Renewing Our Belief in the Real Presence

Dear Parishioners:                                

The Dedication Ceremony for the newly refurbished Stephen P. Lynch, Sr Field.

The Peragallo Organ Company was here for three days last week. They installed the seven newly refurbished and restored reservoir bellows and winker bellows. The organ is fully operational, and its majestic sound lifts our worship of God. The total cost for this project was $53,360.                                     

Our school had a beautiful Opening Mass of the Holy Spirit last Friday. Coming together as a school family at Mass is the best way to start the school year. I thank Bishop Evans for celebrating the Mass and blessing the Stephen P. Lynch, Sr. Field.

OLM School has weekly Mass on Tuesday mornings and First Friday and Holy Day Masses throughout the year. It is a true blessing of a Catholic School that the Eucharistic Lord is the center of our day and week. The centrality of Holy Mass in the life of our school is the best way we can educate our young saints and scholars for eternity.        

A recent Pew Forum survey revealed that 69% of Catholics do not believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. For most Catholics today, the Eucharist is merely a symbol of Christ, and the Mass is merely a group of like-minded individuals gathering together to remember his life.   This is a spiritual disaster, for the Eucharist is "the source and summit of the Christian life." The United States Bishops began the National Eucharistic Revival to renew the faith and revive the proper understanding of the Eucharist.       

Opening OLM School Mass, September 1, 2023.

We are blessed to have Daily Mass six days a week, four Sunday Masses weekly, Eucharistic Adoration monthly, and two priests at OLM. Many parishes do not enjoy such blessings due to the shortage of priests.       

 Jesus gives himself to us in the Eucharist as spiritual nourishment because he loves us. By eating the Body and drinking the Blood of Christ in the Eucharist, we become united to the person of Christ through his humanity. In being united to Christ's humanity, we are simultaneously united to his divinity. The transformed bread and wine are truly the Body and Blood of Christ and are not merely symbols. When Christ said, "This is my body" and "This is my blood," the bread and wine are transubstantiated. Though the bread and wine appear the same to our human faculties, they are actually the real Body and blood of Jesus.

There is a line in Evelyn Waugh's great novel, Brideshead Revisited, which speaks to the very truth of who we must be as a parish. The Matriarch, Lady Marchmain, had just been laid to rest in the family cemetery, and the grand house was being closed. The local parish priest took the Blessed Sacrament away from the house chapel to bring it to the parish church. Lady Marchmain's daughter, watching the Blessed Sacrament being taken from the small chapel, commented, "I stayed there till he was gone, and then, suddenly, there wasn't any chapel anymore, just an oddly decorated room."

 No truer words communicate that Christ, the Eucharistic Lord, is truly present in the Tabernacle. Thus, the Eucharistic Lord must be the center of our life as a parish. Without the worship of God at Holy Mass and the presence of Christ in the Tabernacle, the Church itself would indeed be an odd place.   

Next weekend, we can express our gratitude and support for the many priests who served faithfully at OLM and other parishes across the Diocese. The Second Collection is for the Senior Priests Retirement Fund. Today, 89 of our retired priests receive a modest pension. Unlike Religious Order priests, who are provided for in every way by their Order, diocesan priests lose benefits such as room and board, car insurance, and salary. Many retired priests are busy, sometimes assisting at multiple parishes.    

 Our retired priests are an integral part of the ongoing work of our parishes in the Diocese, especially with the increasing shortage of priests. While many remain active by helping at two or more parishes, some priests in nursing homes and assisted living need even more support and assistance. In their name, thank you for supporting next week's Senior Priests' Retirement Fund Collection. Full disclosure: I am not eligible for the pension until 2040, and Fr. Mahoney until 2063!      

Do good. Be well. God Bless. Go Pats!!!!!!

Summer's End on Labor Day! Offering Thanks & Prayer

Dear Parishioners:                                 

We celebrate Labor Day this weekend. It provides an opportunity to thank God for the gift of work, which ‘anoints’ us with dignity, and to ask for God’s assistance in providing our nation and world with work for all that is decent and fair. It is also an opportunity to pray for those who must work in jobs that ignore their dignity and those who’ve lost their jobs and are seeking work now.

So, let us thank God for our work and the dignity it provides. St. Mother Teresa said: “There is always the danger that we may just do the work for the sake of the work. This is where the respect, love, and devotion come in – that we do it to God and Christ, and that’s why we try to do it as beautifully as possible.”     

Fall officially begins on September 23, so it is still summer. However, Labor Day traditionally marks the unofficial end of the summer! Children are back in school, college students have returned to university, beach homes are closed up, and the lazy, hazy summer days come to a close. As Shakespeare wrote: “Summer’s lease hath all too short a date.”

