"Do You Also Want to Leave?" Homily for 21st Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for August 26, 2018

21st Sunday of Ordinary Time B

Jesus then said to the Twelve, "Do you also want to leave?"

It has been difficult to be a Catholic these days.  We’ve heard and read about the crimes and sins that have infested our Church.  And like you, my heart is full of sorrow and anger that shepherds betrayed so many innocent of the flock, causing unspeakable pain and suffering. I am personally outraged.  It is an occasion calls forth justice and surety that it never happens again. 

I stand before you today ashamed and appalled, and I share your sense of deep betrayal.   No doubt the Lord’s question has entered our minds, “Do you also want to leave?” 

This question has echoed in my own mind and heart.  For in my 23 years of priesthood my faith has never been so tested, my mouth so bereft of the words to describe the despair in my heart. 

Today's Gospel passage about our Lord's teaching on the Eucharist was so shocking, that "many of his disciples" simply refused to accept it. As a result, they stopped following Jesus and returned to "their former way of life."

Christ asks those who stayed with Him: "Do you also want to leave?"

It was a moment of crisis.  The Twelve didn't understand, any more completely than everybody else.     Yet they stayed.  So why did they continue to follow the Lord?

They stayed because they trusted in him, in his person.  They put more faith in the person of Jesus Christ, the Lord and Savior, than in their own limited ability to comprehend God’s plan.

I’m sure all of us here know people in our family, among our friends and neighbors who have left and walked away.  Some who will stop following the Lord.  That the Church I love and serve would cause this fills me a deep pain and sorrow. 

But today, brothers and sisters, here and now, Christ asks each of us:  “Do you also want to leave?” 

So why do I choose to stay? Because the words of Simon Peter make the path clear:  “Master to whom shall we go? You alone have the words of eternal life.”  

Speaking for myself, dear friends, I  choose to stay because I love Jesus Christ, my brother, my friend, my Redeemer and Savior; I love his church; I love his priesthood, and I love you, his beloved people.  I stay because Christ my Lord and Savior is here and you his people are here.

I stay because even in the midst of such evil and darkness, I’m still able to see the light of Christ shining in your goodness and charity, in your mercy and compassion, in your fidelity and solidarity.

I stay because I see daily the devotion, the good works and the faith of people who continue to believe that God calls them here.  So many good and faithful people who remain committed to the beliefs and virtues handed down to us by those who’ve gone before us in faith.   I see so many who daily honor those who left us a legacy of charity, mercy, goodness and holiness - not a legacy of scandal, shame and sin. 

Many who have gone before us knew great trial and tribulation in their times. And yet they stayed.  Some even sacrificing unto death, so that we could continue to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ.  They built up his Church, to stand as refuge of love and a beacon of hope so that others might come to believe what they themselves were convinced: that you Jesus Christ are the Holy One of God.

I stay because I too am convinced that the Crucified and Risen Christ is here. The Christ who knows betrayal. The Christ who feels righteous anger. The Christ who conquers sin. The Christ truly present to us in his Sacred Body and Blood. The Christ we must turn to in these times of despair.

In this moment, in this Church, at this Mass, we must turn to the Holy Spirit to beg for his guidance. We pray the Father of Consolation and Healer of Souls comfort all who are suffering right now: victims, family members, people who find their faith in God shattered.  We pray for the Holy Spirit to purify our Church; to instill the courage and integrity needed to confront evil in those who lead us, and  instill fidelity in those who serve us. 

And my dear people, I pray that despite my own unworthiness and my own sinfulness, I might become a better priest of Christ, a holier priest of God.   

I pray, pleading: “O Come Holy Spirit, Cleanse that which is unclean, water that which is dry, heal that which is wounded.”

 Every day Christ asks me as he asks each of us: "Do you also want to leave?"

In the midst of despair, withfaith, with hope  the only answer I am able to mutter is:

 “Master to whom shall we go? You alone have the words of eternal life.”  

