St. Ambrose Catholic Parish

RE Ending, First Communion & Mothers’ Day Coming Soon!!!

Fr Healey — Sun, 06 May 2012 18:58:36 +0000

Dear Parishioners:
This weekend marks the end of our Religious Education Classes for the year. It’s hard to believe its arrived. I wish to thank our Directors of Religious Education, Mrs. Michelle Donovan and Mr. Greg Albanese, for another great year of leading our programs. I am grateful for their professional leadership of our program. Of course we are very grateful to all of our RE teachers who volunteer so much of their time and talent to ensuring our parish children are taught about the way of Jesus and His Church. We couldn’t run our program without these willing volunteer teachers and I am indeed grateful for all they do for our parish. As the primary teachers of the faith our RE parents are a crucial part of our program making sure the children arrive to class on time, make it to class and Mass each week, and continuing the education of the faith at home. The children of our RE program are the hope and future of our parish and Church so their instruction in Catholic Faith is one of the most important parts of our parish life. We thank them all for their commitment to teaching and learning the faith. On Monday night at 6:00pm all those participating in our RE program will gather to celebrate a Final RE Mass and a May Crowning of the Blessed Mother Statue on the front lawn. It’s always a beautiful Mass and I invite all of you to join us as we place our parish children under the protection and patronage of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
This is just the beginning of our May celebrations as on next Saturday morning at 10:00AM we celebrate First Holy Communion. It’s always a wonderful event of faith, hope and joy for the First Communion Class but for our entire parish as these children come forward to receive Jesus truly present in Holy Communion for the very first time. Next Sunday, Mother’s Day, our First Communion Class we celebrate the May Crowning at the 11:00AM Mass as we proclaim Mary, Queen of Heaven and Earth. As the RE Year draws to a close let us continue to pray for our parish children that they will stay close to the Lord and His Sacraments especially Holy Mass all throughout the summer months. A few of our RE teachers may be retiring and so we may be looking for new volunteer teachers for next year. If you are interested in serving as an RE teacher or teacher’s aide, please contact me. Training is provided and we can use your help. Next Sunday we also celebrate Mothers’ Day and all Mothers will be remembered at Sunday Masses. Memorial envelopes are available if you wish to have your mother or grandmother remembered. Let us pray this week for our RE teachers, students and families! God Bless.

On Good Shepherd Sunday get ready for Mary and Joseph!

Fr Healey — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 18:14:42 +0000

Dear Parishioners:
It seems like no sooner has April arrived that it’s going out the door! Yes, the Month of May arrives on Tuesday of this week. The First of May marks the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker. A Feast Day begun in response to the “May Day” celebrations for workers sponsored by Communists. Pope Pius XII instituted the feast of St. Joseph the Worker in 1955 in response to these communist attempts to propagandize and perpetuate their evil ideology. However, the relationship between Joseph and the cause of workers has a much longer history. In a constantly necessary effort to keep Jesus from being removed from ordinary human life, the Church has from the beginning proudly emphasized that Jesus was a carpenter, obviously trained by Joseph. It is important to remember that our Lord lived his early life working as a carpenter in both the satisfactions and the drudgery of that vocation. Whether we make a table or a cathedral, we are called to bear fruit with our hands and mind, ultimately for the building up of the Body of Christ. So pray for all working men and women this week, for all those who are unemployed and for the dignity that work provides.
While we begin May celebrating St. Joseph, we know that May is also a month dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Pope Paul VI noted that May “the month has especially dedicated to Our Blessed Lady, and it is the occasion for a moving tribute of faith and love which Catholics in every part of the world pay to the Queen of Heaven. During this month Christians, both in church and in the privacy of the home, offer up to Mary from their hearts an especially fervent and loving homage of prayer and veneration.” Perhaps one of the best ways to celebrate this Month dedicated to the Blessed Mother is to pray the Rosary, so take some time during your busy days to stop and meditate upon the mysteries of the Rosary.
Next Saturday our First Communion Class makes their retreat in preparation of their First Communion Mass on May 12th. I ask you to please pray for these children and their parents as they continue to prepare for the very special day on which they receive the Eucharist for the very first time. Last Sunday a First Communion Class from Italy had and audience with Pope Benedict. He told them: “First Communion is the moment when you too understand the importance of a personal encounter with Jesus.” Pray for our parish children who are soon to have that personal encounter with the Eucharistic Lord. God Bless. Go Sox??!!

