Summer's Ending Soon as School Begins!

Dear Parishioners:                    

Fr. Healey greets students for the First Day of School last year.

  “Summer’s lease hath all too short a date,” wrote William Shakespeare. Sadly for students and teachers, summer is coming to an end this week. On Wednesday, classes begin again, and another school year commences. It’s hard to believe it’s already here, but it is!                         

While the fall season officially begins on September 22, summer ends for many when school begins! But of course, the beginning of a new school year brings the joy of being with school friends again and the hope of a fruitful year of study. Yes, the joyous sound of our school children coming and going from school and playing on the school parking lot and field begins again this week. Our hope and prayer are for a fruitful year of happy, healthy, and holy education! Pray for all teachers, students, and their families for a safe and productive school year.

In a very special way, I ask you to pray for the Faculty of Our Lady of Mercy School. They begin the new school year with a retreat on Monday. This year the Retreat Director is Father David Barnes from the Archdiocese of Boston. He is the Spiritual Director at St. John’s Seminary in Boston and was the Chaplain at Boston University for many years. He is an outstanding priest and fine preacher. I am certain our faculty will benefit from his spiritual insights. Please pray for him and a fruitful retreat for our school faculty.

OLM School Mass.

We invite you to pray for the new school year at Mass this Friday at 9:00 AM. The Opening Mass of the Holy Spirit is to be celebrated by Bishop Evans. We call upon the Holy Spirit to guide our principal, faculty, staff, students, and families at this Mass. We will also install our faculty, including our new teachers. Join us for this important Mass and pray for our school community. Also, join us for the reception to follow the Mass in the OLM School Cafeteria. It’s the first reception since before the pandemic! Mass and the reception are a great way to begin the new school year!

Bishop Evans

Friday is also important for Bishop Evans as he will turn 75! We wish him a Happy Birthday. On a bishop’s 75th Birthday, he must send a retirement letter to Pope Francis and await its acceptance by the Holy Father. So as we celebrate Bishop Evan’s 75th Birthday, we also give thanks for his service to the Church as both priest and bishop. For forty-nine years as a priest and thirteen years as a bishop, he has faithfully served the Church of Providence. We are grateful for his priestly service and continued presence at Our Lady of Mercy. Happy Birthday Bishop, and assurances of prayer for a happy, healthy, and holy retirement!

Sister Jeanne Barry RSM

Also, on Friday, we celebrate Sister Jeanne’s sixty-fifth Profession of Vows as a Religious Sister of Mercy. On September 2, 1957, at eighteen, she solemnly professed the sacred vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. For sixty-five years, she has faithfully lived them out serving the Church.

Sister Jeanne has followed the example of Mother Catherine McCauley, the foundress of the Sisters of Mercy, as well as countless Sisters of Mercy. Since 1831 they have served the poor, the uneducated, and the needy with faith, love, and mercy. We thank Sister Jeanne for her service to God and Church! Next Saturday, Sister Jeanne is celebrating her Birthday, so please wish her well.

Please pray for Sister and offer the Suscipe of Mother McAuley:

 “My God, I am yours for time and eternity. Teach me to cast myself entirely into the arms of your loving Providence with a lively, unlimited confidence in your compassionate, tender pity. Grant, O most merciful Redeemer, that whatever you ordain or permit may be acceptable to me. Take from my heart all painful anxiety; let nothing sadden me but sin, nothing delight me but the hope of coming to the possession of You my God and my all, in your everlasting kingdom. Amen.”

God is good, and his blessings are bountiful. We thank Almighty God for the many blessings bestowed upon our parish, especially this week, the blessing of our parish school, Sister Jeanne and Bishop Evans! We are truly blessed at Our Lady of Mercy by such people and their witness to faith, hope, and joy!   Let us give thanks to God for these gifts! Be well. Stay safe. Do good. God Bless. Get your “See You in September” raffle tickets today! Go Sox! Go Pats!

A Parent's Patient, Persistent Prayer Pays Off! Ask St. Monica!

Dear Parishioners:                   

I recently spoke with a parishioner who was very troubled because her children and grandchildren had not been to Church in many years. She was distraught at the thought that her beloved children had lost the Faith, and her unbaptized grandchildren did not even have it yet to lose!   I don’t think this is unusual today. Many good and faithful Catholics have seen and continue to see their children drift away from the Faith. Sometimes aggressively, but more often apathetically. It happens more often than I like to think. Sadly for me, it’s happened in my own family.