In Dark Times, Turn to the Light of Christ

Dear Parishioners:                     

Like all Catholics over these last weeks, I too have been full of anger, disappointment, and shame at the events reported in Pennsylvania and elsewhere.  The news of such evil and betrayal perpetrated by priests and bishops is shameful and shocking.                                  

There are times when words fail. This is one of those times. What I read in the Pennsylvania grand jury report is distressing beyond words. I have to admit that I am at a loss to understand how such unspeakable evil has been allowed to fester at the heart of the Church.                 

The abuse of children, especially sexual abuse, is a stain on our Church and also on our nation’s collective soul. It is heartbreaking and devastating, and as we have seen time and time again it knows no bounds.  It is present in the Church, in schools, in universities and in sports programs.                  

The past weeks have certainly stretched my faith as I am sure they have stretched your own. The   tragic events brought to light are the cause of a great deal of shame, righteous anger, and a call for answers and action by many Catholics. Still more anger is rightly directed at those who have been complicit in keeping some of these serious sins from coming to light.            

I understand such anger. For as a priest I too am full of a sense of betrayal and rage.  And so, like you I continue to struggle to comprehend such evil that has stained our Church that I serve and love so deeply.  The author Victor Hugo said: “Where there is darkness, crime will be committed. The guilty are not merely those who commit the crime, but those who cause the darkness.”

         Such darkness that looms over our Church calls us to respond with faith in the light of Christ.  The Church is a divine institution made of up sinful people.  Our focus must remain upon our faith in Jesus Christ and his abiding presence in his bride the Church.  We can find comfort and consolation in these dark days when we turn toward the Crucified and Risen Christ. The Christ who knew betrayal. The Christ who experienced righteous anger. The Christ who conquered sin.

In my own life as a priest it is Jesus Christ I turn to for  divine guidance and strength in such trying times.  Our Church has faced many trials in the past and will undoubtedly face more in the future.  Christ, however, is the same yesterday, today and forever! And so we turn to Christ our Light, with faith and  in prayer.                    

Pray for the healing of the victims of these crimes. Pray for justice for all those who are so deeply hurt and those who have committed such evil.  Pray for our Church, that this might be a time of repentance and purification.  Pray for priests especially the many who have faithfully served and bear the shame and scandal of their fallen brothers. Pray for bishops that they might act with courage and integrity in dealing with these events.  And let us pray for one another that we might not lose hope and drown in despair.                

Reflecting upon this evil and upon the depravity of sinners within the Church, we are often tempted to despair. The temptation to despair in light of all of this is natural. However, despite the evil and the sin, and with our righteous anger, we are called to move forward in faith, to rely upon God’s promises to us, and to work hard to make every bit of difference we that we are able.

I encourage any survivors of abuse to contact our Diocesan Office of Child Protection and Outreach, which offers resources and confidential support to any who have suffered from abuse and who seek help.  They can be reached at 401-946-0728.  I also encourage all to seek more information online at dioceseofprovidence.org/office-of-compliance.

On Monday, Pope Francis issued a letter to the Church in response to these events which is included in this week’s bulletin.  He states: “Looking back to the past, no effort to beg pardon and to seek to repair the harm done will ever be sufficient. Looking ahead to the future, no effort must be spared to create a culture able to prevent such situations from happening, but also to prevent the possibility of their being covered up and perpetuated. The pain of the victims and their families is also our pain, and so it is urgent that we once more reaffirm our commitment to ensure the protection of minors and of vulnerable adults.”

         Pray for the strength and grace to face these challenges.

Letter of the Holy Father Francis to the People of God

Letter of the Holy Father Francis to the People of God, 20.08.2018

Letter of the Holy Father Francis to the People of God

“If one member suffers, all suffer together with it” (1 Cor 12:26). These words of Saint Paul forcefully echo in my heart as I acknowledge once more the suffering endured by many minors due to sexual abuse, the abuse of power and the abuse of conscience perpetrated by a significant number of clerics and consecrated persons. Crimes that inflict deep wounds of pain and powerlessness, primarily among the victims, but also in their family members and in the larger community of believers and nonbelievers alike. Looking back to the past, no effort to beg pardon and to seek to repair the harm done will ever be sufficient. Looking ahead to the future, no effort must be spared to create a culture able to prevent such situations from happening, but also to prevent the possibility of their being covered up and perpetuated. The pain of the victims and their families is also our pain, and so it is urgent that we once more reaffirm our commitment to ensure the protection of minors and of vulnerable adults.

