Rejoice & Be Glad with Gratitude!

Dear Parishioners:                    

              "This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad," the Psalmist sings on Easter Sunday. And indeed, in this Easter Season, we continue "to rejoice and be glad!" For there is much good news of great rejoicing at OLM.                                

At the Easter Vigil, we celebrated the Light of Christ, defeating the darkness of sin and death. We rejoiced in the waters of new life as five people were baptized and received into the Church. And so we rightly rejoice with and for them, as they enter the Church and take up the Catholic Faith. Please pray that their Faith grows and bears fruit as they celebrate their rebirth in Christ this Easter Season.

We rejoice, too, at our celebration of Holy Week. It was a solemn celebration of Faith as we recalled our Lord and Savior's Passion, Death, and Resurrection. Of course, such glorious liturgical celebrations require many people's hard work and dedication. We rightly thank all those who helped to prepare and make Holy Week and Easter so special at OLM.

We thank Paul Anderson and our dedicated maintenance crew for their tireless cleaning, preparing, setting up, and taking down everything involved in Holy Week. The Church and grounds were cleaned and ready to properly celebrate the mysteries of our Faith.

We also thank our good Franciscan Sisters, led by Sister Lourdes and her band of sacristans. Their humble devotion and faithful dedication to ensuring everything is pressed, polished, cleaned, and ready for Holy Week Liturgies deserve our deep gratitude. The decorators deserve our praise and thanks for making the Church beautiful for all the liturgies. Their hard work and devotion result in the beauty of Easter with all the flowers and plants that decorate our Church. We thank them for all they do.

The music for Holy Week, Easter, and all of Lent was magnificent. We must thank our Music Director, Henri St. Louis, our soloist, Christiana Caprarelli, and our OLM Choir for the beautiful music that always lifts us to God. As St. Augustine said: "When we sing, we pray twice!" All these talented people helped us pray twice, and we are grateful.

We thank all our Lectors for joyfully proclaiming God's Word and our Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion for helping us with the large crowds at Easter Masses. We are grateful to those Ministers who brought Communion to our many shut-ins. Our ushers did a superb job ensuring everyone could find a seat, as the crowds on Easter Sunday were thankfully very large!

And finally, we thank our many OLM Altar Servers for their exemplary service. They dutifully and reverently served God at his Sacred Altar with great devotion and dedication. We must also thank our Master of Ceremonies, Erik Carlson, Seminarian David Del Bonis, and Luke Simms, who returned from university, for their faithful service during Holy Week and Easter.

On behalf of Father Mahoney, Father Connors, and myself, we thank you, OLM's good and faithful parishioners, for your steadfast devotion during Lent and Holy Week. Your witness to the Faith is truly heartening and encouraging. We also thank the many parishioners who were so generous to us at Easter. Your well wishes, gifts, and delicious goodies are deeply appreciated, and we thank you. Your support of our priestly ministry calls us to "rejoice and be glad!" 

In an Easter op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, "Why Pews Are Packed on Easter Sunday," Timothy Cardinal Dolan, the Archbishop of New York, wrote:

"As in a gathering of kin, congregating with one's spiritual family—people with whom one has a deep instant connection—is liberating and fulfilling. There are very few social gatherings where ordinary people can enter and not sense critical eyes sizing them up, assessing their status, and guessing their motives. There are even fewer where every participant sings, recites creeds, and listens to ancient wisdom in a spirit of humility and love. At its best, Christian worship is such a setting. And when Christians worship at their best, their wandering brothers and sisters tend to come home."

We worshiped and prayed at our best during this Holy Week at OLM, so we rightly rejoice and are glad. Blessings for a Happy Easter Season! Be well. Do good. God Bless. 

"Alleluia, He has risen as He said, Alleluia! Alleluia!"

Dear Parishioners:                   

Happy Easter! Alleluia, He has Risen! Today, we celebrate the center and core of our Christian faith, the Resurrection! For our faith is a Resurrection Faith. We rejoice today, for the Risen Christ, having conquered sin and death, remains with us across the ages.     The Lord's Easter gift to the Church and the world is the gift of hope. Because the Risen Christ remains with us personally and collectively, we never face life's challenges alone. Christian hope teaches us that we are destined for eternal life, and hope is meant to sustain us in the concrete realities we face each day.

