Giving Thanks for God is With Us!!!

Dear Parishioners:                                  

"The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light," the words of Isaiah proclaimed on Christmas Night. We live in the joy of the Christmas season, and it has very little to do with secular festivities. We rejoice because Jesus Christ is Emmanuel – "God with us."      

Christians celebrate December 25th not as just another secular holiday but much more deeply as the Messiah's day of birth.  This birthday, in the words of St. Leo the Great, is the birth of life itself. God loved us so much that He sent us His only Son to save us. He loved us enough to take on our poverty, doubts, fears, hopes, joys, sufferings, and failures. He became man to show men and women how much God loves them. He was born for that purpose, lived for that purpose, and died and rose again for that purpose. It's never too late to invite the Christ Child, the Messiah, into our hearts, and our homes. Surely this weary world living in the darkness of pandemic needs "the great light" born on Christmas.

Every household living in isolation needs the presence of the Divine Messiah. May God grant each of us, and those we love, the gift of welcoming Jesus Christ into our hearts and homes this Christmas Season and throughout the coming new year. As the great English Catholic author, G. K. Chesterton wrote: "Christmas is built upon a beautiful and intentional paradox; that the birth of the homeless should be celebrated in every home."
We give thanks to the people who make our celebration of Christmas so very joyous at OLM. The Church is beautiful with its decorations, the Christmas music superb, and our altar servers are outstanding.  Although it was a different Christmas than we've experienced before due to the pandemic, it was indeed a joyful and faithful Christmas as always at OLM.

We thank our good Franciscan Apostolic Sisters, Sister Emma and Sister Lourdes, for their hard work in making OLM so beautiful at Christmas with their decorating, cleaning, polishing, and setting up for the Masses. Their hard work is done with humility, gentleness, and great joy! We thank Paul Anderson and our OLM maintenance crew for ensuring the Church is clean and safe by hanging wreaths, stringing lights on trees and so many other things they do. During this pandemic, especially at Christmas, they work doubly hard, and we are grateful. We thank our dedicated Altar Servers for their reverent service at Christmas Masses. We are thankful to our Lectors for boldly proclaiming the good news of Christmas. We truly thank our OLM Music Director,  Henri St. Louis, for the beautiful music of the Feast of Christmas! It is a blessing to have such good people dedicate themselves to our parish!  In your name, I offer deep gratitude and continued appreciation for all they do for OLM!

On behalf of Fr. Barrow, Fr. Connors, Sister Lourdes, and Sister Emma, I offer our thanks to the parishioners of Our Lady of Mercy Parish for your faithful witness and joyful spirit in celebrating Christmas. We thank the many kind parishioners who support our priestly and parish ministry here at OLM. Your many well wishes, greeting cards with warm sentiments and kind words, and generous and thoughtful gifts at Christmas are deeply appreciated, and we are so very grateful. May God bless you and your families, and our parish, with the continued joy and happiness of this season.

The New Year of 2021 is coming soon, so join us on New Year's Day for the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God. Attending Holy Mass on New Year's is the absolute best way to start the New Year.  As the great Churchman of the 20th Century, Antonio Cardinal Bacci said: “Since we are at the beginning of a new year, it is especially important for us to ask God more fervently and insistently, to bless the resolutions which are making for ourselves and the good wishes, which we are showering on our friends. These wishes have no meaning and these resolutions have no force, if they are not accompanied by fervent and persevering prayer!”

On this Feast of the Holy Family, may God bless all families with faith, hope, and love. Stay safe. Be Well. Do Good. God Bless. A Happy Christmas Season and Blessings for a Happy New Year!

The Cause of Our Joy!

Dear Parishioners:

Saint Augustine, the great Doctor of the Church, asked: "What greater cause is there of the Lord's coming than to show God's love for us?" Upon the threshold of the coming of Christ at Christmas, we must ponder and reflect upon God's love for us.  For on Christmas, the great feast of the Incarnation, we celebrate God's love for us.

With joy, we celebrate the coming of our Messiah, who dispelled the darkness of the world. With faith, we welcome the Light of Christ that pierces the darkness of our world's sin and sadness and the darkness in our lives. Yes, there are dark things in our world, but the celebration of the Lord's Nativity is even more extraordinary, for the Divine Light has come from Heaven, and we rejoice that "the darkness has never overcome it." 