1.         If one member suffers…

In recent days, a report was made public which detailed the experiences of at least a thousand survivors, victims of sexual abuse, the abuse of power and of conscience at the hands of priests over a period of approximately seventy years. Even though it can be said that most of these cases belong to the past, nonetheless as time goes on we have come to know the pain of many of the victims. We have realized that these wounds never disappear and that they require us forcefully to condemn these atrocities and join forces in uprooting this culture of death; these wounds never go away. The heart-wrenching pain of these victims, which cries out to heaven, was long ignored, kept quiet or silenced. But their outcry was more powerful than all the measures meant to silence it, or sought even to resolve it by decisions that increased its gravity by falling into complicity. The Lord heard that cry and once again showed us on which side He stands. Mary’s song is not mistaken and continues quietly to echo throughout history. For the Lord remembers the promise He made to our fathers: “He has scattered the proud in their conceit; He has cast down the mighty from their thrones and lifted up the lowly; He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He has sent away empty” (Lk 1:51-53). We feel shame when we realize that our style of life has denied, and continues to deny, the words we recite.

With shame and repentance, we acknowledge as an ecclesial community that we were not where we should have been, that we did not act in a timely manner, realizing the magnitude and the gravity of the damage done to so many lives. We showed no care for the little ones; we abandoned them. I make my own the words of the then Cardinal Ratzinger when, during the Way of the Cross composed for Good Friday 2005, he identified with the cry of pain of so many victims and exclaimed: “How much filth there is in the Church, and even among those who, in the priesthood, ought to belong entirely to [Christ]! How much pride, how much self-complacency! Christ’s betrayal by His disciples, their unworthy reception of His body and blood, is certainly the greatest suffering endured by the Redeemer; it pierces His heart. We can only call to Him from the depths of our hearts: Kyrie eleison – Lord, save us! (cf. Mt 8:25)” (Ninth Station).

2.   … all suffer together with it

The extent and the gravity of all that has happened requires coming to grips with this reality in a comprehensive and communal way. While it is important and necessary on every journey of conversion to acknowledge the truth of what has happened, in itself this is not enough. Today we are challenged as the People of God to take on the pain of our brothers and sisters wounded in their flesh and in their spirit. If, in the past, the response was one of omission, today we want solidarity, in the deepest and most challenging sense, to become our way of forging present and future history. And this in an environment where conflicts, tensions and above all the victims of every type of abuse can encounter an outstretched hand to protect them and rescue them from their pain (cf. Evangelii Gaudium, 228). Such solidarity demands that we in turn condemn whatever endangers the integrity of any person. A solidarity that summons us to fight all forms of corruption, especially spiritual corruption. The latter is “a comfortable and self-satisfied form of blindness. Everything then appears acceptable: deception, slander, egotism and other subtle forms of self-centeredness, for “even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light” (2 Cor 11:14)” (Gaudete et Exsultate, 165). Saint Paul’s exhortation to suffer with those who suffer is the best antidote against all our attempts to repeat the words of Cain: “Am I my brother's keeper?” (Gen 4:9).

I am conscious of the effort and work being carried out in various parts of the world to come up with the necessary means to ensure the safety and protection of the integrity of children and of vulnerable adults, as well as implementing zero tolerance and ways of making all those who perpetrate or cover up these crimes accountable. We have delayed in applying these actions and sanctions that are so necessary, yet I am confident that they will help to guarantee a greater culture of care in the present and future.

