Fasting for Our Spiritual Health, Not to Get Thin

Dear Parishioners:                                

Many people undertake diets to lose weight and get healthier. A trendy diet these days is the intermittent fast diet. This diet establishes an eating pattern that cycles between periods of fasting and eating. It doesn't specify which foods to eat but rather when to eat them. Standard intermittent fasting methods involve daily 16-hour fasts or fasting for 24 hours, twice per week. I leave it to the medical community to determine if such a diet is fruitful and healthy.

However, the fasting we take up during Lent is a spiritual fast. While we do fast from extra food on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday and abstain from eating meat on Fridays during Lent, our fasting is truly a call to sacrifice something not to become physically healthier but rather spiritually healthier. We fast or give things up as a reminder to remove items in our lives that get in the way of our relationship with God.

When we feel hungry or choose not to do things we desire, it reminds us that everything we have is a gift from God. We strive to hunger for more of God and less of self. Our fasting mirrors Christ’s fast in the wilderness for forty days as we seek to hunger for what he hungers. Fasting is more than giving up treats and pleasures. There are other things from which we should also fast.

We can fast from noise by turning off TVs, computers, and phones.  Instead, pray in silence or come to First Friday Adoration.   In his outstanding book, The Power of Silence: Against the Dictatorship of Noise, Robert Cardinal Sarah suggests: "Without silence, God disappears in the noise. And this noise becomes all the more obsessive because God is absent. Unless the world rediscovers silence, it is lost. The earth then rushes into nothingness."

This Lent, we should fast from noise and rediscover silence. Pope Francis urges fasting from gossip. He said: "It's so rotten, gossip. In the beginning, it seems to be something enjoyable and fun, like a piece of candy. But at the end, it fills the heart with bitterness and also poisons us." We can fast from talking about our family members, friends, co-workers, and neighbors. Idle gossip is not only hurtful at times it’s very sinful. Try fasting from gossip.

We can  fast from “Busyness.”  Our culture grants a badge of honor to those who take up "busyness." However, being too busy often distracts us from other, more important things like family, faith, and God.  It prevents us from hearing God's voice and appreciating God's blessings. This Lent, slow down and pray. Don’t be too busy to be with the Lord.

We should fast from complaining. How often do we complain about something we don't like or cannot accept? In Lent, try to be more grateful for what we have rather than complain about what we don't. Crabby complaints and caustic criticism can be toxic, polluting the attitudes of those around us. They tear down rather than build up a community.  Fasting from complaining calls us to be part of a solution rather than contribute to a problem. 

Finally, we might fast from excuses. The parents of the great Yankee shortstop Derek Jeter never permitted him to use the word "can't" around the house. They suggested that anything was possible with hard work and dedication. The virtue of hope reminds us that all things are possible with God.

We can change, resist temptations,  avoid sin, and follow the path of virtue and holiness. The Saints show us the way from sin to sanctity can indeed be done. This Lent, fast from saying "can't" to the Lord and embrace "I can" for Christ.

Next weekend we welcome two very dynamic preachers, Dominican Friars Fr. James Mary Sullivan, OP, and Fr. Justin Mary Bolger, OP, for our Lenten Parish Mission. They are preaching all the Masses and then each night are preaching a Mission Talk at 7:00 pm. See the Mission schedule in the bulletin. The Mission entitled "Living for the Other Side,"   features music from the Hillbilly Thomists. This group is a band of Dominican Friars who play bluegrass music. Fr. Jordon, a talented musician, is a band member. The Mission is our time to retreat into prayer and reflection as we seek to convert more fully to Christ. Please join us either in person or via live stream. 

  Stay safe. Be well. Do good. God Bless. Pray, fast, and give alms!

Lent Calls Us to Honest, Humble Prayer

  Dear Parishioners:                            

It isn't often that an image of Satan appears on the cover of the weekly bulletin. However, this Sunday, we hear the Gospel of the Temptation of our Lord in the Desert. "The Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert, and he remained in the desert for forty days, tempted by Satan." 

Lent is like an extended "retreat" in which to re-enter ourselves and listen to God's voice to overcome the temptations of the Evil One. It is a time of spiritual "training" to live alongside Jesus not with pride and presumption but rather by using the weapons of faith: prayer, fasting, penance, and service to the poor. In this way, we shall succeed in celebrating Easter with joy, ready to renew our baptismal promises.

