Children, Faith and the Sanctity of Human Life

Dear Parishioners:           

Although the weather didn't cooperate, we had a wonderful celebration of First Holy Communion last Saturday. It was a joyful and faith-filled occasion for our parish family, especially the children who received Jesus Christ in the Eucharist for the very first time.   

On Sunday, we especially celebrated Mother's Day as our First Communion Class crowned our Blessed Mother Mary, Queen of the May! It is always a beautiful ceremony and made special on Mother's Day! May Our Lady continue to guide and protect our parish family, especially the children of the First Communion Class.      

We received notification that pro-abortion extremists were organizing demonstrations around the country to disrupt Masses in Catholic churches on Mother's Day. Thankfully at OLM, our Masses on Mother's Day were not disturbed! If such disruptions should ever happen while at Mass, please remain calm, peaceful, and recollected, and do not confront the protesters. Our ushers will contact the East Greenwich Police Department for assistance if necessary.

Sadly Catholic Churches in our nation were vandalized and received threats of violence and disruptions at Mass by pro-abortion zealots. In Colorado, a Catholic Church was vandalized with pro-abortion graffiti, and its windows were smashed.

Pro-abortion extremists also disrupted Holy Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles. In New York, a hostile protest occurred at Old St. Patrick's Cathedral. This New York protest was particularly vile and sinister. Protestors blocking the church doors shouted, "God loves abortion!" What I saw of this demonstration was not only reprehensible but diabolical.

These protests are the poisonous fruit of an ideology of hatred for life that has deeply wounded our country for two generations. Our response to such hatred and violence must always be to bear witness to the mercy of Christ, who teaches us to love our enemies, to pray for our persecutors, and to do unto others as we would have others do to us.

While we celebrated Motherhood last Sunday, these radical and extremist protestors celebrated the destruction of the unborn. Babies in the womb deserve legal protection and possess the basic human right to life. Unborn children at six weeks have a heartbeat. They have fully formed noses, lips, and eyebrows by fifteen weeks and suck their thumbs and feel pain.

The abortion lobby and their elected allies in the White House, Congress, RI Governor's Office, and RI General Assembly support abortion for any reason until birth. The vast majority of Americans, however, support protections for the unborn. It's time to end the tragic and extreme abortion policy that puts us on par with China and North Korea.  

The Catholic Church and the pro-life movement across the country are committed to serving mothers and babies. More than 2,700 pregnancy care centers nationwide serve millions of mothers and babies annually—many states fund alternatives to abortion programs to serve expectant mothers.

The Diocese of Providence, through Gabriel's Call, supports expectant mothers and their unborn children. It provides emotional and practical support to those families in need, including diapers, baby clothing, baby furniture, and other needed items for them and their children. RI Right to Life Services also assists pregnant mothers and new mothers and their babies.

Sadly in Rhode Island, abortion until a child's birth is legal and will remain so. In 2019, the General Assembly passed legislation to codify abortion rights in Rhode Island. This year abortion advocates in RI seek to fund abortions with taxpayer funds.

Pope Francis has written: "Among the vulnerable for whom the Church wishes to care with particular love and concern are unborn children, the most defenseless and innocent among us. Nowadays, efforts are made to deny them their human dignity and to do with them whatever one pleases, taking their lives and passing laws preventing anyone from standing in the way of this. It is not 'progressive' to resolve problems by eliminating a human life.."

Pray for a culture of life in our nation, and the legal protection of the unborn and expectant mothers. Be well. Stay safe. Do good. God Bless!

Celebrate Motherhood & First Communion!

Dear Parishioners:                    

Happy Mother's Day! Saint Pope John Paul the Great said: "The history of every human being passes through the threshold of a woman's Motherhood." Thus, on one Sunday a year, we honor our Mothers and celebrate God's gift of Motherhood.                        

Today, we can express our thanks to all of them, including the adoptive mothers, the foster mothers, the grandmothers, and all those women who, by their care for others, help mothers in caring for their children and families. It is a lot to honor in a single day.  I have always found it fitting that Mother's Day falls on the second Sunday of May, the month of Mary, Mother of God. Mary's divine Motherhood begins in her consent to God's invitation to become the mother of Jesus and all of his brothers and sisters in faith. In life, Mary knew in her heart that only in reflection, prayer, and conversation with the God who had called her to be the mother of his child would she be able to carry on her mission with faith and love. 