Together with those efforts, every one of the baptized should feel involved in the ecclesial and social change that we so greatly need. This change calls for a personal and communal conversion that makes us see things as the Lord does. For as Saint John Paul II liked to say: “If we have truly started out anew from the contemplation of Christ, we must learn to see him especially in the faces of those with whom he wished to be identified” (Novo Millennio Ineunte, 49). To see things as the Lord does, to be where the Lord wants us to be, to experience a conversion of heart in his presence. To do so, prayer and penance will help. I invite the entire holy faithful People of God to a penitential exercise of prayer and fasting, following the Lord’s command.[1]  This can awaken our conscience and arouse our solidarity and commitment to a culture of care that says “never again” to every form of abuse.

It is impossible to think of a conversion of our activity as a Church that does not include the active participation of all the members of God’s People. Indeed, whenever we have tried to replace, or silence, or ignore, or reduce the People of God to small elites, we end up creating communities, projects, theological approaches, spiritualities and structures without roots, without memory, without faces, without bodies and ultimately, without lives.[2] This is clearly seen in a peculiar way of understanding the Church’s authority, one common in many communities where sexual abuse and the abuse of power and conscience have occurred. Such is the case with clericalism, an approach that “not only nullifies the character of Christians, but also tends to diminish and undervalue the baptismal grace that the Holy Spirit has placed in the heart of our people”.[3] Clericalism, whether fostered by priests themselves or by lay persons, leads to an excision in the ecclesial body that supports and helps to perpetuate many of the evils that we are condemning today. To say “no” to abuse is to say an emphatic “no” to all forms of clericalism.

It is always helpful to remember that “in salvation history, the Lord saved one people. We are never completely ourselves unless we belong to a people. That is why no one is saved alone, as an isolated individual. Rather, God draws us to Himself, taking into account the complex fabric of interpersonal relationships present in the human community. God wanted to enter into the life and history of a people” (Gaudete et Exsultate, 6). Consequently, the only way that we have to respond to this evil that has darkened so many lives is to experience it as a task regarding all of us as the People of God. This awareness of being part of a people and a shared history will enable us to acknowledge our past sins and mistakes with a penitential openness that can allow us to be renewed from within. Without the active participation of all the Church’s members, everything being done to uproot the culture of abuse in our communities will not be successful in generating the necessary dynamics for sound and realistic change. The penitential dimension of fasting and prayer will help us as God’s People to come before the Lord and our wounded brothers and sisters as sinners imploring forgiveness and the grace of shame and conversion. In this way, we will come up with actions that can generate resources attuned to the Gospel. For “whenever we make the effort to return to the source and to recover the original freshness of the Gospel, new avenues arise, new paths of creativity open up, with different forms of expression, more eloquent signs and words with new meaning for today’s world” (Evangelii Gaudium, 11).

It is essential that we, as a Church, be able to acknowledge and condemn, with sorrow and shame, the atrocities perpetrated by consecrated persons, clerics, and all those entrusted with the mission of watching over and caring for those most vulnerable. Let us beg forgiveness for our own sins and the sins of others. An awareness of sin helps us to acknowledge the errors, the crimes and the wounds caused in the past and allows us, in the present, to be more open and committed along a journey of renewed conversion.

Likewise, penance and prayer will help us to open our eyes and our hearts to other people’s sufferings and to overcome the thirst for power and possessions that are so often the root of those evils. May fasting and prayer open our ears to the hushed pain felt by children, young people and the disabled.  A fasting that can make us hunger and thirst for justice and impel us to walk in the truth, supporting all the judicial measures that may be necessary. A fasting that shakes us up and leads us to be committed in truth and charity with all men and women of good will, and with society in general, to combating all forms of the abuse of power, sexual abuse and the abuse of conscience.

In this way, we can show clearly our calling to be “a sign and instrument of communion with God and of the unity of the entire human race” (Lumen Gentium, 1).

“If one member suffers, all suffer together with it”, said Saint Paul. By an attitude of prayer and penance, we will become attuned as individuals and as a community to this exhortation, so that we may grow in the gift of compassion, in justice, prevention and reparation. Mary chose to stand at the foot of her Son’s cross. She did so unhesitatingly, standing firmly by Jesus’ side. In this way, she reveals the way she lived her entire life. When we experience the desolation caused by these ecclesial wounds, we will do well, with Mary, “to insist more upon prayer”, seeking to grow all the more in love and fidelity to the Church (SAINT IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA, Spiritual Exercises, 319). She, the first of the disciples, teaches all of us as disciples how we are to halt before the sufferings of the innocent, without excuses or cowardice. To look to Mary is to discover the model of a true follower of Christ.