Christ, Our Hope, Has Risen! Give Thanks!!

Fr Healey — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 00:05:28 +0000

Dear Parishioners:
“Surrexit Christus, spes mea“. “Christ, my hope, has risen.” This is taken from the Easter Sequence sung before the Gospel on Easter Sunday. As an Easter People we continue to celebrate this glorious and joyous seaons. We know that Christ, our hope has indeed Risen! We rejoice in the new life we live as an Easter People of faith, hope and love. Indeed “We are an Easter People and Alleluia is our song!”
Our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, in his Easter Greeting to the City and World greeted the world with these words: “Dear brothers and sisters! If Jesus is risen, then – and only then – has something truly new happened, something that changes the state of humanity and the world. Then he, Jesus, is someone in whom we can put absolute trust; we can put our trust not only in his message but in Jesus himself, for the Risen One does not belong to the past, but is present today, alive. Christ is hope and comfort. And he is present as a force of hope through his Church, which is close to all human situations of suffering and injustice.”
As a Parish we have helped to ensure the Risen Lord is indeed alive in our world and brought his hope to our brothers and sisters who suffer in need. I wanted to share with you a note I received from Father Jerry Harbour, the Pastor of St. John the Baptist Church in Pawtucket, RI. He writes:
“To you and to your good people I want to say Thank You for all you do for us here at St. John’s. All through Lent your parish’s sacrificial giving has helped many in need. Please thank your parish for me and let them know of their part in the work of charity. Thank You also for the generous Easter donation, it goes a long way in helping those who struggle in poverty and need.”
I thank all who were so generous in donating much needed food items for the poor and hungry during our Lenten Food Drive. The Mother Theresa Society under the leadership of Marie Zagorsky ensured that hundreds of boxes were packed with food items and delivered to St. John the Baptist Food Pantry. I am grateful for the many volunteers who packed and delivered the boxes every week during the Season of Lent. Your charity and generosity are truly needed and also very appreciated. Also I wish to thank you for the generous donations to the Poor Box during Lent. As a result of your generosity we were able to send donations of $500 each to St. John the Baptist Food Pantry in Pawtucket, and St. Patrick’s and St. Theresa’s Food Pantries in Providence. In the name of the many poor and needy you have helped, I offer my gratitude for your tremendous witness of charity and love. Father Ferdi sends his warmest regards to all of you! It was great to visit with him in Miami but it’s good to be back home. Florida is nice but I wouldn’t want to live there! A Happy Easter! God Bless. Go Sox!

Without a Doubt,Christ is Risen!! Truly He has Risen!!!