We give thanks for the blessing in our lives of our mothers who, like Mary, have been faithful to their calling of caring for us with the deepest love. A mother's love, like all love, is of God. It models unselfish and sacrificial love. It is grounded in mercy and forgiveness. In their special way of loving, mothers reflect God's love for their children. 

Take a moment this weekend to thank the woman in your life who loves you in that special way that only mothers do. Give thanks to God for the blessing she is to your life. Or, if your mother is deceased, take a moment, as I will, to remember gratefully the woman who gave you life, formed you, and nurtured you in faith with love.

Pope Francis said: "Every human person owes his or her life to a mother." So say a prayer for your mother and give thanks for the generosity of her life. Pray as well, through the intercession of Mary, Mother of God, that the beauty and sacrifice of a mother's love might be at the heart of the life of the Church and the love and care we give to one another. Happy Mother's Day!

This weekend we also celebrate First Holy Communion for the children of our parish. It is a joyful occasion of faith, hope, and love! The children also celebrate the May Crowning of the Blessed Virgin Mary at 10:30 am on this Mother's Day! These are occasions to celebrate as a parish family. But what exactly are we celebrating at First Communion? The Catholic Catechism describes the Eucharist as a "sacrament of love, a sign of unity, a bond of charity, a Paschal banquet 'in which Christ is consumed, the mind is filled with grace, and a pledge of future glory is given to us.'"

 It is bread and wine transformed into Body and Blood. It is the greatest of intimacies and the most profound of mysteries. It is a moment of deep union between the broken and the Divine Healer. It is "the source and summit of the Christian life."

And further, "The other sacraments, and indeed all ecclesiastical ministries and works of the apostolate, are bound up with the Eucharist and are oriented toward it. For in the blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ himself, our Pasch."

The great Catholic writer Flannery O'Connor once sat quietly at a cocktail party amidst fashionable New York writers condescending about the Eucharist as "a pretty good" symbol. Having said nothing the entire evening out of an awkward nervousness, O'Connor finally blurted out, "Well, if it's a symbol, to hell with it."

Pope Francis celebrates First Communion Mass.

No, the Eucharist is not just a "pretty good" symbol. The Eucharist, instituted at the Last Supper, is truly the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ. It is Jesus's Precious and Holy Blood, poured out for us and our sins. Eating His Body and drinking His Blood puts His life inside of us. This truth of the real and abiding presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist is what we celebrate in faith and joy this weekend as a parish family with our First Communion Class. May we never take it for granted, for St. Maximilian Kolbe said: "If angels could be jealous of men, they would be so for one reason: Holy Communion." 

Be well. Stay safe. Do good. God Bless! Blessings upon all Mothers this Mother’s Day! Congratulations to our First Communion Class!

It's May! Time for First Communion, Mothers, Mary & the Rosary!

Dear Parishioners:                                 

Today we begin the month of May! It is a month dedicated to Our Blessed Mother Mary. Saint Francis de Sales said: "Let us run to Mary, and, as her little children, cast ourselves into her arms with a perfect confidence."  And so during this month, we run to Mary in prayer and with confidence. Each Monday night in May, we gather as a parish to pray the Rosary for Peace in Ukraine. We call upon the powerful intercession of our patroness Our Lady of Mercy, the Queen of Peace. So schedule thirty minutes each Monday to come to May Devotions as we pray the Rosary before the Eucharistic Lord and receive Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.  As Saint Padre Pio once said:  “The Rosary is the ‘weapon ‘ for these times!”

The month of May also brings us the celebration of First Holy Communion at OLM. Next Saturday, the Our Lady of Mercy First Communion Class children receive Jesus Christ, body, soul, and divinity in the Eucharist for the first time in their young lives. Pray for them!  Celebrating a First Holy Communion Mass in a parish church in Italy in 2019, Pope Francis said to the children:

"We rejoice because, for love of us, Jesus gave his life on the cross and destroyed sin. He rose again and made us adopted sons and daughters of God the Father. We are joyful because he is alive and present among us, today and always. That is why we can encounter him today in the Eucharist." 

First Communion is a beautiful day of faith, hope, and love for our parish children, their families, and our entire parish family. As our children celebrate this First Holy Communion, we pray that it is just the beginning of a lifelong and loving relationship with Jesus Christ nourished and strengthened weekly at Sunday Mass.   