May the Holy Spirit grant us the grace of conversion and the interior anointing needed to express before these crimes of abuse our compunction and our resolve courageously to combat them.

                                                                                              FRANCIS

Vatican City, 20 August 2018

[1] “But this kind [of demon] does not come out except by prayer and fasting” (Mt 17:21).

[2] Cf. Letter to the Pilgrim People of God in Chile (31 May 2018).

[3] Letter to Cardinal Marc Ouellet, President of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America (19 March 2016).

With Gratitude for our Religious Sisters' Witness of Faith and Fidelity

Dear Parishioners:                                

Bishop Evans, the PC Friars, Domincian Sisters of St. Pius, and OLM Clergy pose with Laura Makin and her family following Mass.

We had a grand celebration in recognition of Laura Makin’s entrance into the Dominican Sisters in Nashville last week. She entered her year of postulantcy on this past Wednesday, the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  Please pray for her and her vocation to the consecrated life.                                   

We thank Laura for choosing to follow God’s call to be a religious sister in service to his Church.  We also thank her parents, Thomas and Elizabeth, who nurtured her vocation and taught her the Catholic Faith.  We are grateful also to the good Dominican Sisters of Nashville who joined us last Sunday at the Mass.

Also we thank the Dominican Friars for joining us especially Fr. Patrick Mary Briscoe, OP who preached so eloquently on the vocation to the religious and also Bishop Evans who celebrated the Mass.

On Victory Day last week, the day on which we recall the end of the and the surrender of Japan in World War II, I read an interesting story about religious sisters. The Washington Post recently reported the story of four sisters from the Sisters of St. Joseph of California who became stranded behind Japanese enemy lines during World War II.

The Sisters of St. Joseph of California circa 1940.

Two of the Sisters were teachers, and two were nurses. They had arrived in the Solomon Islands in December 1940. These young women were new to missionary life, confronting an unknown culture for the first time, and did not speak the languages spoken on the various islands. They also had to learn how to get around in the jungle. One year after they arrived, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and the Second World War began.

The Japanese quickly occupied many of the islands in the South Pacific. The sisters had been deeply involved in a village on the island of Buka and  had no idea that the Japanese wanted Buka for an airfield.

Sister Hedda Jager, the local superior, kept a  journal of their experiences. As the Japanese moved closer to them, Sister Hedda records how the lives of these good Sisters changed from working as missionaries to being filled with sheer terror. They soon learned  how other missionaries in the Solomon Islands had been tortured and executed.

U.S.S. Nautilus

The Marist missionary priests in the area knowing  the fate of the Sisters if  they were captured,  managed to hide  them for months in the jungle. On New Year’s Eve 1942, the priests managed to get the Sisters and 25 others to the beach in Teop Harbor. On New Year’s Day 1943, in the early morning darkness, the submarine Nautilus pulled to within 100 feet of the beach and the terrified sisters and along with others were taken on board and brought to safety.

When the war ended the four Sisters returned to Buka to continue their missionary work. The last of them passed away in 1999. These Sisters of St. Joseph should remain a true inspiration to us.  Sister Hedda’s journals are published in book entitled Trapped in Paradise.

As we continue to rejoice in Laura Makin’s call to the religious life and fondly recall  the witness of others like the Sisters of St. Joseph during World War II, we must also give thanks to the many dedicated  sisters have served here at OLM.  We also thank the Franciscan Apostolic Sisters, Sister Emma and Sister Lourdes, and Mercy Sister Jeanne Barry, for their joyful witness of faith and service as consecrated religious sisters. They continue to be a blessing to our parish.