As we celebrate this Easter, no truth is more relevant than hope built on Christian faith. St. John Paul II said: "Yes, Christ is truly risen, and we are witnesses of this. We proclaim this witness to the world so that our joy will reach countless other hearts, kindling in them the light of the hope which does not disappoint."

Our society and world are deeply divided in many ways. Our politics and populations are polarized. There is war and growing violence across the globe. There is no room for debate, listening, persuading, and being persuaded to a good compromise. The language of true tolerance has been replaced by hardened ideologies. It is into these deep divisions that the Easter message must be spoken anew. So now is the time to help the world see even more clearly Christ's passion, death, and Resurrection as the most profound expression of unfathomable love and mercy. This love and mercy must be proclaimed despite the war, destruction, sin, apathy, and tensions in the Church and the world.

Christ's victory and continued presence shine in our lives through the Church, the sacraments, and the witness of God's people. Signs of that continued witness are visible in those we welcome into the Church at the Easter Vigil, as we do this Easter at OLM. Today, on Easter Sunday, Christians desperately need to proclaim the cross and live in Easter hope. This hope exposes the lies of the world and is stronger than conflict or worldly ambition for power and status. It invites and welcomes all who seek the peace that only true discipleship can bring, living in conformity to God's will rather than our own. It is a true new beginning. 

   Pope Francis memorably taught in his Easter homily last year, "It is always possible to begin anew because there is always a new life that God can awaken in us despite all our failures. From the rubble of our hearts — and each one of us knows the rubble of our hearts — God can create a work of art; from the ruined remnants of our humanity, God can prepare a new history. He never ceases to go ahead of us: in the cross of suffering, desolation, and death, and in the glory of a life that rises again, a history that changes, a hope that is reborn."

The empty tomb of Jesus was a sign of God's victory over hatred, violence, death, and everything that diminishes the human person and community. "Amor vincit omnia": love overcomes everything. That is an authentic love overcomes, a self-sacrificing love, not a self-indulgent love. As we celebrate Easter, our call is to be people of faith, hope, and love. To be people who let the light of the Easter Candle burn brightly within us so that others may share in the joyful truth of the Easter message. "We are an Easter People, and Alleluia is our song!"     

Such Easter hope is not found in an ideal, an ideology, or philosophy but in an encounter with a person, the Risen Christ. The Christ who went to a place where no one else would willingly go for us. The Christ who then emerged from a place where no one else has ever - the grave! As Pope Francis said:

"He who rolled away the stone that sealed the entrance of the tomb can also remove the stones in our hearts. He did not abandon us; He visited us and entered into our situations of pain, anguish, and death. His light dispelled the darkness of the tomb: He wants that light to penetrate even into the darkest corners of our lives today."

 Fr. Mahoney, Fr. Connors, and I wish you a Holy and Happy Easter! May the Easter Season  be a grace-filled time for you and your families. "Alleluia, He has risen as He said, Alleluia! Alleluia!" Be well. Do good. God Bless.

Holy Week, The Week that Changed the World

Dear Parishioners:                               

Fr. Healey and Fr. Mahoney celebrating St. Patrick’s Day with Monsignor Seamus Horgan.

Last week, we had two grand celebrations honoring St. Patrick and St. Joseph. Both Masses were joyful and faith-filled, and the receptions were lively and fun. I thank all those who helped make these Parish Feasts a great celebration. I also wish to thank Monsignor Seamus Horgan from the Vatican Embassy and Bishop McManus of Worcester, who celebrated the Masses and delivered outstanding homilies. Their presence at OLM is a great honor for us, and I am grateful for their willingness to come and celebrate with us.

It is Palm Sunday, and thus, Holy Week begins today. It is the final week of Lent and the week before Easter. It begins on Palm Sunday and includes the Sacred Triduum of Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Easter Vigil.

On Palm Sunday, the Passion of Our Lord is proclaimed. The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, from the Latin patior meaning "suffer," refers to the sufferings our Lord endured for our redemption, from the agony in the garden until His death on Calvary. The Gospels' Passion Narratives provide the details of our Lord's Passion. It is a powerful and prayerful way to begin Holy Week.

Commenting on the Passion, St. Jose Maria Escriva said, "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. The Christian is obliged to be altered—Christus, ipse Christus: another Christ, Christ Himself."

Indeed, every Christian must enter into the profound mysteries and prayerful celebration of Holy Week to be altered into another Christ, Christ Himself. So, I encourage you to join us this Holy Week in prayer and devotion on Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter.