Next Sunday is Mother's Day! We celebrate God's great gift of Motherhood and honor our Mothers for their love and support. We will offer Masses next Sunday for all Mothers, living and deceased. So please return your Mother's Day Memorial envelopes before next Sunday so we may pray for your beloved Mothers and Grandmothers.

Next Sunday, we also celebrate Motherhood in a very special way. at 10:30 am Mass. Our First Communion Class will crown the Blessed Mother Mary, Queen of May. It is a beautiful tradition and a wonderful way to pay tribute to our parish patroness, Our Lady of Mercy.

The English author William Makepeace Thackeray once said: "Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of little children."  What a joy for our parish family to celebrate both the Mothers of our parish and First Communion for our parish children.

May is a month for us to pick up our Rosary beads and put them to work. Take them out of our pockets and use them to pray. Many great popes, saints, and scholars have encouraged us to pray the Rosary daily. It's a powerful prayer that can change your life, strengthen the family, bring peace to the world, convert entire nations, and win the salvation of souls.

Some people have the impression that the Rosary is not relevant to them. It might be a sacred prayer for very religious people—priests, religious sisters, and pious Catholics—but not for an ordinary layperson.  Many view it as the marathon of Catholic devotions. They dismiss it as too long and too difficult.  We don't have to be holy to pray the Rosary and we don’t have to pray it  all at once. 

Some people quietly pray a whole rosary in one sitting. But we can also choose to divide it up, prayying just a decade or two at a time at different points throughout the day. Perhaps on the way to work, in between errands, in between meetings, while folding laundry, or doing dishes. Many holy men and women have prayed the Rosary just this way and found it fruitful for their busy lives.

We can pray it anywhere! The Rosary is like a portable chapel we pull out anytime, anyplace. Whether we have a sudden, urgent situation to present to God in prayer, or we want to fill some of our days with thoughts of God, all we need to do is pull out our beads and turn to the Lord in this prayer. Indeed, the Rosary is always accessible. It's May so take out the beads and pray the Holy Rosary!

Be well. Stay safe. Do good. God Bless! Hope to see  you at Devotions on Monday as we pray together for peace.

Christ is Risen! He is truly Risen!!!

Dear Parishioners:                    

“Christ is Risen! He is truly Risen!” We had a joyous and glorious celebration of Holy Week and Easter. There was much prayer and rejoicing, solemnity, and beauty as we marked the holiest time of the Church Year.                                   

We must first give thanks to God for the blessings bestowed upon our parish at Easter! And we must thank the many people who work so hard ensuring Holy Week and Easter are so wonderful here at OLM.  Our parish staff and our parish volunteers spend countless hours of dedication and devotion to seeing to every last detail of the season.

We thank Paul Anderson and our hard-working OLM Maintenance Staff who ensure our Church and physical plant are always clean and beautiful. During Holy Week they set up and broke down the Church quite a few times. I thank them for their dedication and hard work.

Our Church is always decorated so beautifully for each day of the Triduum and Easter. I thank Cecilia Franzone and the members of the OLM Decorating Committee who make the Church truly beautiful for this special season.

The music at OLM during Holy Week is always so very solemn and fitting. We thank our OLM Music Director, and Organist, Henri St. Louis, the OLM Choir, and the guest musicians who provided such beautiful music for the Sacred Triduum and Easter. As St. Augustine reminds us: “When you sing, you pray twice!” Clearly, at OLM we were both singing and praying at Easter!

We most certainly must thank our many Altar Servers who serve so well during Holy Week. They attend rehearsals, learn the ceremonies, and serve the Sacred Triduum with reverence and devotion. In particular, we thank Erik Carlson who serves as the Master of Ceremonies for Holy Week and Easter. 

Our Lectors who proclaim the Word of God so well, our Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion who help distribute Communion so reverently, and our Ushers who provide a warm welcome and see to the good order of Church especially with the very large crowds on Easter Sunday, all deserve our thanks and praise.

We are most especially thankful for our Franciscan Apostolic Sisters, Sister Lourdes, Sister Emma, and Sister Soledad. Through their dedication and hard work, they provide much assistance in preparing for Holy Week. They ensure all the sacred vessels are polished, all the linens ironed, all the vestments are in good order and all the details attended to with devotion.  We are truly grateful for their wonderful witness to service.