Lent is meant to be a time for truth. The Truth Himself spent 40 days in the wilderness combatting the Prince of Lies. Since humility is honesty, and the Sacrament of Confession is an act of humility, the truthful confession of our sins, preferably frequently in Lent, is at the heart of this season. On Wednesday, the ashes  sprinkled upon our heads were the very sign of our intention, “to repent and believe the Gospel.” Otherwise, the ashes are merely an empty gesture of piety or, worse, an act of total hypocrisy. 

Humility is an essential virtue of the interior life, the favored of Jesus, held up by all the saints and theologians as the best way for progress on the road to perfection. St Therese of Lisieux said: "the beginning of all holiness, is humbly admitting that without God we can do nothing, but that, with, in and through him, everything is possible!" 

The practice of humility begins with prayer. Lent calls us to more prayer. In our prayer, we do not lift ourselves above others, but rather, we must humbly reveal our true selves to God, the Father of Mercy. Remember that we are just one of a great army of weak and imperfect, sinful and suffering people, all kneeling before the throne of God's mercy.  St. Frances de Sales said in his Introduction to the Devout Life: "True humility is to see yourself as you are seen in the eyes of God, no more than you are, but no less than you are."  

In our prayer, much depends upon what we compare ourselves to in our life. And when we set our lives beside the life, ministry, and teachings of Jesus Christ and beside the goodness, mercy, and holiness of God our Father, we are left only to humbly pray like the tax collector of the Gospel: "God be merciful to me—a sinner."

  Our prayer makes us humble before God, our almighty Father, and opens us to the path of love.  We especially strive in Lent for humility in our prayer. The late Archbishop Sheen said: "Only the humble can pray, for prayer presumes we need someone and something." 

“True humility is to see yourself as you are seen in the eyes of God, no more than you are, but no less than you are.”

— Saint Francis de Sales

It is faithfully coming to Sunday Mass, praying daily, living the Church's precepts, following the Commandments, along with the frequent sacramental confession of our sins that can begin to conform us to the way of love. In prayer and with a solid interior life, we can honestly know ourselves, who we are, and what we are called to be.

These forty days of Lent we retreat with the Lord in the Desert to find our true selves. We remove the distractions of a busy life, limit our pleasures of a comfortable life, and convert our hearts more fully to Christ. With our prayer, fasting, penance, sacrifice, discipline, and almsgiving, we begin to know ourselves even more. We become aware of our weaknesses so we might humbly admit them to our Merciful Father in Confession. 

  In whatever temptations we may encounter this Lent, don't give in to the Father of Lies, and don't give up on the Lord!  Fight on in faith! The Saints teach us that faith, prayer, fasting, almsgiving, and the cross is enough to defeat the snares of the Evil One. Satan may appear powerful, but the saints prove that he is not and is no match for those who put their trust and faith in God.   St. Anthony the Abbot battled the temptations of the Devil while in the desert. He once said: "I saw the devil's traps laid upon the earth, and I groaned and said: 'Who do you think can pass through them?' And I heard a voice saying, 'Humility.”

Keep the Solemn Fast of Lent with humble prayer. Stay safe. Be well. Do good. God Bless. Pray, fast, and give alms!

Lent is Coming! Are You Ready?

Dear Parishioners:    

This Wednesday, we begin the holy and penitential season of Lent. It is a season designed to help us remember our life's mission as a follower of Christ and recommit to serving the Lord. We begin the solemn fast and commit with fervor and zeal to pray, fast, and give alms.   On Ash Wednesday, there are three Masses: 7:30 am, 12:05 pm, and 7:00 pm. Confessions on Ash Wednesday with two priests are available from 11:45 am until Noon and 6:00 pm until 6:45 pm. It is February Vacation Week, so there is no OLM School Mass on Ash Wednesday.

The Vatican has mandated a modified method for distributing ashes for this year: sprinkling them on the top of people's heads rather than using them to make a cross on people's foreheads. This change is to protect both the priest and the people from spreading COVID.   The mandate directs priests to bless the ashes with holy water at the altar and then address the entire congregation with words from the Roman Missal. These words are usually said when marking an individual's forehead with ashes: "Repent and believe in the Gospel" or "Remember that you are dust and to dust, you shall return."   The sprinkling of ashes on individual heads then takes place without any words said to each person. The sprinkling of ashes on the top of people's heads is not something new but is an ancient and customary practice at the Vatican and many other countries.