The Incarnation, the doctrine that God became flesh, and assumed a human nature becoming a man in the form of Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the second person of the Trinity, is a central mystery of our Catholic faith. As the Advent Season quickly ends and the Feast of the Incarnation arrives this Friday, let us prayerfully meditate upon our God who humbled Himself to become one of us.

Only then are we indeed blessed to see how the humble and tender Christ Child born in a simple manger pulls us away from darkness and draws us into the light of His goodness, peace, and love. For on Christmas, we celebrate the reality that Jesus Christ, God made Man, is genuinely present and good!   

God desires to share the love and communion of his life with us. He makes himself accessible in the incarnate humanity of his only-begotten Son born on Christmas. He does so "that we might share in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share in our humanity." At the heart of the Christmas story is not merely a warm sentiment for a tiny child or a sense of nostalgia for a Christmas past. Rather it is the reality that because of Christmas, we rejoice with faith in the person of Jesus Christ and the salvation and new life he makes possible for us.    

An English Catholic ecclesiastical artist, mystic, famous religious writer, and poet of the 20th Century Caryll Houselander reflects on this reality.   Her prayerful poem, entitled, Be Born in Us, offers a powerful meditation as we celebrate and contemplate the Birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. The poem reads:

"Be born in us, Incarnate Love. Take our flesh and blood, and give us Your humanity. Take our eyes, and give us Your vision. Take our minds, and give us Your pure thought. Take our feet, and set them in Your path. Take our hands, and fold them in Your prayer. Take our hearts,  and give them Your will to love. Amen."

I offer thanks to the many parishioners who support  OLM Outreach, especially over these last few weeks. Your generous donations of financial support, gift cards, food, and paper goods are much appreciated. It enables us to help those in need in our community at the holidays but also the many poor, hungry, homeless, and destitute who seek our assistance daily. In their name, I offer my sincere thanks for your mercy and charity this Christmas. 

There are three priests on Monday night, including outside confessors, hearing Confessions from 6:00 PM until 8:00 PM. Seize the opportunity to make a good Confession before Christmas. God's mercy and forgiveness of sins is a great gift for Christmas. It's free and readily available. All you need to do is deliver yourself to the Confessional Box on Monday. If you do, you can genuinely rejoice with Christ the Savior on Christmas this Friday! 

Along with Fr. Barrow, Fr. Connors, Sister Lourdes, Sister Emma, I offer prayers and best wishes for a Holy and Happy Christmas Season. Be assured of our remembrance for you and your families as we offer Mass on Christmas.

As we approach Christmas, I extend St. John Henry Newman's Christmas Blessing upon you, your families and all: "May each Christmas, as it comes, find us more and more like Him who at this time became a little child, for our sake; more simple-minded, more humble, more affectionate, more resigned, more happy, more full of God. Amen"

A Happy and Holy Christmas! God’s Blessings! 

Rejoice in the Lord Always!

Dear Parishioners: 

This Third Sunday of Advent is known as "Gaudete Sunday." Its name is from the entrance antiphon of the Mass, which is: "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice. Indeed, the Lord is near." This antiphon is from Philippians, and in Latin, the first word of the antiphon is "Gaudete."

For much of the Church's history, this Sunday has been called "Gaudete" Sunday. The traditions surrounding this Sunday go back as far as the fourth or fifth century, as does the season of Advent itself.  Advent is the season of preparing for the arrival of the Lord Jesus (both his first coming and his second coming), and by the third Sunday of Advent, we are most of the way through the season. Thus it is appropriate to rejoice as we see the goal of the season approaching: "The Lord is near."

On Gaudete Sunday, the season of Advent shifts its focus. For the first two weeks of Advent, the focus is, "The Lord is coming." But beginning with Gaudete Sunday, it focuses upon, "The Lord is near." A heightened sense of joyous anticipation marks this shift.   Liturgically, the colors lighten, and the priest wears rose-colored vestments, a hue seen only on Gaudete Sunday and Laetare Sunday during Lent. On this day, we light the third candle of the Advent wreath, which is also rose-colored. 