SAINT MONICA BY BENOZZO GOZZOLI, 1464–65

  Lapsed and fallen away Catholics are not a modern phenomenon — the life of St. Monica teaches us that. Her son, Augustine, rejected the Faith she had taught him as a child and joined a peculiar pagan sect. Next Saturday, August 27, we celebrate the feast of St. Monica. She is the patron saint of patience and mothers. Her holiness in her life led to her husband’s and mother-in-law’s conversion, two children entering religious life, and her son Augustine becoming a Doctor of the Church.

Her continual prayer for her son and imploring others to pray on his behalf are part of his faith story detailed in St. Augustine’s Confessions. We, too, must sustain such persistent and patient prayer throughout our lifetime for all we love who are far from the Faith. 

.An excellent and helpful book was written a few years ago by Maggie Green, a pen name for a Catholic wife and mother who waits for some of her children to return to the Faith. It is entitled  Saint Monica Club: How to Wait, Hope, and Pray for Your Fallen-Away Loved Ones. I recommend it to all those who lament the lapsed Catholics in their family. 

   For those who join the “St. Monica Club” as a result of having people you love far from the Faith, Maggie Green recommends a few rules to follow with your involuntary membership.   First is to pray for them and to pray without ceasing. Call upon the intercession of the saints, enlist their guardian angels, ask the Holy Souls in Purgatory; ask the souls you’ve known who have died to pray that these prodigals may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

St. Augustine, fresco by Sandro Botticelli, 1480; in the Church of Ognissanti, Florence.

Take up fasting, make sacrifices, and make them a spiritual offering for your lapsed family member. St. Monica gave alms and offerings until told not to and made that obedience an offering. Surrendering some small comfort or pleasure is a way to mold and conform our will to God’s will.

Continue to love your prodigal children. Be with them at meals and special events, and pray in their presence whether they will or not. Always be fully present and authentically faithful when with them. Do not cease to put on Christ in their presence, but present the Lord in their presence by the love with which you welcome them. 

    Ask others to pray with you for them, even if they do not know the one you love is far from the Faith. Petitionary prayer is powerful. Each of us who prays for another is a person helping to reveal our trust that God hears our prayers and seeks to heal those we love beyond even what we ask. 

Be persistent! Members of the St. Monica Club understand that God uses all our lifetimes to court each soul and that no moment of prayer, love, sacrifice, or service is ever wasted. We should never feel discouraged because we know God longs for their company at the great wedding feast more than we do. 

Ary Scheffer: Saints Augustine and Monica 1795-1858

St. Monica saw her son St. Augustine convert fully into the Faith at 31. God is willing to wait a lifetime for our friendship and Faith. Our job while waiting with him is to pray for the grace to be present as needed to others and to keep from blocking anyone’s vision of Christ by our words, actions, silence, or inaction. We must always wait in joyful hope and loving witness.

Begin your prayer for fallen-away children today with this Prayer to St Monica:

“Exemplary Mother of the Great St. Augustine,  you perseveringly pursued your wayward son, not with wild threats but with prayerful cries to heaven. Intercede for all parents in our day so they may learn to draw their children to God. Teach them how to remain close to their children, even the prodigal sons, and daughters who have sadly gone astray. Amen.”

Be well. Stay safe. Do good. God Bless. Go Sox!!! St. Monica, pray for us! 

From "Dog Days" to School Days!

Dear Parishioners:                    

We've been living through some hot and humid weather these last weeks—the "Dog Days of Summer," as they are known. The phrase "Dog Days of Summer" might conjure up images of canines panting in the heat, but the origin of the phrase has to do with the stars.

Historians say the phrase dates back to the ancient Greeks and Romans, who would keep track of the seasons by looking up at the sky. The star Sirius was known as the "dog star" because it made up the nose of a constellation shaped like a dog. Near the end of July, when Sirius would appear in the sky just before the sun, it marked the beginning of the very hottest days of the year. The Romans referred to this period as "dies caniculares" or "days of the dog star," which was eventually translated as just "dog days."

Now that we've survived the "Dog Days of Summer," it is time to prepare for the upcoming school year! Yes, school is just fifteen days away!! OLM School and East Greenwich Public Schools begin the new school year on Wednesday, August 31. Where did the summer go?    

Our enrollment at OLM School has increased this year to over 240 students from last year's 220! It is always a great sign that many families are interested in our school. Most of our elementary grades (Pre-K thru 5) are full with a waitlist for admission. There is still room in our Middle School for more students, so spread the word!  