Fr Healey — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 22:40:00 +0000

Dear Parishioners:
Christus resurrexit! Resurrexit vere! Christ has risen! Truly He has Risen! This is the ancient greeting of Christians during the Easter Season. Instead of “Hello” or its equivalent, one is to greet another person with “Christ has risen!” and the response is “Truly He has Risen!” Try it at home, church, school or even work and let everyone know that Jesus Christ is Risen!
We celebrated Holy week with great devotion and solemnity and our celebration of Easter was truly joyous and jubilant. At Easter we welcomed new Catholics into the Church and marked the Lord’s
Resurrection with solemn Masses, wonderful music and beautiful flowers. It was an exceptional festival of faith as we marked the central mysteries of our Catholic Faith. Of course, this great celebration is not possible without the hard work and dedication of our many parishioners who volunteer their time and talent to make it happen. We must offer thanks to so many for their efforts to ensure the solemnities of Holy Week and Easter were so beautiful and joyful.
I must mention those who offered considerable help preparing and celebrating Holy Week and Easter. Jackie Robert and Theresa Tassone who ensure all the sacred vessels, altar linens, and altar cloths are ship shape. Patty Smith and her gang of cleaners in the St. Martha Guild who clean, polish and shine the entire Church in preparation of Holy Week and Easter. Jackie Spicola and her faithful assistants who decorate the Church and create such a beautiful display of flowers. Our Parish Choir along with their Directress, Meagan McNulty and Organist, Michael Moise, who provide truly wonderful sacred music that always enhances our celebration of Holy Mass. Our band of Altar Servers and our Holy Week Master of Ceremonies, Jim Jahnz, who add such great reverence and solemnity to Holy Week and Easter. For all those who helped in any way I say “Thank You!”
We wish all our school children a very happy April School Vacation Week. This week is not only vacation for many schools but the General Assembly also takes a recess. So I’m seizing the opportunity to get away and visit with Father Ferdi. I am grateful to Father Kiley for his generosity in covering Masses in my absence. See you next week. God Bless. Christ has Risen! Truly He has Risen!

The Lord is Risen! He Has Risen Indeed! Happy Easter

Fr Healey — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 12:19:33 +0000

Happy Easter! We took the forty days of Lent, preparing for Easter, very seriously. Congratulations to those who, by more fervent prayer, more dramatic self-denial, and enhanced service to those in need, responded so well to the Ash Wednesday invitation of the Lord to “return to me with all your heart!” The forty days of Lent are behind us, so now let’s celebrate the fifty days of the Easter Season leading up to Pentecost Sunday.
Look around the Church and beyond at the “explosion of new life” for it’s just not the lilies in full bloom but also the risen life of Christ is in full bloom! See, our faith tells us that the victory of
Jesus over sin, Satan, and death at Easter is not just His triumph alone — He shares it with all of us! He shares it with those baptized, confirmed, receiving Him for the first time in Holy Communion, and joined His Church this Easter! Alleluia! Welcome! He shares it in a few weeks with our parish children who share the risen life of Jesus as they make their First Holy Communion! Alleluia! He shares it in a few months with our parish young people who are to be confirmed with the gift of the Holy Spirit. Alleluia! He shares it over the next couple of months, with young couples who begin new lives in the sacrament of marriage. Alleluia!
Yes, spring is busting out all over! The Resurrection of Christ is radiating life and light all over! Alleluia! For fifty days we’ll keep the paschal candle lit brightly, we’ll smell the powerful aroma of the lilies; we’ll joyfully sing out “alleluia,” and we’ll stay close to Jesus through the sacraments. Pope Benedict reminds us: “Faith in the Resurrection of Jesus says that there is a future for every human being; the cry for unending life which is a part of a person is indeed answered. Through Jesus we do know ‘the room where exiled love lays down its victory.’ He himself is this place, and he calls us to be with him. God exists: that is the real message of Easter!”
The darkness, gloom, and death of Good Friday do not have the last word. The night is over; winter is gone. The light and life of Easter Sunday morning triumph! It’s morning . . . it’s springtime in the Church. St. Augustine said: “We are an Easter People and Alleluia is our song!”
A Happy and Holy Easter!