  The word "Gaudete" is Latin for "Rejoice." When the focus of our anticipation is often on the negative and fearful, this celebration is a reminder that God who loves us is still in charge and that we await his coming not with fear and dread but with tremendous faith and joy. As St. Paul reminds us: "Brothers and sisters: Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In all circumstances give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus."

  So, why do we need a reminder to rejoice on the Third Sunday of Advent? Because the happiness that comes from holiday festivities, fun gatherings with friends, and a full belly is not the same thing as Christian joy.   Pope Francis explains the difference between happiness and joy:   "To be happy is good, yet joy is something more. It's another thing, something which does not depend on external motivations, or on passing things: it is more profound. It is a gift. 'To be 'happy at all moments, at all cost,' can at the end turn into superficiality and shallowness. This leaves us without Christian wisdom, which makes us dumb, naïve, right? All is joy. No, joy is something else; it is a gift from the Lord."

If joy is a gift from the Lord, then the Lord Himself is our first and greatest gift and the only one that will never tarnish or break or fade. Gaudete Sunday reminds us that the gift has not yet arrived, but it's very near.   "Rejoice in the Lord always. I shall say it again, Rejoice!" Gaudete Sunday is a moment to stop and reflect on the source of real joy. And if the Advent season has brought causes for stress and sorrow into our life, then lighting the rose candle is an opportunity to take heart and refocus with joy upon Christ.

As you've seen in the media, a COVID vaccine seems to be coming soon. This past week we received a letter from Bishop Tobin and guidance from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops about the vaccine. There were some questions and confusion if the vaccines developed by Pfizer and Moderna were morally permissible to use.  

  However, the USCCB states: "Neither the Pfizer nor the Moderna vaccine involved the use of cell lines that originated in fetal tissue taken from the body of an aborted baby at any level of design, development, or production." And while we welcome the vaccine, questions remain about the priority in determining who receives the vaccine.  Also, questions remain about how it is to be distributed justly and equitably around the world, especially in poorer nations. I have posted the statement on the parish website if you wish to read it.

As we enter this Third Week of Advent and rejoice the "Lord is near," let’s strive to pray with greater devotion, give more generously to the poor and needy, and truly prepare the way with a good Sacramental Confession before Christmas! If we do, then we can genuinely "Rejoice in the Lord!"

  Stay safe. Be Well. Do Good. God Bless. Oremus pro invicem.

No Pause in Living Our Faith

Dear Parishioners:  

Grocery stores are now limited to number of people who may enter at one time.

We have begun to live in what the Governor calls a "Pause" for the next two weeks. Many businesses are closed or have had limits and restrictions placed upon them. Thankfully Churches are open, and our parish school continues on with in-school classes.                                      

Field hospitals in RI are now open due to increase of COVID 19 infections.

The rate of COVID cases is rising, as are hospitalizations. The "Pause" is to stem the rising rate of infection and curtail the need for hospitalizations. The state has opened two field hospitals to help ease the stress on our hospitals. The week before Thanksgiving, I spent three days in Kent Hospital with bacterial pneumonia. Thankfully I twice tested negative for COVID-19! I can attest that the hospitals are full. I spent my entire time on a gurney in the Emergency Room as no rooms or beds were available. There were over 40 patients in the Emergency Room, waiting for rooms, and none were available.

It was terrific to return home to my own bed and be back at OLM! I am on the mend and feeling much better. My doctor tells me it will take several weeks to recover fully. I am genuinely grateful to Fr. Barrow, who has provided invaluable assistance during my illness. 

It's hard to believe we are already preparing for Christmas, but prior planning is essential in these uncertain times. In this week's bulletin, we have published the Christmas Mass Schedule. It will be slightly different than past years and includes an extra Vigil Mass. Usually, the 4:00 PM Christmas Eve Vigil Mass garners the biggest crowd, and the church is full.

With the uncertainty of these times, it is hard to know how to plan for Christmas Masses properly. After discussion and reflection and with the Bishop's permission, we are scheduling two Vigil Masses on Christmas Eve. One is at 3:00 PM (allowed only for this year due to COVID), and the second at 5:00 PM.

Also, we will celebrate the Christmas Night Mass at Midnight, and it will be live-streamed. So those who cannot stay up will be able to view it on Christmas morning.   On Christmas Day, Masses will be at 7:30 AM, 9:00 AM, and 10:30 AM. Not knowing how many will show up for Mass, this schedule affords us some flexibility.  You too might be more flexible in choosing what Mass you attend on Christmas as we are limited to 125 people per Mass.