While we said farewell to some of our outstanding faculty members who retired this past June, we have hired excellent new faculty for Middle School Guidance, Math, History, and Theology. In addition, we have outstanding new Pre-K, Technology, and Music teachers.   The tradition of excellence continues at OLM School under the leadership of our School Principal, Patrick McNabb.   

In the coming weeks, you will be able to support the great work of forming the future saints and scholars of our church and world. Next weekend we kick off the Annual See You In September Raffle. The tickets are $100 a piece, and we will be giving away $10,000 in prizes! All of the proceeds of the raffle go directly to the Saints and Scholars Fund for OLM School.

Golfers enjoy the 2021 Saints and Scholars Open

Also, mark your calendar for the Annual Saints and Scholars Open at Quidnessett Country Club on Monday, September 26. This tournament is always a great event, with nearly 150 golfers gathering for a great day of golf in support of our budding saints and scholars. 

Sign-up online with a foursome or come alone, and we'll match you up with other golfers. If you cannot make it, we always need sponsors for Tee Signs!

Our resident golfer in the Rectory, Fr. Mahoney, is very determined to win it all and has been practicing all summer.  We'll need some competitive golfers to see if they can beat him and his team! Rumors are that he has a ringer coming!!   Rory McIlroy, perhaps??!!

And, of course, the coming school year means we are now taking registrations for our Religious Education Program. Over the last couple of years, we have had to modify the program due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.  

This year we have changed the schedule with the restoration of Sunday morning class for the elementary students (Grades 1-4) and Sunday evening class for middle school (Grades 5-8). The classes are returning to the OLM School as they were before the Pandemic. I urge all families with chidden in non-Catholic schools to register today.  

Sisters of Mercy at OLM First Avenue Convent circa 1950s.

Our parish school and Religious Education Program are vital to our mission of Catholic Education and the well-begin of our parish family.   The goal of this mission is simple:  to form saints for life in this world and next!   We build upon the great witness and tradition first begun in our parish when Fr. Patrick Lenihan arrived in East Greenwich in 1853. He purchased a small house that served as a rectory, a church, and a school!  And while our parish has grown in size and space over these last 170 years, the mission remains the same.   

Catholic Education of our children is not about being "socially useful" and instilling "good values" but about making saints and growing the seeds of virtue and truth. Anything less cheats our students of their dignity. So pray for the families and students of our parish school and religious education program.

Be well. Stay safe. Do good. God Bless. Go Sox!!! 

Giving Thanks For God's Many Blessings!

Dear Parishioners:                    

On Monday, August 1, I marked my tenth anniversary as Pastor of Our Lady of Mercy Church. It's incredible to realize that I've been here a decade! I am most grateful to Bishop Tobin, who assigned me to this wonderful parish, and certainly grateful to God for the blessing of serving here at OLM.             

  I am most thankful for the fine priests I have served with these last ten years, Fr. Shemek, Fr. Connors, Fr. Barrow, and now Fr. Mahoney. Each of them has been a blessing in my life and a true joy to serve and live with at OLM. I also thank Bishop Evans, our neighbor here at OLM, for his joyful fraternity and faithful witness to the priestly ministry. 

 I am certainly grateful for the outstanding staff at OLM who are so dedicated to this parish. Our excellent OLM maintenance staff keep God's house clean and beautiful, fix the broken things that continually arise, and are always willing to lend a hand to any project. We are blessed to have such an excellent Religious Education Program led by Mickey St. Jean and Doug Green. I am grateful to our OLM Business Manager, Dave Cote, and Parish Secretary, Sandra Demers, who help me administer to the parish. I am thankful to our Music Director, Henri St. Louis, for his tremendous talent and music. Of course, our good Sisters who faithfully and humbly serve the parish are a true joy! 

We are blessed to have an excellent parish school. Our outstanding Principal, Patrick McNabb, continues the fine tradition of former principals, Sister Jeanne Barry, RSM, and Scott Fuller. We have an excellent and dedicated faculty, wonderful students, and supportive parents who make it an academically excellent, lovingly nurturing, and truly Catholic school where students strive to be saints and scholars.

And, of course, I am truly blessed to serve you, the good people of OLM, who continue to inspire me with your deep faith, joyful hope, and generous charity. I am humbled daily by the example of many parishioners who faithfully know, love, and serve God and neighbor. 

 Much has changed over a decade. There have been three different Presidents and three Governors, each truly unique!! We've had a Pope retire and elected the first Jesuit Pope from South America. And at the parish, while things do change much remains the same.