The Mass of the Lord's Supper on Holy Thursday is at 7:00 pm and includes the washing of the feet. The Blessed Sacrament will be transferred to the Altar of Repose, and adoration will continue until midnight. This Mass recalls the Last Supper and the Lord's agony in the Garden of Gethsemane.

On Good Friday, the Stations of the Cross are at    3:00 pm, and the Liturgy of the Good Friday is at 7:00 pm with the Veneration of the Cross. As we recall our Lord's suffering upon the Cross, it is a day on which Mass is not celebrated. It is a day of fasting and abstinence and calls for deep prayer and devotion. 

  On Holy Saturday, the Easter Vigil, the Mother of All Vigils, will be celebrated after sundown at 7:30 pm. It is the only Mass on Holy Saturday. We will joyfully welcome five new members to the Catholic Church. Please pray for them.

Easter Sunday recalls the glory of our Lord's Resurrection from the dead. We will celebrate with Masses at 7:30 am, 9:00 am, and 10:30 am. There will be no 5:00 pm Mass on Easter Sunday.

During Holy Week, there are also opportunities for Confession. Confession will be available Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday at 11:45 am before the 12:05 pm Mass. Two priests, including a Dominican Friar, are available on Monday night at 6:00 pm. On Spy Wednesday, there will be two hours of Confession from 6:00 pm until 8:00 pm, with four priests available.  We have all these opportunities, including the All-Day Confession this Saturday, to make a good Confession before Easter.

Also, during the Sacred Triduum of Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday, Solemn Morning Prayer and the Office of Readings will be prayed each morning at 8:00 am. Our Church is open all day, and Holy Week is a good time for all of us to pray with the Lord here in Church.

Holy Week has begun. Indeed, the week that changed the world begins today. I pray you make it a week that changes your world and life. May we enter it with prayer and devotion that we might be altered into "Christus, ipse Christus: another Christ, Christ Himself." Please join us for Holy Week services. Please get to Confession and make your Easter Duty. Let us pray, adore, and rejoice in the great mysteries of our Catholic Faith. A Blessed Holy Week and Holy Easter to all! Be well. Do good. God Bless

Celebrating Our Heritage & Faith on St. Patrick's Day & St. Joseph's Day

Dear Parishioners:                                 

Monsignor Séamus Horgan

We welcome Monsignor Séamus Horgan, a priest of the Diocese of Killaloe, Ireland, to OLM. He will celebrate and preach the St. Patrick's Day Mass at 10:30 am. The Mass features readings and hymns in the Irish Language. A reception of Irish Coffee and Irish Soda Bread follows it.

Monsignor studied at St. Patrick's College, Maynooth, Ireland, and was ordained to the priesthood on June 11, 1994. Following six years of parish ministry, he pursued studies in Rome. He received his license degree in Canon Law from the Pontifical Gregorian University. He later earned a Doctorate Degree in Canon Law. He then studied at the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy in Rome to prepare for the Diplomatic Service of the Holy See.

Monsignor has served in various diplomatic postings across the globe, including Kampala, Uganda, Berne, Switzerland, Manila, the Philippines, and Rome. He is the First Counselor at the Apostolic Nunciature in Washington, DC. We are honored to have him join us at OLM to celebrate St. Patrick's Day! Welcome Monsignor Horgan!

On Tuesday, we celebrate the Solemnity of St. Joseph with Mass celebrated in Italian at 12:05 pm. Bishop Robert J. McManus, a native son of Providence and now the Bishop of Worcester, is our celebrant and homilist. He is no stranger to OLM, having served as a Deacon here. He was ordained a priest in our Church in May 1978. A reception with Italian Coffee and delicious zeppoles follows the Mass! So please join us for this special celebration!

You don't have to be Irish or Italian to celebrate these two great saints of our Church, but we do so as we celebrate our Catholic faith and the heritage of the Irish and Italians! Happy St. Patrick's Day! Lá Fhéile Pádraig Sona Duit! Happy St. Joseph's Day! Buona Festa di San Giuseppe!    

On Friday, the students of OLM Middle School are performing the Living Stations of the Cross in Church at 1:00 pm and 7:00 pm. It is a prayerful and powerful recounting of the Way of the Cross. Join us as we prayerfully prepare for Holy Week with the Living Stations.