Schedule for the Sacred Triduum

Fr Healey — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 14:47:44 +0000

Holy Thursday, April 5, 2012

Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper – 7:00PM
The Church will remain open until Midnight for Eucharistic Adoration

Good Friday, April 6, 2012

The Stations of the Cross – 3:00PM

The Liturgy of the Lord’s Passion & Adoration of the Cross – 7:00PM

Holy Saturday, April 7, 2012

Solmen Vigil of Easter – 8:00PM

Easter Sunday, April 8, 2012

Solemn Mass of the Lord’s Resurrection – 9:00AM

Solemn Mass of the Lord’s Resurrection – 11:00AM

Fools for Christ! Entering into Holy Week…

Fr Healey — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 17:49:00 +0000

Dear Parishioners:
It might seem strange to begin Holy Week on April Fools’ Day because it is a day not known to be holy but rather dedicated to pulling pranks on unsuspecting friends and family members. It is a day of foolishness! Palm Sunday is not known to be a day of foolishness. Yet perhaps it is appropriate that we enter into the holiest week of the Church Year on such a day.
For God to take on a human nature and to willingly die for the sins of His people is considered foolish in the eyes of the world. The Romans and Jewish leaders thought Jesus a fool to urge people to “love their enemies” and to “turn the other cheek.” Throughout history, the followers of Christ have been
labeled fools, from the martyrs who preferred death rather than renounce their faith to those who today continue to stand for the sanctity of human life and the dignity of the human person. “We are fools for Christ’s sake,” said St. Paul. In the words of the late Archbishop Fulton Sheen, to be a fool for Christ is the greatest compliment the world can give a person of faith.
At the recent “Reason Rally” in Washington, DC hundreds of atheists gathered to denounce people of faith. One atheist held a sign that said: “So many Christians, so few lions.” Speakers mocked the crucifixion of our Lord, attacked the Pope and ridiculed the Eucharist. The well-known atheist from
England, Richard Dawkins urged the crowd to ridicule, show contempt and mock people of faith even urging that atheists “ridicule them in public.” Indeed for these so-called “reasonable” people, we who have faith are fools. “Divine Folly is wiser than the wisdom of man,” the Apostles tell us.
April Fools’ Day ushers in Holy Week, a time of foolishness and folly for those who lead lives without faith and hope. For them, the cross is foolishness but for the faithful the truth of Good Friday is that without the cross there can be no crown. Without Good Friday there can be no Easter Sunday. There can be no hope but only despair. If the world considers Jesus Christ and His Crucifixion folly and if it views our faith as foolish, then we have nothing to fear for we believe our destiny and we know our final home is not this world but in Heaven.
With this in mind, I hope you make an effort to join us for the Holy Week Services this week. The Sacred Triduum of Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Saturday are a time for us to enter into profound prayer and deep devotion of the sacred mysteries of our faith. The Passion, Death and Resurrection of our Lord may seem foolish to some but they are the foundation of faith for those who love and worship Jesus Christ. Holy Week is here, let us together celebrate as fools for Christ!
Thanks to all who helped us go over our Catholic Charity Appeal goal! Last Monday we surpassed our goal with $58,170 pledged to date! Thank you—your support made the difference. Twenty-seven families gave for the very first time this year to the CCA, while over eighty parishioners who pledged last year have not done so yet this year. A Blessed Holy Week to you and your families. God Bless.

Palm Sunday Schedule

Fr Healey — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 16:20:37 +0000

Schedule for Palm Sunday

Saturday, March 31st
5:00PM Mass
Simple Procession & Proclamation of the Passion

Sunday, April 1st
9:00AM Mass
Simple Procession & Proclamation of the Passion

11:00AM Mass
Solemn Procession from Church Parking Lot
Solemn Proclamation of the Passion

Palm Branches will be distributed & blessed at all Masses!