Last Monday, Fr. Mahoney, Fr. Connors, and I attended the Annual Summer Gathering for Priests at the Aldrich Mansion in Warwick Neck. There was a large turnout of priests from the Diocese gathered together to pray and socialize. Bishop Henning led us in prayer, and the newly ordained Father Patrick Ryan offered a reflection. He did an outstanding job. Preaching to priests is difficult, especially if you’ve only been one for two months!

It was a wonderful opportunity for us priests to get together and socialize with one another. Even though we all live near, considering the size of our state, the reality is that we often don’t get to see each other on social occasions. Usually, it’s wakes and funerals!

Our culture has become more isolationist, and priests are not immune from its effects. The pandemic did not help the situation. As a society, we seem to be growing apart and becoming more polarized — this is evident in our Church and national politics. This is true for priests as well. 

 These occasions of priestly fraternity create natural bonds and provide opportunities for discussion and support. Priestly fraternity provides time for friendly conversation as we share our common goal, the salvation of souls. Certainly, we all need this, but priests especially need to frequently engage in constructive, friendly, and supportive conversation and priestly fraternity.

Here at Our Lady of Mercy, we try to provide such opportunities. Once a month, we have a Recollection for Priests led by Father David Cavanagh, a Priest of Opus Dei. It is a time for priests in the area to come together for prayer, Eucharistic Adoration, Confession, and Spiritual Reflection. Afterward, we gather for conversation and lunch in the Rectory.

Please pray for priests. All priests need your prayers and support so that they may be the holy men of strength, character, and wisdom that God has called for them to be. This beautiful Prayer for Priests is by St. Therese of Lisieux. Please offer it for priests.

  “O Jesus, eternal Priest, keep your priests within the shelter of Your Sacred Heart, where none may touch them. Keep unstained their anointed hands, which daily touch Your Sacred Body. Keep unsullied their lips, daily purpled with your Precious Blood. Keep pure and unearthly their hearts sealed with the sublime mark of the priesthood.

  Let Your holy love surround them and shield them from the world’s contagion. Bless their labors with abundant fruit, and may the souls to whom they minister be their joy and consolation here and in heaven, their beautiful and everlasting crown. Amen.”

At a recent summer gathering, Pope Francis spoke with the priests of Rome. He said:  

“At the heart of our life is not the frenzy of activity, but remaining in the Lord to bear fruit. He is our refreshment. His grace allows us to go ahead in our apostolic work, to bear failures and setbacks, to rejoice with simplicity of heart, to always start again and begin again. Indeed, our necessary ‘recharging moments’ occur not only when we rest physically and spiritually but also when we open ourselves to the fraternal encounters that  prevent us from feeling alone in the face of the challenges of the ministry.”   

Pray for priests! Do good. Be well. God Bless.

Educating Saints and Scholars for Eternity

Dear Parishioners:                               

This Wednesday is the First Day of School at OLM School. The summer is ending for our faculty, students, and their families. It’s again back to class, homework, tests, and quizzes! Pray for them all as they begin a new school year. We will pray for them at the Opening Mass of the Holy Spirit this Friday at 9:00 am.            Bishop Evans will celebrate the Mass as we call upon the Holy Spirit to guide and protect our school faculty and students. Following the Mass, we will dedicate the new field at school.   

We are most grateful to David and Trisha Lynch and their family for their generous donation that made the project possible. The beautiful new grass is looking good and ready for recess and gym class! The field will be named in honor of the late Stephen P. Lynch, Sr., the grandfather of five OLM School students.     Mr. Lynch was an outstanding Catholic husband, father, and grandfather who generously supported Catholic Education, especially Our Lady of Mercy School. Bishop Evans will dedicate and bless the field following the Mass. Please join us for this celebration of Catholic Education.   

First Day of School at OLM!

Our faculty will make their Annual Retreat on Monday at the Christian Brothers Center in Narragansett. Our retreat is led by Father Matthew Norwood from the Archdiocese of Boston. He is a graduate of St. John Seminary in Boston. He serves as an Associate Pastor at two parishes in Hingham. Please pray for him and our faculty as they make their retreat.   

The theme of the retreat is “Educating for Eternity.” It is also the title of a book that was the summer reading for our faculty. Written by Dr. Brett Salkeld, Ph.D., a lay theologian for the Archdiocese of Regina, Canada.       In Educating for Eternity: A Teacher’s Companion for Making Every Class Catholic, Dr. Salkeld maintains that providing an authentically Catholic education does not require revolutionary or expensive initiatives in pedagogy or infrastructure. It requires only three things: faith, the ability to see the world—and all academic subjects—through the lens of faith, and a desire to pass the faith onto the next generation. Thus, the mission of all Catholic Education is to prepare every student for eternity. In other words, to get them into heaven!