Next weekend, we celebrate Palm Sunday with the Passion of our Lord as we begin Holy Week. Palm branches will be distributed and blessed at all Masses. There will be a Solemn Procession of Palm Branches from Mercy Park at the 10:30 am Mass. In a Palm Sunday homily, Pope Benedict XVI said: "The procession of the Palms is primarily an expression of joy because we can recognize Jesus because he allows us to be his friends and because he has given us the key to life. This joy, however, which is at the beginning, is also an expression of our 'yes' to Jesus and our willingness to go with him wherever he takes us. The expression 'following of Christ' describes the whole of Christian existence." 

On Palm Sunday, the Second Collection is for the Rice Bowl Collection. CRS Rice Bowl is the Lenten program of Catholic Relief Services, the official relief and development agency of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. All the monies collected in your Rice Bowls go directly to purchase and provide food for the hungry and starving of the world. I thank you in advance for your generous support.

Pope Francis making Confession at St. Peter’s Basilica

Next Saturday, from 9:00 am until 3:00 pm, OLM is hosting All Day Confessions. Four priests will be available for the entire time. No lines, no waiting, merciful confessors, and plenty of volunteers to assist you. Come to Confession and bring a friend or family member. There will be Eucharistic Adoration during the Confession hours. Please pray for the Confessors and those coming to Confession. Pope Francis reminds us: "Don't be afraid to go to the Sacrament of Confession, where you will meet Jesus who forgives you." 

We have a busy couple of weeks as Lent ends, and we prepare for Holy Week. The Holy Week Schedule is in the bulletin. We congratulate the OLM School Girls Grammar and Boys Junior teams who won the R.I. Catholic Athletic League Division 1 State Championship games last Sunday! They're off to New Hampshire for the New England Tournament next weekend. We wish them luck! Be well. Do good. God Bless! Happy St. Patrick’s Day and Happy St. Joseph’s Day!

A Time to Rejoice!

Dear Parishioners:                                  

It's Laetare Sunday, the Fourth Sunday of Lent. The name Laetare comes from the entrance antiphon from Isaiah: "Rejoice, Jerusalem, and all who love her. Be joyful, all who were in mourning; exalt and be satisfied at her consoling breast."  Laetare is the first word meaning "rejoice" in the Latin text. The Church expresses hope and joy amid our Lenten fasts and penances on Laetare Sunday (similarly to the Third Sunday of Advent's Gaudete Sunday). Often called Rose Sunday due to the rose-colored vestments. It indicates a glimpse of the joy that awaits us at Easter, just before we enter the somber days of Passiontide.

The joy of Easter being around the corner is symbolized in a few other interesting liturgical possibilities. During Lent, the General Instruction of the Roman Missal forbids flowers adorning the altar. But on Laetare Sunday (as well as solemnities and feasts within the season), there's a temporary halt to these acts of penance! 

At one time, marriages were generally forbidden during Lent. Still, Laetare Sunday was often associated with a day when marriages could be celebrated during the penitential season. While marriages are now only forbidden on Good Friday and Holy Saturday, Laetare Sunday is still fitting for those wishing to be married before Eastertide.

 Laetare Sunday is the Church's way of giving us a "shot in the arm" as we approach the darkness and horror of the days through Good Friday and Holy Saturday. It's an opportunity to savor and keep in the back of our minds what awaits us on Easter Sunday — the reality that Jesus Christ has risen from the dead and that our hearts will always be filled with joy!

  We are filled with joy this Saturday and next Saturday as our OLM First Communion Class will make their first confessions. They, too, will be filled with joy as they receive the grace of God's mercy and forgiveness in Sacramental Confession for the first time. Please pray for them.

Pope Francis said: "I ask you: have you ever thought that every time we go to the confessional, there is joy and celebration in heaven? Have you ever thought about that? It is beautiful and fills us with great hope because there is no sin to which we have stooped from which, by the grace of God, we cannot rise up again. There is no person who is beyond recovery, no one is beyond recovery. Because God never ceases to want what is good for us, even when we sin!"

Have you had a chance to make a good Confession during this Lent? If not, there are ample opportunities. Confession is offered daily at 11:45 am, every Monday at 6:00 pm with two priests, and every Saturday at 3:00 pm.   On Saturday, March 24, there will be All-Day Confessions from 9:00 am until 3:00 pm with four priests available. During Holy Week, additional times and priests will be available for Confession.   As Pope Francis said: "I ask you: have you ever thought that every time we go to the confessional, there is joy and celebration in heaven?" So make heaven celebrate with joy and make a good Confession.