While we receive ashes differently this year, the message of Lent remains the same. They are a sign of penance and remind us that we are dust, and we shall return to dust. It is a stark reminder that our life in this world is transitory, and we must always prepare with lives of holiness and faith for eternal life. Indeed we are to be judged by God, so we must: "Repent and believe the Gospel."

For forty days, we take up penance asking the Lord for forgiveness for our sins so that we might celebrate Easter with joy and receive the Eucharist more worthily. St John Henry Newman wrote: "At Christmas, we are born again with Christ in baptism; at Easter, we keep the Eucharistic Feast. In Lent, by penance, we join the two great sacraments together." 

To have a fruitful Lent, we should examine our hearts and consciences and be honest about the places in our lives where sinfulness abounds. We should then confess them sacramentally and offer penances and sacrifices, mortifications and fasts, to be free of those sins. We must turn to Christ with humility and honestly seek God's mercy in Confession.

In Lent, we remember that we will face divine judgment one day and that nothing in this life is worth losing eternal happiness and total union with God. As penance, we give up some of our lives' comforts so that our comforts and pleasures won't lead us into sin. St. John Henry Newman suggested that during Lent, should also pray for one another. He believed that intercessory prayer was a fundamental obligation of all Christians, especially during Lent. He kept long lists of people to pray for and committed to asking the Lord for specific things for each one of them.

The lesson of Lent is simple: we will be judged someday, and thus we should act accordingly. We should confess our sins more frequently during these forty days, do more penance, and convert more fully to Christ. We give up some comforts and take up acts of charity so that our comfortable lives don't distract us from following Christ or lead us into sin. We spend time praying for other people, asking the Lord to grace them in real and particular ways. 

In Lent, we have two daily Masses, Stations of the Cross every Friday, and Confessions daily and outside Confessors on Mondays. There is a Lenten Parish Mission with the Dominican Friars of St. Pius. Archbishop Fulton Sheen reminds us: "Never forget that there are only two philosophies to rule your life: the one of the cross, which starts with the fast and ends with the feast. The other of Satan, which starts with the feast and ends with the headache." So take up the Cross this Lent with faith, hope, and charity. Pray, fast, and give alms!

Stay safe. Be well. Do good. God Bless. Make a holy and fruitful  Lent!   

Praying for the Sick and Suffering

Dear Parishioners:      

As announced last week, Sister Soledad has joined our OLM family and is now working with Sisters Lourdes and Emma. Sister Soledad worked at Scalabrnini Villa over the last few years with three other Franciscan Apostolic Sisters. For decades the Scalabrini Fathers have owned and operated the Scalabrini Villa Nursing Home. They are turning the operation of the nursing facility over to a secular group. Father Peter Polo, C.S., who has served as the Chaplain there, is leaving this week to take up new duties at Holy Rosary Church in Washington, DC. We wish him well and offer our thanks for his years of service. Also, the F.A.S. Sisters have now left the Villa. Sister Soledad has come to OLM, and the three other Sisters have taken up residence at the Convent at St. Philip Church in Greenville. They will work there at the parish and school and also provide pastoral care at Zambarano Hospital. 

We commend and thank the good sisters for their many years of dedication to providing pastoral care to the Scalabrini Villa residents. Over the years, they have provided loving and prayerful support to the elderly, the ill, and the infirm especially accompanying the dying. With their good work in mind, we celebrate the World Day of the Sick on Thursday, February 11th. It is also the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, so we turn to her for her powerful intercession. We join the Church across the globe in praying for the many sick of our world. Saint John Paul II instituted the World Day of the Sick in 1992 to recognize the dignity of the sick and suffering and for the Church to pray for them.

In his message for this year's World Day of the Sick, Pope Francis says: "A society is all the more human to the degree that it cares effectively for its most frail and suffering members, in a spirit of fraternal love." This Thursday, let us all take the time to offer prayers for the sick and infirm, especially those suffering from COVID, those in hospitals and nursing homes. We also pray for the sick of our parish and our own families. In our prayers, we must remember doctors, nurses, and healthcare workers who provide care and comfort to the sick.