In your own planning for Christmas Mass, understand that seating is limited to first-come, first seated.   Please ensure you arrive 15 minutes before Mass, wear a face mask, wash your hands and keep a social distance. With your patient cooperation, Christmas should be just as faith-filled and joyous as it always is.  

  Of course, planning and preparing for Christmas means that we should also cleanse our souls of sin. We continue to have Confessions on Saturdays at 3:00 PM and Mondays at 6:00 PM. Our OLM School students continue to come to Advent Confessions on Monday afternoons, and our RE Students will be coming on Monday, December 7th at 6:00 PM.

On the Monday before Christmas, December 21st, we have scheduled two hours of Confessions from 6:00 PM until 8:00 PM. There will be three priests available to hear Confessions for each hour. It is an excellent opportunity to give yourself the best Christmas gift possible, God's forgiveness of sins and the grace of the Sacrament!

This Tuesday, December 8th, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Under this title, Our Lady serves as the patroness of the United States of America.

Blessed Pope Pius IX in 1854 declared Our Lady immaculately conceived stating that the Blessed Virgin Mary "in the first instant of her conception, by a singular privilege and grace granted by God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved exempt from all stain of original sin."

We celebrate this great feast with a Vigil Mass on Monday at 5:00 PM and Masses on the Holyday at 7:30 AM and 7:00 PM. There is a 9:00 AM Holyday Mass for  OLM School, but only the students may attend. The 9:00 AM Mass will be live-streamed for those who cannot participate in Mass.

Stay safe. Be Well. Do Good. God Bless. May the Immaculate Blessed Virgin Mary intercede for our nation and us! 

O Come, O Come Emmanuel

Dear Parishioners:  

Sunday, we begin the holy season of Advent, a time to pause and consider the importance of this time of preparation and watchful waiting.   The Advent Season is often overshadowed by the "holiday season" as we move too quickly into celebrating Christmas. By the time that the actual solemnity of Christmas arrives, many of us are exhausted. We are already tired of all the "Christmas hype." Christmas has become anticlimactic.

The word Advent comes from the Latin for "coming" or "arrival." The Church teaches: "The season of Advent has a twofold character: It is a time of preparation for Christmas when the first coming of God's Son ... is recalled. It is also a season when minds are directed by this memorial to Christ's second coming at the end of time. It is thus a season of joyful and spiritual expectation." Advent is a season of joyful hope, a time of preparation and waiting as we prepare for Christ. This season is not just about preparing for the birth of Christ at Christmas. But also the Christ continually being born in our midst who transforms the Church.

In these dark days of the pandemic, the Church calls us to gather and quietly wait in hope for the coming of Christ, Her bridegroom, the Light of the World. Is our hope really in Christ? Do we allow ourselves to wait in silence and ponder the great mystery of salvation? In the darkness, we watch for the coming Lord. We must not let our fears, doubts, or our busyness distract us from this watchful waiting. The season calls us to be attentive to our preparations for the final day and attentive to the quality of our life in union with Christ.

Light of the World, C. Bosseron Chambers (circa 1920)

During these four weeks, we prepare for the Light, which comes into the world, both in Christ's birth and as we await his final return in glory. I know it is an enormous challenge to remain faithful to the Advent season when we are surrounded by a society which, while claiming to be Christian, does not take the time to reflect and prepare as the Church calls us to do.

The season of Advent refocuses us and reminds us that Christ has changed the world. Darkness has descended, and the world itself is quiet. We know that Christ reigns over all of creation. We strain in the darkness to see the Light of Christ, our coming King. May our observance of this season renew us and be an example of prayer, patience, silence, and joy in our hurried and anxious society. May it help us to see the Light of Christ amidst the darkness of the world. 

  To be sure, Advent 2020 is likely to be very different amid the pandemic's social restrictions and isolation from family and community. Indeed, we need Christ to come into the world all the more. However, perhaps these restrictions afford us a real opportunity to enter into the spirit of the Advent season more fully. The secular distractions of parties and shopping are restricted, and so we have a unique opportunity to prayerfully and authentically prepare for Christ's coming.