Of course, there is also another occasion of joy at OLM. Next Sunday is St. Patrick's Day, so we rejoice for such a glorious saint. At the 10:30 am Mass, there will be readings in the Irish language and Irish music. And we are truly blessed to have Monsignor Séamus Horgan. Monsignor is a native son of Ireland and priest of the Diocese of Killaloe, established in the 7th Century. The Diocese comprises parts of the counties of Clare, Tipperary, Offaly, Limerick and Laois.

Monsignor is now the First Counsellor of the Apostolic Nunciature of the Holy See to the United States of America. This means he serves as the Holy Father’s personal representative to the U.S., the Papal Nuncio, His Eminence Christophe Cardinal Pierre. Following the 10:30 am Mass, there will be a reception in the vestibule. Enjoy the Mass with its Irish hymns and readings, and join us in rejoicing with some Irish Soda Bread and Irish Coffee in honor of Glorious St. Patrick. It’s sure to be a grand time for all young and old. Remember, you don’t have to be Irish to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day; all are welcome!

   Be well. Do good. God Bless! Pray. Fast. Give Alms. See you at Stations of the Cross on Friday! 

Finishing Lent with Prayer, Fasting & Almsgiving

Dear Parishioners:                                 

We are at the halfway point of Lent. That means we still have three weeks until the Holy Week and Easter Sunday. Some people say that time passes quickly. But often, I hear people say that Lent seems so long.      Lent seems so long for two reasons. The first is completely objective: Lent is, in fact, the longest season of self-denial during the Church’s year. No other season requires sustained fasting from worldly pleasures like Lent. Many people make truly heroic sacrifices for six full weeks (without cheating on Sundays), such as giving up sugar, alcohol, red meat, curse words, gossip, and even cigars! Lent is not for spiritual wimps. It is for spiritual warriors willing to fight to express their devotion to God.

The second reason follows directly from the first. We are often unwilling to endure even the simplest sufferings over an extended period. We don’t like to go without a whole meal for a whole day. We don’t even like to go without snacks between meals for a whole day. Further, we don’t like the daunting task of forming a new and good spiritual habit.   For these dispositions of mind and heart, we must repent. We must allow Christ to teach us His way instead of our own (see Luke 9:23). We must never forget that our life on this earth is the only chance to prove our love for our Lord.

 It is about this time each year, about halfway through the spiritual boot camp and marathon that is Lent, that we should remind ourselves of the purpose of Lent. Recall that Jesus never promised that life as His disciple would be full of daily pleasurable experiences. Rather, He taught that the way to abundant life is through the ongoing death to self that one learns by detaching oneself from worldly cares and associations like food, money, lust, ego, and laziness. We take up our cross, deny ourselves, and follow him. 

 The Scriptures remind us that the journey toward communion with Our Blessed Lord is arduous and requires great discipline and unending work. In his first letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul writes, “Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we are imperishable. Well, I do not run aimlessly…but I pommel my body and subdue it, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified” (1 Cor. 9:25-27). Here, the Apostle recognizes that the goal dictates the measures one takes to keep progressing. In the case of Christians, the goal of eternal happiness with God causes us to reject habits and vices that might destroy our souls.

  Another Scripture passage is from the letter to the Hebrews. The author writes to exhort his audience: “Let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us” (Heb. 12:1). In this brief moment, the reader understands that heavy things prevent a runner from running quickly and effectively. In our spiritual lives, sin is that weight that keeps us from progressing toward the finish line.

With this heaviness in mind, the author offers encouragement by stating that we run while “looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb. 12:2). Indeed, when we see and understand the crown of glory that we will share with Jesus Christ, the sufferings and trials endured along the way seem to vanish. We realize we can endure anything if the reward is so great as heavenly bliss.

Therefore, we should not lose heart during this second half of Lent. Rather, we should encourage one another to continue the effort to gain control over our minds and our bodies for God’s glory. And let’s never forget that this process always and only begins with His divine grace: we can do nothing alone. Any victory over Lent and spiritual death is ultimately His victory. To God belongs the glory, now and forever! Stay the course and continue to run the race of Lent!

I am away this week, preaching the Lenten Mission at St. William’s Parish in Naples, Florida. Please pray for me and the success of the Mission. Be well. Do good. God Bless!