The State of R.I. announced last week that the COVID Vaccine would be made available to citizens over 75 years of age. Also, Kent Hospital informed the priests who serve as chaplains there, including Fr. Barrow and myself, that the vaccine would be made available. These are good signs in the battle against COVID and a hopeful sign for an end to the pandemic. As the vaccinations roll out across the country, we should be mindful of what the U.S. Bishops teach about them. They state:

"Receiving one of the COVID-19 vaccines ought to be understood as an act of charity toward other members of our community. In this way, being vaccinated safely against COVID-19 should be considered an act of love of our neighbor and part of our moral responsibility for the common good."

There are some ethical concerns with certain vaccines, so I encourage you to read the flyer in this week's bulletin. It is entitled "Answers to Key Ethical Questions About COVID-19 Vaccines" and is an excellent resource and guide. It is also posted on the parish website. Dominican Friar and P.C. Professor Father Nicanor Austricio, OP, recently wrote an article entitled "A Priest-Scientist Responds to Concerns. Raised by the Ramping Up of Vaccination Campaigns." It, too, is an excellent resource and guide. This article in the Church Life Journal is posted on the University of Notre Dame website.

Fr. Nicanor holds both a Ph.D. in Biology from M.I.T. and a Pontifical Doctorate in Sacred Theology (S.T.D.) from the University of Fribourg in Switzerland. His expertise in science and Moral Theology provide for a sound and helpful guide for Catholics.

On World Day of the Sick, we pray for the sick and the suffering. "To Mary, Mother of Mercy and Health of the Infirm, let us entrust the sick, healthcare workers, and all those who generously assist our suffering brothers and sisters. From the Grotto of Lourdes, may she sustain our faith and hope and help us care for one another with fraternal love and charity." Stay safe. Be well. Do good. God Bless.

Celebrate The Difference that Catholic Schools Make

Dear Parishioners:     

During this last week of January, we celebrate the Annual Catholic Schools Week. It is a time to highlight the exceptional work done in our Catholic schools across the country. It also highlights the excellence in academics, athletics, and the arts of our parish school.  OLM School students are speaking at all weekend Masses about their experiences at the school. We thank the many families who have chosen a Catholic Education for their children. We also thank our outstanding Principal, Patrick McNabb, and our dedicated and hardworking faculty at OLM School.                             

It has been a challenging year for our school community due to the COIVID Pandemic. However, they have done an excellent job keeping the school open and safe. Our students have been able to come to all-day in-person classes since September.  This wouldn't have been possible without the tremendous leadership of Mr. McNabb, the steadfast dedication of our faculty, our staff's hard work, and the cooperative support of our OLM school parents and students. We thank them for all they do to ensure our students are learning in a healthy and safe environment.

          After all, knowledge and learning are essential. However, they are not the same as wisdom and moral character. We know that Barbarians come in all shapes and sizes, some wearing expensive suits with good diction and often with outstanding academic and professional credentials. The word "education" itself is derived  from the Latin educare, meaning "to bring up or train." It in turn comes from the Latin e- ("out") and ducare ("to lead or guide"). True education aims to lead people out of ignorance, dishonesty, and brutishness to the refinement of their humanity and intellect in the virtues.

This goal is what chiefly distinguishes Catholic education, if taught correctly, from much of modern learning. Even the finest of minds are incomplete,  blank slates, without a purpose and moral framework for the facts at their command. And, as the saying goes, nature abhors a vacuum. Some purpose, no matter how selfish or perverse, inevitably fills a person's inner void.

History teaches us that all purposes and all moral frameworks are not equal. Some lead to violence and suffering and often worse. Their understanding of the human person is limited from the outset by God's absence and exclusion. The goal of Catholic education, in contrast, is to fill the soul with the presence of its loving Creator.  So theology is not an "add on" subject in a Catholic school. It's the priority of the mission and it needs to inform and guide every other academic subject and element of the school day. It guides OLM every day as we strive to be scholars and saints. 

Our students at OLM and indeed all students are the children of a loving God with an eternal destiny. They must radiate throughout their lives the great words of St. Irenaeus: "The glory of God is man fully alive."        The ultimate purpose of Catholic Schools is not to get students into Harvard or Yale, Notre Dame or Villanova — all of them great universities, but no automatic guarantee of anyone's humanity — but rather to get them into heaven.