Let's limit the secular celebration of Christmas and take up Advent's call to joyfully, and patiently, anticipate the real Christmas. Let's strive all the more to make Advent memorable. Not only because we are in a pandemic but instead because we strive to make more time for God. Let's not keep God socially distant. Instead, let us take more time in our lives for prayer, Mass, and Confession. Let's make it memorable with more good deeds and acts of charity for the poor and the needy, the sick and suffering. As we reduce the parties and shopping, let us joyfully increase faith, hope, and joy in our world, our families, and our parish.

We sing the ancient Advent chant, "O Come, O Come Emmanuel," to remind us that Christ is coming. May our Advent prayer and devotion spur us to an awakening in our faith life and put us in a 'vigilant' disposition to wait for Our Lord Jesus who is coming.

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI states: "Awaken! Remember that God comes! Not yesterday, not tomorrow, but today, now! The one true God, 'the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob', is not a God who is there in Heaven, unconcerned with us and our history, but he is the-God-who-comes."

Be Well. Do Good. Stay Safe! Have a Blessed Advent! God Bless. 

Christ is King! Give Thanks!

Dear Parishioners: 
This Sunday is the last Sunday of the liturgical year and the celebration of the Solemnity of Christ the King. Pope Pius XI instituted this feast in 1925 with his encyclical Quas Primas ("In the first") to respond to growing nationalism and secularism. Pope Pius recognized that these related societal ills would breed increasing hostility against the Church. His encyclical reminds the faithful that while regimes and philosophies come and go. Christ reigns as King forever.

Secularism divides our public selves from our private selves. When governments limit the rights to freely minister according to our faith and restrict our religious liberty, secularists claim that religious freedom is unharmed because we still have freedom of worship. However, while we are free in private, we are restricted in the public square.     Yet the Kingdom of God calls us to a whole life of worship and service in the public square. We cannot worship on Sunday and then deny Christ, and His teaching, as we provide ministry throughout the week.

Nationalism, on the other hand, divides our loyalties. It is good to love one's country, but ultimate loyalty is due only to Christ and His Kingdom. Ideologies that ask us to put our nation above Christ and his Church are incompatible with service to the kingdom.

With the help of the Holy Spirit, we must work every day to draw closer to Jesus. In our increasingly "post-Christian" society, we cannot be complacent in our spiritual lives and acknowledge Christ's Kingship only in Church. To recognize the Kingship of Christ means that we should dedicate ourselves to prayer and worship, building up our families and our parish, proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ, and bring healing to a broken world.  Jesus inaugurates a Kingdom that grows through humble acts of service. Even as the Church's freedom to carry out Her ministries with authenticity are under threat, the Church must patiently continue to serve the poor, educate the young, care for the elderly, welcome the migrant, visit the prisoner, heal the sick, bury the dead, and love others.

In Quas Primas, Pope Pius XI states: "Once men recognize, both in private and in public life, that Christ is King, society will at last receive the great blessings of real liberty, well-ordered discipline, peace and harmony. That these blessings may be abundant and lasting in Christian society, it is necessary that the kingship of our Savior should be as widely as possible recognized and understood.”

As I write this column, it's looking more like Thanksgiving Day celebrations might be small and very muted this year. The COVID-19 infections continue to rise, as do hospitalizations across the country. The Governor is likely to issue directives that people stay home on Thanksgiving Day.

Some may ask, what do you have to give thanks for in 2020? We are suffering through a pandemic, witnessing social unrest and violence, and bitterness and political divisions, along with lockdowns and isolation, further eroding community bonds and national unity. Who can give thanks?

President Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving Day a national holiday in 1863. At that time, our nation was bitterly divided, and in a Civil War, where thousands of Americans were dying. African-Americans remained shamefully enslaved in the southern states. It would be another two years before the war's end and the restoration of peace and freedom. Even with the nation divided and at war, Lincoln understood that the country should give thanks to God for the blessings and bounty it enjoyed despite the state of the union. He declared it a day of "Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father." As President, he urged all Americans to "fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and Union." 

Bishop Evans is to celebrate our Thanksgiving Day Mass at 9:00 AM on Thursday. Join us as we give thanks to God and pray for peace and harmony, tranquility, and unity in our nation. Happy Thanksgiving! Stay safe. Be Well. Do Good. God Bless. God Bless America