Category: From the Pastor’s Desk (Page 1 of 56)

Dear Parishioners and Visitors: 

Pope Francis has instituted the fourth Sunday in July each year as “World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly.” To show our love and appreciation for those in that category, the Parish Outreach Committee is making available at the doors of the church this weekend small bottles of holy water. Please take one for yourself or for your grandparent(s) or an elderly friend. 

Holy water is one of the Church’s most essential sacramentals. We most commonly dip our fingers into the holy water font when we enter a church. It reminds us of our baptismal cleansing and our incorporation into God’s holy household. But we should also use it to bless our homes, our families, our workspaces, and anything that we use with the goal of glorifying God in our daily lives.

God bless all the grandparents and the seniors of our parish community and our visitors to St. Joe’s!

With prayerful best wishes,
Fr. John Mahoney

Dear Parishioners and Visitors: 

As I write this, the National Eucharistic Congress is well underway in Indianapolis.  While the focus of the Congress is on the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, Pope Francis sees an added purpose of the convocation for all American Catholics: “The Eucharist impels us to a strong and committed love of neighbor, for we cannot truly understand or live the meaning of the Eucharist if our hearts are closed to our brothers and sisters, especially those who are poor, suffering, weary, or may have gone astray in life.” Here’s the “Corpus Christi Novena” prayer that offers us a remote seat at the Congress:

O God, who in this wonderful Sacrament have left us a memorial of your Passion, grant us, we pray, so to revere the sacred mysteries of Your Body and Blood that we may always experience in ourselves the fruits of Your redemption, who live and reign with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Jesus, Lord of Creation, grant us the grace to offer ourselves, our works, and all creation in union with you to the Father.

Amen.

As we reflect on this prayer, we are reminded that the word “Eucharist” means “giving thanks.” And today we can once again thank the Lord for the great gift of the Eucharist and for our faith community and visitors here at Saint Joseph’s.

With prayerful best wishes,

 Fr. John Mahoney

We thank all who made their gift to the New Hampshire Catholic Appeal:   Future of our Faith II this weekend.

Your gift will enable the Catholic Church in New Hampshire to meet the increasing needs of parishes, Catholic schools, retired clergy, seminarians, and much more.  If you were not able to make your gift yet, please scan the QR code below, visit the website at www.catholicnh.org/nhca, or bring your gift and drop it in the collection basket at Mass next weekend. We thank you on behalf of all who will come to know the loving hand of Christ and our Church through your generosity.

Dear Parishioners and Visitors: 

We are very grateful for all the donations given in memory of fathers, living and deceased, on Father’s Day 2024.  While many were given anonymously, we entrust them all to St. Joseph and the Father in Heaven.

Donor:  In Memory/Honor of

Patrick and Christine Walsh: God, Our Father in Heaven, Joseph, Mathias, James, Eduard, Robert, Patrick, Sven
Margaret and Doug Sweeney:  Robert Loranger, Sr., John Sweeney
Rose Marie Henderson:  Nicholas Ciarleglio, Robert Henderson, Sr., Raymond Henderson
Quentin and Judy Boyle:  Quentin W. Boyle, Sam Boyle, Curtis Sawyer
Janet Peltier:  Herman Cadorette, Lawrence Peltier
Mary Pieroni: Michael Iarocci, Sr., Michael Iarocci, Jr., Albert Pieroni, Louis A. Pieroni, Eugenio Muscatelli,  Amato Iadicola, John Paolino
Barbara Vitale:  Millard Young, Roger Libby
Letitia Stewart:  George B. Stewart, Michael A. Stewart, John Stewart
Susan Whitman:  Dale Whitman, Randolph Boyle, Winfield Whitman
Patricia Hamdan:  Fausto Hamdan, M.D., St. Joseph
Nancy Bujeaud:  James I. S. Bujeaud, Joseph Bujeaud, Joseph Colford, Joe Colford, Jr.
Ed & Elaine Whitlock:  James Whitlock, Harry Lent
Paula Strickon:  Father John, Bill Lightfoot, Milton Strickon, George Stahl, Tony Dombroski
Nate and Nina Haynes:  Nate Haynes, Irving Haynes, Joseph Lehouillier

With prayerful best wishes,
Fr. John Mahoney

Dear Parishioners and Visitors,

NCR: Pope Francis: Keep your homilies short or ‘people will fall asleep’

Pope Francis has once again appealed to Catholic priests to keep their homilies short, this time warning that homilies should be no longer than eight minutes or “people will fall asleep.” Speaking in St. Peter’s Square for his Wednesday catechesis on June 12, the pope explained that the goal of a homily is to “help move the Word of God from the book to life.”

“But the homily for this must be short: an image, a thought, a feeling. The homily should not go beyond eight minutes   because after that time you lose attention and people fall asleep!” he said.

After reading this article a couple of weeks ago, I remembered a conversation with my parents shortly after my ordination day. When I told them I was preparing the sermon for my first Mass, my mother said, “You’ll need a good beginning,” to which I added, “And a good ending.” Then, my father commented, “And the closer together the better!”

With prayerful best wishes,

Fr. John Mahoney