I also thank Fr. Mahoney who celebrated his first Holy Week and Easter as a priest. He is a great help in organizing the many details of the Holy Week Services and more. He is a very dedicated and hardworking  priest and we are truly grateful for his priestly ministry at OLM.  He is also a great chef and cooked a delicious Easter Ham!

Indeed there is much to give thanks for at OLM to God.  Easter at OLM was a joyful day of celebration and faith. Easter Sunday Masses were very well attended and we are grateful the pandemic is over! More people at Mass is always a great sign of hope and faith for the parish. 

We congratulate our newest member of the Catholic Church, Louis William Johnston, baptized at the Easter Vigil Mass. Louis, a second-grader at OLM School, was so very excited and tremendously happy to be baptized. I ask you to continue to pray for him as he prepares to receive First Holy Communion with his class in May. We welcome Louis and offer our congratulations!  

It seems we spend forty days in Lent preparing for Easter, and then celebrate Easter as if it’s a single day. But Easter isn’t just a day, it’s a season. It’s not only a celebration but an invitation to joy. Easter Sunday was just the beginning of a  season of joy.   Easter is a season of fifty days and ends on Pentecost Sunday. So we must continue to celebrate and rejoice in the Lord’s Resurrection. After all, the Resurrection changes everything. St. Paul reminds us: “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.” So rejoice during this Easter season of glory, hope, and joy! “We are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song,” St. John Paul II said.

Be well. Stay safe. Do good. God Bless! Happy Easter Season!

"This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad!”

Dear Parishioners:

"This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad!” Today we rejoice in the Resurrection of Christ. However, our Easter joy is muted as we witness war and the continued suffering in Ukraine. 

"Contemplation of a war that is so cruel in all its aspects and the thought of the suffering children of the Church inspires in the heart of the Father and forms upon Our lips words of comfort and encouragement. And yet, on this day, We greet you with joyful Alleluia, for it is the day of Christ's triumph over His crucifiers, open and secret, ancient and modern. We convey that greeting to you with the voice and confidence with which, even in the days of the persecution, the early Christians exultantly sang that Alleluia." 

Venerable Pope Pius XII spoke these words to the world on Easter 1941. It would be the last Easter before the United States officially entered the Second World War. As on that Easter Sunday over eighty years ago, we again pray for Peace and those suffering the evils of war. With fear and trepidation like our parents and grandparents on Easter 1941, we watch the violent aggression and invasion of sovereign nations and the death and destruction of war.

As they did eighty years ago, world leaders clamor for Peace and justice today. Yet we watch with horror the continued violence and evil in Ukraine. It can turn our Easter hope into despair and our Easter joy into sorrow.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian, and anti-Nazi dissident. He was known for his staunch resistance to the Nazi regime. He was a vocal opponent of Hitler's euthanasia program and genocidal persecution of the Jews. Arrested in April 1943 by the Gestapo, he was imprisoned. He was hanged to death on April 9, 1945. During his imprisonment, he wrote: "Good Friday and Easter free us to think about other things far beyond our own personal fate, about the ultimate meaning of all life, suffering, and events; and we lay hold of a great hope."

Easter is just as it was on the First Easter and Easter 1941, the Feast of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. God's definitive answer to death. Nothing is stronger nor more powerful than He. Through the Resurrection, God has conquered both sin and death.

Nevertheless, there is no lack of despair or hopelessness in our world in these anxious times. We cannot deny what we see: violence, poverty, conflict, hatred, injustice, suffering, and the very face of evil. Moreover, there appears to be no end to such problems, and often they defy easy solutions.

However, we know from the Gospel that following the Passion and death of Jesus Christ, the Apostles who had abandoned the Lord upon his arrest then went into hiding after his death. They, too, were anxious and afraid.

In our time, in response to all these difficulties and uncertainties, some people have turned in toward themselves in fear and loathing. Others pretend that all is well and continue a selfish way of life. Still, others have become angry, bitter, and cynical, assuming a cold indifference, caring only for themselves.

  On the Feast of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, as Catholic Christians, we must firmly believe and truly understand that the only true and authentic answer to life's most profound and difficult questions always begins with the Risen Jesus Christ

The Risen Christ and only the Risen Christ makes us holy and wise. It is He who grants us Peace. It is He who gives Himself to us in the Holy Eucharist. He forgives us our sins in the Sacrament of Confession and speaks to us through the Sacred Scriptures and His Church. Today the Risen Christ, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, says to us what He said to the Apostles on that First Easter: "Peace be to you. It is I. Do not be afraid!" 