At World Youth Day, Pope Francis, exclaimed: “ I ask you to consider whether you are being called to the consecrated life. How beautiful it is to see young people who embrace the call to dedicate themselves fully to Christ and to the service of his Church! Challenge yourselves, and with a pure heart do not be afraid of what God is asking of you! From your ‘yes’ to the Lord’s call, you will become new seeds of hope in the Church and in society. Never forget: God’s will is our happiness!”  Pray for vocations to the religious life!

This weekend we welcome Missionary Father Victor Ramesh from India. He is speaking at all Masses about the good works of the missions. This weekend’s second collection goes to support these good works. I thank you for your generous support of this Mission Appeal. Be sure to welcome Father Ramesh. 

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

Praying for Vocations, Welcoming Missionaries and Worshiping the Eucharist

Dear Parishioners:                  

We were pleased to welcome Mother Josephine, the Superior of the Franciscan Apostolic Sisters, for her annual pastoral visit to our convent and with the FAS Sisters who serve at Scalabrini Villa.  She assures me that our good Sisters, Sister Emma and Sister Lourdes, are to remain here working with us.  That is great news for OLM as they are a true blessing to our parish.

On Sunday we welcome many of our friends from the Dominican Community.  As you read last weekend, OLM Parishioner Laura Makin is entering the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia in Nashville.  Some of these wonderful Sisters are joining us in praying for Laura at the 10:30am Mass.  Also some Dominican Friars will join us at the Mass.  Fr. Patrick Mary Briscoe, OP from St. Pius V Church in Providence is preaching at the Mass. I ask for your continued prayers for Laura and for her Dominican Sisters in Nashville.  These religious sisters are all a blessing for our Church and  provide a profound witness of the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience.  Let us pray for more vocations to the consecrated life from our parish and in our Diocese.

Next weekend we welcome Father Victor Ramesh from the Archdiocese of Madras in India.  Father is coming to preach at all the Masses on behalf of the missions in his diocese.  I know you will give him your usual warm welcome to OLM. The Missionary Cooperative Weekend is our time to support the good works of the Church in the Missions. Each summer missionaries come to parishes in Rhode Island reminding us of the important work they do and to seek our prayerful and financial support.  Next week’s Second Collection goes directly to support the mission work in the Archdiocese of Madras.  I thank you in advance for your generous support.  There is more information in this week’s bulletin about the Archdiocese of Madras.

I remind you that this Wednesday, August 15th,  we honor our Blessed Mother on the Solemnity of the Assumption.  It is a holy day of obligation for all Catholics, which means you must attend Mass.  A complete schedule of Masses for the holy day are in the bulletin.  Please join us in celebrating our Blessed Mother, our patroness, on her special feast day. 

Over these few weeks we have been hearing from the Gospel of John.  The Gospel of John has rightly been called the Eucharistic Gospel. It is filled with Eucharistic images and language intended to help us move deeper into the mystery of Christ’s Body and Blood. It is the fruit of decades of spiritual reflection on this gift by Jesus’s Beloved Disciple, the last of the Gospel writers. 

Last week our talented parish musicians, Deirdre and Henri, sang the beautiful Eucharistic hymn,  "Adoro te devote." It was written by  St. Thomas Aquinas over 800 years ago and has been faithfully sung in honor of our Lord truly present in the Eucharist throughout the centuries.  The lyrics provide a wonderful reflection for us, and read: 

“O Godhead hid, devoutly I adore Thee, who truly art within the forms before me; To Thee my heart I bow with bended knee, as failing quite in contemplating Thee. Sight, touch, and taste in Thee are each deceived; The ear alone most safely is believed: I believe all the Son of God has spoken, than Truth's own word there is no truer token. God only on the Cross lay hid from view; But here lies hid at once the Manhood too: And I, in both professing my belief, make the same prayer as the repentant thief. Thy wounds, as Thomas saw, I do not see; Yet Thee confess my Lord and God to be: make me believe Thee ever more and more; In Thee my hope, in Thee my love to store.  O thou Memorial of our Lord's own dying! O Bread that living art and vivifying! Make ever Thou my soul on Thee to live; Ever a taste of Heavenly sweetness give. O loving Pelican! O Jesu, Lord! Unclean I am, but cleanse me in Thy Blood; Of which a single drop, for sinners spilt, Is ransom for a world's entire guilt. Jesu! Whom for the present veil'd I see, What I so thirst for, O vouchsafe to me: That I may see Thy countenance unfolding, And may be blest Thy glory in beholding. Amen.”