We've happily celebrated hundreds of Baptisms, Communions, Confirmations, and Weddings. For a decade, I've had the great privilege to celebrate Holy Mass for this faith-filled community as we worship and joyfully praise Almighty God, Sunday after Sunday, during blizzards, heatwaves, and even pandemics!

Sadly we've had hundreds of funerals over the decade, including for young parishioners, taken too soon, and tragically. But we've also celebrated funerals for faithful parishioners who led long lives dedicated to their God, faith,  family, and parish. I've also had the great joy and privilege of anointing those facing the trials of sickness and those preparing for their eternal reward.  And at this parish dedicated to mercy, I've had the remarkable privilege to offer God's forgiveness in the Confessional. For ten years, hundreds of people have sought out God's mercy as they humbly confess their sins and receive the grace of the Sacrament. 

As I reflect upon ten happy and joyful years serving as Pastor of OLM, I am reminded of the poem entitled "A Priest" by the French Dominican Father Henri Lacordaire, one of the greatest preachers of the nineteenth century. It reads:

"To live in the midst of the world without wishing its pleasures; To be a member of each family, yet belonging to none; To share all suffering;  to penetrate all secrets; To heal all wounds; to go from men to God and offer Him their prayers;  To return from God to men to bring pardon and hope; To have a heart of fire for Charity, and a heart of bronze for Chastity To teach and to pardon, console and bless always. My God, what a life; and it is yours, O priest of Jesus Christ."

 I give thanks to God for my pastorate at Our Lady of Mercy and pledge my continued prayers for you and your families.  Please pray for me.  Our Lady of Mercy, pray for us! Be well. Stay safe. Do good. God Bless. Go Sox!!! 

Are You Missing the Joy of Holy Mass?

Dear Parishioners:                    

Pope Francis greets people after Mass.

Pope Francis has said: "We can rightly say that the family is 'like one of the family' at Mass because it brings to the Eucharist its own experience of togetherness and opens it to the grace of universal togetherness, of God's love for the world. In participating at Mass, the family is purified from the temptation to turn in on itself, fortified in love and fidelity, and extends the reach of its fraternity according to the heart of Christ."

One thing missing from our parish following the pandemic is many of our parish families participating in weekly Sunday Mass. While the pandemic and its many restrictions have ended and schools, restaurants, sports programs, travel, and shopping have all returned to the pre-pandemic normality, many of our OLM families have chosen not to return to regularly attending Holy Mass on Sundays. 

The self-imposed exile of many families from Holy Mass is truly a sad circumstance here at OLM and in most parishes across the country. The pre-pandemic practice of attending Sunday Mass seems to have disappeared from the calendar of many Catholics. It is important to remember that the Eucharist is the source and summit of our Catholic Faith and, therefore, must be the center of our lives.     

St. John Vianney, Cure d’Ars and Patron Saint of Parish Priests

St. John Vianney, whose feast we celebrate this week on Thursday, August 4, faced a similar situation in the 19th Century. In 1818, he was appointed parish priest of the town of Ars. This assignment opened his eyes to the sordid state of the community of 230 people.

The spirit of the French Revolution had made many people ignorant and indifferent toward their Catholic Faith. They turned to indulging in vice rather than seeking to lead lives of virtue. Drunkenness and debauchery in local taverns rather than attending Mass was the new Sunday routine for many local townspeople. 

During his assignment in Ars, St. John Vianney strived to transform his town spiritually. He preached against sin and vice. He dedicated himself to teaching the children the Catholic Faith. He vehemently preached against blasphemy and paganism, even refusing to give absolution to parishioners who did not change their ways. It took St. John Vianney 10 years to bring spiritual renewal to the Town of Ars.

His prayer, zeal, and perseverance resulted in greater attendance at Sunday Mass and people turning away from their vices. Sunday Mass became the week's highlight in the townspeople's life.

The town of Ars began to draw pilgrims who sought St. John Vianney's spiritual advice. By 1855, about 20,000 people would visit him, seeking his counsel. In the last ten years of his life, he would spend 16 to 18 hours per day in the confessional hearing confessions.

  On August 4, 1859, the saintly parish priest of Ars died at 73. More than 6,000 people and 300 priests attended his Funeral Mass.  St. John Vianney was canonized in 1925 by Pope Pius XI and was made the patron saint of parish priests. 