Today as we renew our promises of baptism at Easter Mass, may we who profess faith in his Resurrection strive to bring Jesus' hope and Peace to all, particularly the poor, the sick, the suffering, and those who live in fear and anxiety. Let us live in the Light of Christ and give witness to Easter joy, faith, hope, and love.   Happy Easter!

Alleluia! Christ is Risen! He has Risen Indeed! Alleluia! A blessed Easter to you and your loved ones.

Enter into the Mysteries of Holy Week

Dear Parishioners:                                  

On Palm Sunday, Christians commence Holy Week, to culminate on Good Friday and Easter Sunday. This year the war in Ukraine overshadows this holiest of weeks as we pray ever more intensely for peace in our world.       

The late Cardinal Augustin Mayer, O.S.B., once wrote that "Nothing great is ever achieved without suffering." How appropriate his words are this year during Holy Week. They remind us that discipleship always has a cost. No Christian ever lives the Gospel without eventually encountering the Cross.

   During the Triduum of Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday, the Church invites us to remember that sin is real and only Christ's blood can redeem it. God loves us so deeply that he sent his only Son to offer himself for our deliverance.

In giving his life for us, Jesus asks us to live our lives for others. He asks us to share in his work of redemption. The Gospel is never merely a call to be "nice" to others. There's nothing sweet about Golgotha. Life in Jesus Christ is a call to heroic virtue and self-sacrificing love. If we want to rise with Jesus on Easter, we also must share his work of salvation on Good Friday.

The great Christian writer C.S. Lewis wrote that "Christianity is a thing of unspeakable joy. But it begins not in joy, but in wretchedness, and it does no good to try to get to the joy by bypassing the wretchedness." We all have routines that dull us into self-absorption at work, at play, in our families, and in our religious faith. Even the broken body of Christ on the Cross can become mere routine piety, an object of devotion that doesn't touch our hearts.

These days of Holy Week, the most sacred time of the year, must help us wake up from our routines and shake off daily life's distractions. With deep devotion, we must concentrate on the One in whom we anchor our hope.

This Holy Week, listen to the word of God and make room for silence and prayer. Read and pray over the Gospel accounts of the crucifixion. Venerate the Cross. Remember the price paid for our redemption. Understand how much God loves us!

Holy Thursday marks the end of Lent and the beginning of the most sacred time in our liturgical year: the Paschal Triduum. On this night, we as a Church gather in the evening. Our attention is directed to the Holy Priesthood and the Holy Eucharist. This night we process with the Eucharist to the Altar of Repose, where we adore Christ and keep watch with him. Join us on Holy Thursday for the Mass of the Lord's Supper at 7:00 PM. Following the Mass, we take up the Lord's call to "stay here and pray with me" as we kneel and adore Him at the Altar of Repose.   

On Good Friday, we fix our gaze on the Cross. Join us as we pray to the Stations of the Cross at 3:00 PM. And then, at 7:00 PM, come celebrate the Liturgy of the Lord's Passion with the adoration and veneration of the Cross. We not only behold the wood of the Cross on Good Friday, but we also unite ourselves and our crosses to our Savior.     

The high point of the Triduum is the Easter Vigil, which St. Augustine calls the "Mother of all Vigils." On Saturday after sundown at 7:30 PM, the Vigil begins in darkness with the Easter fire and the Paschal candle lighting. They recall that Christ banished the darkness of sin by his death and Resurrection. The readings recall the history of God's salvation. And we baptize new members of our Church.   

At the Easter Vigil and the Easter Sunday Masses, we as a Church celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. He conquered death itself and opened the gates of Heaven to all of us, his believers and witnesses. This week change up the routine and enter into the mysteries of our faith. St. Josemaria Escriva reminds us: "The tragedy of the passion brings to fulfillment our own life and the whole of human history. We can't let Holy Week be just a kind of commemoration. It means contemplating the mystery of Jesus Christ as something which continues to work in our souls."

May we pray for each other during this sacred time, and may God grant you and your family, and all of us, a blessed Holy Week and a holy and joy-filled Easter!   Be well. Stay safe. Do good. God Bless!