This is what we strive to do at OLM School every day. Our students do it by striving to be scholars and, more importantly, saints!   So please join us in praying for our outstanding school faculty and students at Mass this Friday. May the Holy Spirit guide and protect all returning students and teachers!    

David DelBonis running track at Bishop Hendricken High School.

It gives me great joy to announce that one of our parishioners has entered Our Lady of Providence Seminary for formation and studies for the priesthood. David DelBonis, a long-time Altar Server, was accepted to the seminary by Bishop Henning.   David graduated from Bishop Hendricken High School as an All-State Track Star. He attended St. Joseph University in Philadelphia and URI. David will now reside at the seminary on Mt. Pleasant Avenue in Providence and attend Providence College to study philosophy.     He is the son of Richard and Mary Ann, and his older brother John serves in the U.S. Army. We congratulate him on his decision to discern a vocation to the priesthood and acceptance into the seminary. Pray for him and his vocation as he begins his seminary formation and philosophical studies.    

Three priests are native sons of OLM and graduates of our parish school. Fr. Luke (Tom Truhan), O.C.S.O., a Cistercian Monk at St. Joseph Abbey in Spencer, MA, Dominican Friar, Fr. Francis Belanger, OP, who serves at St. Vincent Ferrer Church in New York City, and Fr. Brian Morris,  Chaplain at Bishop Hendricken and Pastor of St. Anthony and Christ the King Parishes in West Warwick. Pray for them.

Pope Francis has said: “A priestly vocation, more than our own choice, is a response to the Lord’s unmerited call.” Pray for all our seminarians and priests. May they persevere, and may God bless our Diocese with more priestly vocations.    I thank all those who generously supported the Back to School Drive for St. Patrick Academy with school supplies and financial donations. Your support and generosity is truly appreciated.

Do good. Be well. God Bless. 

Finding Signs of Hope

Dear Parishioners:                   

Father Patrick Ryan celebrates Mass at OLM.

It was a beautiful Mass of Thanksgiving celebrated by Father Patrick Ryan last Sunday. What a great joy to celebrate the ordination of this fine young priest and also the graces received by his First Priestly Blessings. As the poem entitled The Beautiful Hands of a Priest reminds us:  

            "We need them in life's early morning; we need them again at its close; We feel their warm clasp of friendship; we seek them when tasting life's woes. At the altar each day, we behold them, and the hands of a king on his throne are not equal to them in their greatness; their dignity stands all alone, and when we are tempted and wander to pathways of shame and sin, it's the hand of a priest that will absolve us----not once, but again and again. And when we take life's partner, other hands may prepare us a feast, but the hand that will bless and unite us is the beautiful hand of a priest. God bless them and keep them all holy. For the Host which their fingers caress; When can a poor sinner do better than to ask Him to guide thee and bless? When the hour of death comes upon us, may our courage and strength be increased. By seeing raised over us in anointing the beautiful hands of a priest!"     

We thank Fr. Ryan for celebrating with us last Sunday. And I also thank all those who helped with the Mass and reception. May God continue to bless Father Ryan and his priesthood. Let us continue to pray for him and for an increase of vocations to the priesthood in the Diocese of Providence.

Next Sunday, we will welcome our new OLM School Families at the 10:30 am Mass. Yes, I know it's hard to believe, but the first day of school is near. In fact, it's Wednesday, August 30th!! We welcome and thank these new families who have chosen to make the sacrifice to send their children to our outstanding parish school.

OLM Students at weekly Mass

We anticipate about 240 students enrolled in the school, and we have a waitlist in most of our classes. Our Middle School (Grades 6-8) has some room, so I encourage families with middle schoolers to consider OLM School. It offers strong and rigorous academics along with outstanding arts and athletics. But most importantly, for Catholics living in a culture replete with moral confusion, the teaching of falsehoods about human life and love, and a growing secular humanism, OLM School is countercultural.

Her core mission is to instill moral goodness and virtuous living, civility, and discipline, and nurture a respect for human dignity, the sanctity of human life, God, and country. We teach the beauty of Western Civilization and the truth of our Catholic Faith to our budding saints and scholars as we educate them for eternity. 

 I thank our dedicated School Principal, Mr. Patrick McNabb, and fantastic faculty and staff for making our school outstanding. Please pray for them and all our school students and families. We look forward to welcoming our new families and beginning another excellent school year of growing in wisdom, faith, and mercy.

