for your  continued support.

St. Padre Pio reminds us: "Pray, hope, don't worry. Worry is useless. God is merciful and will hear your prayers."  Be well. Do Good! Stay safe. God Bless. Oremus pro invicem!

Change and Preparation at OLM

Dear Parishioners:             

The life of our parish has changed as have our own lives.  The state of emergency we are now living in as result of the Covaid 19 Pandemic has changed our daily lives and the life of our Church.                                     

Bishop Tobin has mandated that the public celebration of Holy Mass be suspended until further notice.  It is a difficult time and as Bishop Tobin acknowledged it was one of the most painful decisions he has ever made as a bishop. I ask you to please pray for our  Bishop as I know he is praying for you and all the Catholics of our Diocese. Fr. Barrow and I continue to privately celebrate Mass daily for you and your intentions. You continue to be in our prayers and was ask for your prayers for us.

With such an unprecedented  situation of the suspension of all Public Masses, the Church recommends to us an ancient practice of “spiritual communion.” It essentially consists of relating to God your desire to receive him in Holy Communion, spiritually uniting yourself to him in an intimate and personal way.   Those who make a spiritual communion can receive many spiritual graces from God, strengthening them in their time of trial.

St. John Paul II praised such a practice in his encyclical, Ecclesia de Eucharistia. He writes: “It is good to cultivate in our hearts a constant desire for the sacrament of the Eucharist. This was the origin of the practice of ‘spiritual communion,’ which has happily been established in the Church for centuries and recommended by saints who were masters of the spiritual life. Saint Teresa of Jesus wrote: ‘When you do not receive communion and you do not attend Mass, you can make a spiritual communion, which is a most beneficial practice; by it the love of God will be greatly impressed on you.’ ”

During these unprecedented times in our world. Many think it is all hype and hysteria, but I urge you to pray and to  please prepare for the worst and hope for the best. No country in the world can sustain the burden of a large outbreak of this disease, so please continue to pray.

Across the globe many face possible illness and pain, possible suffering and death and loss and grief. We face restriction on our freedoms, economic hardship and probable loss of access to the sacraments for some period of time. We all watched the sufferings of China, and Wuhan in particular. Now we see what has happened to Europe, and in particular to our brothers and sisters in Italy. The  Pandemic continues to move elsewhere including here in RI.

On St. Patrick’s Day morning, I was praying and reading the reflections and prayers of Father Willie Doyle, SJ.  He was an Irish Jesuit Priest  who was a famous preacher, confessor and spiritual director in the early part of the 20th Century.  He was known to have a special gift to hunt out the most hardened and neglected sinners and to bring them back with him to the church for confession. He would serve as a Military Chaplain in World War I until he was killed in the Battle of Ypres  in 1917.  It was reported that he was killed after having run “all day hither and thither over the battlefield like an angel of mercy.” This good shepherd truly gave his life for his sheep.

What would Fr Doyle say to us if he were to speak to us today? I think he would base his advice to us on this prayer he wrote during the war: “God sometimes seems to ask the impossible, a sorrow, a cross. Oh! it would crush me! How can this be! How? Lord, I do not know, but You do. I will trust you always,”

Fr Doyle lived through the terror and tragedy of  the First World War. He lived with death day after day. He too had to be without the sacraments. Through it all he remained strong and faithful, serene and peaceful. Soldiers flocked to him, as he was a source of reassurance. Whenever he wrote about troubles he always wrote about trusting in God, and abandoning ourselves into His loving arms. God is our loving Father, and we can trust in Him.

To trust in God we must get to know God, and to do this we must pray. If we have spent more time preparing physically, by gathering food and supplies, than we have by preparing spiritually through prayer and “stockpiling” grace, we may need to reorient ourselves a little.

Prepare with prayer! Keep the faith! Trust in God!! Be well. Do Good! God Bless.