As a result of the French Revolution, St John Vianney had received little formal education. Early on, he felt called to the priesthood but struggled in school. While in seminary, he needed private tutoring to supplement his lack of formal education. He was an academically poor student yet he would become world-renowned and declared the patron Saint of Parish Priests. His life and priestly ministry teach many lessons about faith and perseverance.

Ignorance and misunderstanding of the Catholic Faith and apathy and indifference toward religion, coupled with a love for material comfort and personal pleasure, seem to be common signs of our times. Such indifference and misunderstanding were also true in the early 19th Century in a small town in France.     So let us turn to Saint John Vianney to inspire and intercede for us. May he lead us to be more zealous in the practice of our Faith and make Sunday Mass the center of life for every parishioner at OLM. Let's put Sunday Mass back on the schedule and make it the highlight of our week.

As St. John Vianney once said: "If we truly understood the Mass, we would die of joy." 

 Be well. Stay safe. Do good. God Bless. Go Sox!!! 

A Mission to Build a Culture of Life & Civilization of Love

Dear Parishioners:                    

Missionhurst Priests baptizing in the Missions.

Unfortunately, the priest from the Missionhurst Missions who was scheduled to be with us last weekend canceled due to unforeseen circumstances. No replacement was available from the Missionhurst Missionaries. However, in their name, I thank you for your generous support of last weekend's Second Collection in support of the Missionhurst Missionaries.  

Each year every parish in the Diocese of Providence hosts a Missionary to learn more about their work and to offer our financial assistance. Even today, we remain a Missionary Church as the Gospel is preached in remote areas among peoples who know little of Christ and his Catholic Church. Pope Francis has stated:

"Would that all of us in the Church were what we already are by virtue of baptism: prophets, witnesses, missionaries of the Lord, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to the ends of the earth!"      

Last week I was in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to attend the Annual Summer Meeting of the National Association of State Catholic Conference Directors (NASCCD). There were almost forty state directors in attendance from across the country. It is a meeting at which we receive updates from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishop's staff on Federal legislation and actions by the Biden Administration.  

Pro-Lifers react to the Supreme Court Dobbs Decision.

At the meeting, a young Dominican Friar, Fr. Henry Stephan, OP, a Sorin Fellow at the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture at Notre Dame University, offered an excellent presentation entitled "Citizenship in the City of God and the City of Man." It was a great and very timely reflection. 

We also had experts speak to us about the issues of concern to the Church, which we all advocate at local state houses. A panel of legal scholars discussed the recent U.S. Supreme Court Dobbs Decision on abortion.

Now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned, abortion has become a state issue primarily. Sadly many states, including ours, have codified Roe v. Wade in state law. Like Rhode Island, many states allow abortion on demand without any limit. This extreme position allows for the killing of unborn children up until birth. Such a policy mirrors the extreme abortion policies of China and North Korea.

The militant response to the Dobbs Decision by radical abortion extremists and their political allies is to expand access to abortion on demand by allowing the killing of the innocent unborn up until birth. They also demand public funding for this evil with tax dollars. Such a radical policy far exceeds nearly every country in Western Europe.

In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal entitled "A Catholic's Duty in Post-Roe America," Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City recalled the words of the late John Cardinal O'Connor of New York, 'If you are pregnant and in need, come to the Catholic Church."

While the reversal of Roe v. Wade is necessary for ending abortion and promoting the sanctity of life, as Catholics, we must also build a culture of life in myriad ways. As Archbishop Coakley stated:

 "By virtue of our baptism, we are called to see Christ in every human life and to work and pray for a society in which laws reflect the inherent dignity of the human person. This commitment requires us to create alternatives to abortion and ultimately to make it unthinkable. The end of Roe challenges us anew to open our hearts, and our doors, to mothers and children in need —to what Pope Francis called 'he highest form of love, and of fatherhood and motherhood.'" 

Our response must be to continue praying for more respect for life, especially for expectant mothers and their unborn children, continue advocating for life and supporting candidates who respect the right to life, and continue supporting expectant mothers and children living in poverty or crisis with Catholic Charity efforts like Gabriel's Call. Our duty as Catholics is to build a culture of life that counters the radical abortion extremists and their allies with our love and support of life.

The Fonzi Statue in downtown Milwaukee.

Unfortunately, the All-Star break meant the Brewers were not playing, and I had no chance to attend a baseball game at the new American Family Field! While Milwaukee is an interesting city to explore, it's good to be home!

Be well. Stay safe. Do good. God Bless. Go Sox!!!