Last week we watched with shock the tragic wildfire in Hawaii. Seeing people flee into the ocean to escape the raging fire was truly horrific. The fire burned the historic town of Lahaina to the ground, many people were killed, and thousands were evacuated. Most residents lost everything they own and are now living in temporary shelters.

Fire rages in Maui, Hawaii.

 However, one building survived the devastating fire, the Maria Lanakila Catholic Church. Parishioners are calling it a miracle and a sign that Lahaina will rebuild. The parish was founded in 1846 when the first Catholic missionaries arrived in Maui. 'Maria Lanakila' is a Hawaiian phrase that translates to 'Victorious Mary' or 'Our Lady of Victory" in English. Let us pray to Our Lady of Victory for all those suffering from the fires.

Catholic Charities Hawaii is appealing to Catholics for financial support to help them meet the needs for housing, food, and shelter of the many victims. You can make donations directly to Catholic Charities Hawaii at catholiccharitieshawaii.org/maui-relief/. 

Also, you can donate directly to OLM Outreach, and we will forward all donations. Make a check payable to OLM Outreach, write "Maui Relief" in the memo, and drop it in the basket, the safe in the vestibule, or the mail. Thank you for your prayers and generous support of the victims of the Hawaiian Fire.

Do good. Be well. God Bless. 

War & Peace, Still a Concern for Catholics

   Dear Parishioners:                    

The Fat Man Atomic Bomb.

The new movie, "Oppenheimer," has sparked greater interest in a moral examination of U.S. nuclear weapons policies, especially the suffering and death the August 1945 atomic bombs caused in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  A danger of modern warfare is that it allows those who possess modern scientific weapons—especially nuclear, atomic, biological, or chemical weapons—to commit war crimes. We have seen this happen in Syria. Both North Korea and Russia have threatened to use nuclear weapons.

 Under the Catholic understanding of just war, not only must the cause of war be just, but the acts of war used in combat must also be just. Using weapons to destroy civilian populations, such as the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, is an unjust act of war. Terrorizing the civilian populations to force surrender was part of the U.S. strategy in dropping the atomic bomb in Japan. It is considered an unjust act of war. It is very problematic for  Catholics to try to justify the U.S. decision.   

 In dropping the atomic bombs on Japan, the second atomic attack was a near-direct hit on Asia's largest cathedral in Japan's renowned Catholic settlement, Urakami. It was a residential district of Nagasaki located significantly north of the city's commercial center and shipyard. 

The ruins of Catholic Cathedral in Nagasaki

Nagasaki and the Catholic Church have deep historical roots. St. Francis Xavier arrived in the West of Japan in the 1540s and traveled through Nagasaki. A Japanese lord donated land in the area to Jesuit missionaries from Portugal in 1580. The Catholic Faith spread so quickly that it was outlawed as a threat to local rulers. Twenty-six martyrs were crucified in the city's hills in 1597. Nagasaki, the only port continuously open to foreign trade, was a stronghold of secret faith during Japan's two-hundred-fifty-year suppression of the faith.

The atomic bomb, "Fat Man," detonated over Urakami, killing 40,000 people instantly and another 40,000 by the end of the year. It decimated 70 percent of the Catholic community, many descendants of the Kakure Kirishitans, the "Hidden Christians," who concealed their Catholic faith in fear of persecution.

Offering Mass at the ruins of the Catholic Cathedral in Naga ski.

Dr. Takashi Nagai, a Catholic lay leader in Nagasaki known as "the Saint of Urakami," wrote "The Bells of Nagasaki.'" It vividly describes his experiences as a survivor of the bombing. The title refers to the bells of Urakami Cathedral. At the destroyed Cathedral, Dr. Nagai called the bombing an act of divine providence: the sacrifice of innocent blood atoned for the sins of a world at war. This reassured Christian survivors of the bombing but also had a silencing effect—reinforcing the self-suppression of the faith they practiced for 250 years.

Tomorrow is V.J. Day which commemorates the surrender of Japan and the end of the Second World War. My late Father was a World War II combat veteran who served in Italy and always observed this holiday. He told me that as the Second World War in Europe ended, he believed that he and his comrades in arms would have to invade Japan. Such an invasion never happened because President Truman decided to drop the atomic bombs, which led to the Japanese surrender.

Saint Maximillian Kolbe

Tomorrow is also the Feast of St. Maximillian Kolbe, known as "the Saint of Auschwitz." He was a Polish Franciscan Friar who the Nazis took prisoner. He was killed in Auschwitz after volunteering to replace another man, one of ten condemned to die in the starvation bunker as punishment for a presumed escape. In the 1930s, St. Maximilian Kolbe lived and worked as a missionary in Japan and founded a monastery on the outskirts of Nagasaki. Four years after his martyrdom, on August 9, 1945, the atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, but the monastery the saint founded miraculously survived. 