Heaven is not some childish imaginary fairyland, but the intensely real and beautiful embrace of the God who made us sustains us and longs for us to become the men and women he intended us to be. Not simply scholars but most importantly to become saints. That's why we're in this world. And it’s important to remember during this Catholic Schools Week.                          

Join us at the Catholic Schools Week Mass. on Friday at 9:00 AM via Livestream.  We offer Holy Mass for all those who have supported and benefited from Catholic Education, especially at OLM School, and pray for our school community.                       

In your name, I welcome Sister Soledad Salgado, FAS, to OLM this week. Sister has been assigned to work with Sisters Lourdes and Emma. She has been working at Scalabrini Villa. Read more about her and her life in this week’s bulletin. Say hello and welcome when you see her around the parish.

Welcome to OLM, Sister Soledad!! Stay safe. Be well. Do good. Celebrate Catholic Schools Week and OLM School!! God Bless. 

Our Faith, Our Future

Dear Parishioners:    

The Rectory Boiler Project was completed this past week.  The entire project included an asbestos study by engineers, asbestos abatement,  the destruction and removal of the old boiler,  a second air quality study by the engineers, and the new boiler and hot water heater installation. It took just about a month. We also managed to paint the boiler room that hasn't seen a coat of paint since the 1960s.                                   

The new boiler cost $40,000 and we are grateful to Steve Rossi of New England Boiler Works for expediting the process. The old boiler died on December 22nd, and due to the Christmas holiday and vacation, a new one wasn't easy to obtain quickly.  New England Boiler Works made the trip to New York to pick up the new boiler to expedite its installation. 

We also thank OLM Parishioner Val Tirocchi, who owns and operates AA Asbestos Abatement, for his quick response to this emergency. His crew spent considerable time removing asbestos and then destroying the old boiler for removal.  The old boiler was about 53 years old and very large, so it was quite a job!   

The total costs for the project are close to $60,000.  The environmental engineering studies mandated by law cost about $2,000.  The asbestos abatement and removal of the old boiler cost about $12,000.  We are waiting for the costs of installing the boiler, the plumping, and electric work. The old boiler was oil burning, while the new boiler is gas. Gas heat should make for more efficient heating in the rectory.                                   

Again I offer my thanks to those parishioners who supported the Grateful for God's Providence Capital Campaign.  The campaign funds this project. We've now installed three much-needed boilers in the rectory and convents, thanks to the capital campaign.

We've also installed new security cameras across the Church property and updated our school's security cameras.  This security system, too, was funded by the capital campaign.  Sadly such a system is needed in the times we live in today. We will soon post the required signs indicating that video camera surveillance is in operation at OLM. The security system allows us to monitor the property for theft or vandalism and keep the Church open for private prayer throughout the day without too much worry.  The cost of this project was $10,000, and BCI Computers did the work.  It also was financed as a result of the capital campaign. We are grateful for your financial support of these projects.                

BCI Computers came to our rescue back in March when the government imposed lockdown occurred, and we had to close the Church and stop the public celebration of Mass.  We asked for assistance from the Vice-President of BCI, Andrew R. Calore, an OLM Parishioner (soon to be married here!). He quickly responded to our request for a Livestream system at OLM when they were in high demand.  BCI  worked closely with Fr. Barrow, our tech wizard,  to ensure the timely installation.                       

The Livestream system allows us to offer Sunday Mass, funerals, baptisms, weddings, and other essential events online. It has been a great benefit to many during this pandemic.  Many of our elderly and infirm can participate, albeit remotely, in the parish's liturgical life.  Also, families who cannot attend funerals and other events can join from across the country.  It cost $7,500, and an anonymous parishioner generously donated the entire cost.                           

We hope to begin moving forward on the significant capital campaign project of replacing the over 50-year-old doors to the Church.  They are showing their age,  do not work well, and many of them are beginning to rot.      We've had the architects and door design companies working on the project and hope to start in the spring.  We plan to have one of the doors open electronically for those who are disabled or infirm.  We await the estimate for this project's cost, and it is being funded directly by the capital campaign.                

We kick off Catholic Schools Week next Sunday.  OLM Students are speaking at all Masses about their experience at our outstanding parish school.  Keep the students and faculty in your prayers.  May they strive to be the saints and scholars God calls them to be.                         

Stay safe. Be well. Do good. God Bless.