Prayers and well wishes to Laura Makin!  Do good. Be well. God Bless. Go Sox! Did you see the Sox sweep the Yanks!!!

In Support of Vocations to the Priesthood and Consecrated Life at OLM

Dear Parishioners:                  

Last Sunday we said “Farewell” to our Summer Seminarian Patrick Ryan.  His ten weeks with us at OLM have ended and returns to pursue his studies for the priesthood.  We are grateful for his time here and we continue to pray for him and his vocation to the priesthood. I thank the many parishioners who came to the “Farewell Reception” at Mercy Park last Sunday.  Your support of Patrick and your well wishes are appreciated.  I also thank the many volunteers who helped organize and prepare the wonderful reception. 

Next Sunday at the 10:30AM Mass we welcome OLM Parishioner Laura Makin.  She graduated from Providence College this past spring and now she is to enter the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia in Nashville, Tennessee as a postulant in the coming weeks.

We will acknowledge her vocation to the consecrated life and pray for her at the Mass. Laura and her family will be in attendance at the Mass celebrated by Bishop Evans.  Dominican Father Patrick Mary Briscoe, OP of St. Pius Church in Providence is to preach the Mass.  Also joining us at the Mass are other Dominican Friars and some of the Dominican Sisters who serve at St. Pius Church. Please join us in celebrating this great event in Laura’s life and in the life our parish.  There will be a reception following Mass in Mercy Park.

The Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia are commonly called the Nashville Dominicans.  The Dominican Order was founded 800 years ago by St. Dominic  and the Nashville Congregation was founded in 1860 with the arrival of the first four sisters in Nashville, their early work, and the establishment of St. Cecilia Academy.  Over their 150 years  there has been an  observable growth in the life and vitality of the young community.

The Congregation has experienced 64% growth since the year 2000 with 300 sisters in the community, the largest ever in their history. The median age is 36 with 58% of the Congregation under the age of forty. With an average of 18 young women entering the convent as postulants each year, the novitiate has an average of fifty sisters. The Congregation has expanded its apostolate to 33 schools located in the United States, including the Congregation’s own college in Nashville. The sisters are also present in 10 schools located in Rome and Bracciano, Italy; Sydney, Australia; Vancouver, Canada; the Diocese of Aberdeen, Scotland; Diocese of Roermond in The Netherlands and the Diocese of Limerick, Ireland.  Here in Rhode Island they administer and teach at St. Pius School. 

The Mother House of these good sisters is located on thirty-two acres located in downtown Nashville, St. Cecilia Motherhouse is an oasis on the north side of a busy southern city. St. Cecilia Motherhouse was completed in 1862. Additions in 1880, 1888, 1904, and 2006 completed the building. Today it houses the sisters in formation in the novitiate, the sisters who administer and teach at  schools in Nashville, sisters who serve the community through specific duties at the Motherhouse, and many retired sisters.

The Constitutions of the Congregation state: “ Wishing to follow Christ more freely, we tend toward holiness by a narrower path. The consecrated life is the fruition of the baptismal grace. The consecrated virgin is set apart for the Lord. The voluntary gift of self by which we devote ourselves to God and strengthen our brethren becomes the source of tranquil peace. By our consecrated life we teach the way to holiness and joy.”

During her postulancy, Laura begins a year of immersion into the life of her new religious family. She attends all community prayers and practices the monastic customs that are a part of our life. During this year she becomes acquainted with the basics of Dominican spirituality and history, along with the charism of our Congregation.

We congratulate Laura on her decision to pursue her vocation to the consecrated life. Please join us next Sunday in recognizing her vocation and praying for her as she enters the convent.  May God continue to bless her and the Nashville Dominican Sisters with joy, faith, hope, and love! 

Pray for more vocations! Do good. Be well. God Bless. Go Sox!