Preparing for Palm Sunday and Beyond…

Fr Healey — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 00:52:14 +0000

Dear Parishioners:
We congratulate our Second Grade RE Class who made their First Confessions this weekend. I am grateful to our RE Directress, Mrs. Michelle Donovan, the Second Grade teachers Mrs. Ana Parenteau and Mrs. Kathy Lisi, and the children’s parents who ensured that they were well prepared and knew their prayers. It is always a great joy to hear First Confessions and I congratulate the children on a job well done! I ask you to keep them in your prayers as they continue to prepare for the great celebration of First Holy Communion in the early part of the month of May.
The forty days of Lent come to an end soon as Holy Week commences next week on Palm Sunday. Lent ends at the celebration of the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday night. At the 11:00AM Mass on Palm Sunday we begin with the solemn procession of palms from the Parish Hall Parking Lot into Church. With this we recall Christ’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem the week before his death and resurrection. At each Palm Sunday Mass we listen to the account of the Lord’s Passion. A spiritual writer once suggested that the Passion of the Lord is “his way of transforming suffering by love. He shows us, step by step, how that plan of love can be carried out by men, women, and children today, both alone in the loneliness of their individual lives and together in communion with one another.”
I invite you to prayerfully enter in the celebration of Palm Sunday next weekend and to please also join us at 6:00PM next Sunday night as our Religious Education students walk the Via Crucis in the Stations of the Cross for Youth. Let us together as a parish family, young and old, follow the Lord’s footsteps “so that, being made by his grace partakers of the Cross, we may have a share also in his Resurrection and in his Life.”
The Operation Rice Bowl Collection is to be taken up at all Masses next weekend. I hope you have been putting your nickels, dimes and quarters in those simple paper bowls throughout Lent in an effort to feed the hungry. I ask you to please roll your coins and then write a check for the total amount as it helps our counters on Monday. Your donations go directly to Catholic Relief Services who feed the many hungry poor of our world. You have always been generous with this collection and I hope you are once again as generous.
Thanks to all those who have given to the Catholic Charity Appeal to date. If you have not yet pledged to the Appeal, I urge you to please do so very soon as your help is truly needed to reach our goal of $57,000! Thanks for your support, it makes a difference. God Bless.

Confession is Good for the Soul!

Fr Healey — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 02:01:32 +0000

Dear Parishioners:
Last Saturday afternoon I spent a couple of hours hearing confessions at St. Joseph’s Church in
Woonsocket as part of their Annual All-Day Confessions. Fr. Kiley did the same earlier in the day as
confessions began in the early morning and continued throughout the day until 3:00PM with dozens of priests coming out to help. It’s always a great joy to hear confessions especially on these all day occasions as so many people are coming back to the Sacrament after decades being away.
Next Saturday at 1:00PM we celebrate First Confessions for our First Communion Class. I ask you to please pray for these children and their families as they prepare to receive this beautiful sacrament for the very first time in their young lives. We will be joined by some visiting priests who will hear the confessions of the parents of these children and any other adults who wish to go to confession.
How about you, have you gone to Confession recently? When’s the last time you made a good confession? Why not give it a try! St. Isidore of Seville reminds us: “Confession heals, confession justifies, confession grants pardon of sin, all hope consists in confession; in confession there is a chance for mercy.” It’s a chance we all need in our lives not matter how young or how old.
Our readings on this Laetare Sunday on which we rejoice, because Easter draws near, also speak of God’s mercy. “In those days…the people added infidelity to infidelity.” And God’s response “early and often” was to have “compassion on his people”—a compassion we sometimes take for granted. The “people preferred darkness to light” and were taken into captivity in Babylon. Desolate in their exile, they experienced “the immeasurable riches of his grace” through a refusal to forget God. Those who are dead in their transgressions and who remember that “God is rich in mercy” bear sure and certain hope to brought to “life with Christ.” So much does God love us, those exiled in the world, that “He gave his only Son.” Let us together rejoice that we have a generous and merciful God who loves us and forgives us!
A Happy St. Patrick’s Day and St. Joseph’s Day! May these patron saints lead each of us to a deeper faith and as St. Patrick reminds us in his “Breastplate” may: “Christ be with me. Christ within me, Christ behind me, Christ before me, Christ beside me, Christ to win me, Christ to comfort and restore me.” Thanks again for your support of the Catholic Charity Appeal, we are heading toward our parish goal of $57,000! God Bless.