  Pope St. John Paul II declared him "a martyr of charity" who represents light in the darkness of the evil of World War II and hope amidst the despair of the Holocaust and other unjust war crimes. Come to Mass on VJ Day and pray for the intercession of St. Maximillian Kolbe. May he inspire world leaders to work to end all wars, reduce nuclear weapons and strive to establish a just and lasting peace among all nations and peoples.  

  Do good. Be well. God Bless. Go, Sox!!     

Transfiguring Our Lives to Christ

Dear Parishioners:                   

The Transfiguration by Raphael (1516)

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord as Sunday falls on August 6. Normally we don't get to celebrate this important feast on Sundays, only during the week at Daily Mass. The Feast of the Transfiguration foretells the glory of the Lord as God and his Ascension into heaven. It anticipates the glory of heaven, where we shall see God face to face. Through grace, we already share in the divine promise of eternal life.

In the Transfiguration, Christ enjoyed for a short while that glorified state, which was to be permanent his after His Resurrection on Easter Sunday. The splendor of His inward Divinity and the Beatific Vision of His soul overflowed on His body. It permeated His garments, so Christ stood before Peter, James, and John in a snow-white light.  

 The purpose of the Transfiguration was to encourage and strengthen the Apostles who were depressed by their Master's prediction of His own Passion and Death. The Apostles were made to understand that His redeeming work has two phases: the Cross and Glory—that we shall be glorified with Him only if we first suffer with Him.  

Pope Benedict XVI preached on the Transfiguration and said: "Today at Mass, we recall the Transfiguration of the Lord and how it prepared the Apostles for the coming scandal of the Cross. Strengthened by our faith in Jesus, true God, and true man, may we be inspired, not scandalized, by the Cross given to our Savior and to our fellow Christians who suffer with him throughout the world." 

As we reflect upon Pope Benedict's words, let us consider the plight of those who suffer from want of food, shelter, security, education, healthcare, and so many material things we take for granted. Let us pray for them and all who suffer from poverty, injustice, famine, war, violence, hatred, terrorism, oppression, grief, sickness, and addiction.

Students at play at St. Patrick Academy in Providence, RI.

This week I spoke with my classmate Fr. James Ruggeri, the Pastor of St. Patrick Parish in Smith Hill and St. Michael Parish in South Providence. He asked if OLM would help him collect back-to-school supplies for his St. Patrick Academy students. In 2009, Fr. James transformed the old St. Patrick Elementary School into an affordable Catholic High School for low-income students.

The school serves those students who desire a good and solid Catholic, college-preparatory high school education but cannot enroll in any other area Catholic high school for financial or other reasons. There is no set tuition, and families pay only what they can afford to pay. No student is ever turned away because the family cannot afford tuition.

The St. Patrick Academy students are from diverse backgrounds, and many are first-generation immigrants from Africa, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Colombia, Guatemala, Bolivia, Venezuela, Mexico, and the Caribbean. The Academy has a 100% college acceptance rate!   

 Over the next few weeks, please deposit your donations in the blue bins in the vestibule. A complete list of needed supplies is in the bulletin today. We have plenty of backpacks, so please donate only the needed supplies. If you would rather donate with financial assistance, please make a check payable to OLM Outreach and write "Back to School Drive" in the memo. In the name of Fr. James and the students of St. Patrick Academy, I thank you for your generosity and support of this effort.    

Fr. Patrick Ryan poses with Fr. Healey and Fr. Ruggeri following his ordination at the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul in Providence on June 24, 2023. Fr. Healey and Fr. Ruggeri were also ordained on June 24, 1995.

Next Sunday, join us as we welcome Fr. Patrick Ryan to OLM. He will celebrate and preach at the 10:30 am Mass. Father was ordained this past June by Bishop Henning. He currently serves at St. Theresa Church in Pawtucket with Fr. Barrow. Father returns to Rome in the fall to complete his graduate theological studies. He returns to RI for a parish assignment next June.   

After his Mass of Thanksgiving, come congratulate Father at the reception in Mercy Park, where he is to offer his First Priestly Blessings. Pray for Father Ryan and all priests and for an increase of vocations to the priesthood. The new grass on our OLM School Field is growing nicely. We thank all who made it possible especially Yardworks for their fine job and Paul Anderson, who ensures the grass continues to grow and stay green! And no, as I had to tell  Fr. Mahoney, you can't hit golf balls on the new grass.  Do good. Be well. God Bless. Go Sox!