Category: From the Pastor’s Desk (Page 36 of 68)

We are very grateful to those who contributed to provide such beautiful flowers during our Easter celebrations.  May they, and those memorialized, be remembered in our prayers of gratitude.

Donors : In Memory/Honor of

P & C Walsh: Family & friends, Sven, Kai, Evelyn & Hazel Walsh, all the people in the Ukraine and Russia.

Patricia Hamdan: Dr. Lee Ann Stewart, Dr. F. Hamdan, Patricia Yagielowicz, Wanda Hamdan, Placido Arango, Lupita Hamdan, Blessed Holy Mother Mary,St. Jude,St. Paragrine,St. Michael,St. Anthony,St. Therese of the Roses,Prayers – Novenas granted.

Doug & Margaret Sweeney: Robert & Marianne Loranger, John & Lillian Sweeney, Mary Moniz, Mark Rosier, deceased members of the Loranger/Grady Family.

Quentin Boyle: Sam Boyle,Laura & Quent Boyle, Alice Burke.

Rose Marie Henderson: Henderson Family, Clarleglio Family

Letitia Stewart: Anna M. Stewart,George B. Stewart,Dr. Michael A. Stewart, Dr. Patricia M. Hamdan, Gus Ferrera

Ray & Jane Maki: Chris Maki, Raymond and Edith Morris, Paul & Phil Hajjar, Sol & Betty Hajjar, Jack Lynch, Edla & Martin Maki, Carol & Ralph Maki, Katherine Emerson

Janet Peltier: Herman & Helen Cadorette, Claire Ward

Mary Pieroni: Michael Sr. & Mary Iarocci, Albert Pieroni, Cecilia Pieroni, Eugenio & Nicolena Muscatelli,Luigi & Lena Iarocci, Angelo Pezzo,Octavio & Pauline Pieroni, Amato & Emma Iodicola,  Michelina Muscatelli, Isabelle Rafferty, Marguerite Lemieux

Barbara Vitale: Margurite & Millard Young, Michael Vitale, Roger Libby

Urania Perron: Aime Perron & Perron Family, Clough Family, Macedo & Paiva Family, Eric Johnson, Barbara Eiserlo

Lee Latham: Matthew & Mary Driscoll

Joseph & Laura Laufenberg: Joseph W. Laufenberg, Jr.

Bill Burdin: William C. & Eleanor Burdin, Joseph R. & Anna T. Redgrift, Richard W. Burdin

Susan Whitman: Dale Whitman, Whitman Family, Boyle Family, Robert, Shirley & Michael Leclerc, Ray, Sandra & Randy Borgnis

Nathan Haynes: Joseph & Mabel Lehouillier, Irving & Helena Haynes

Michael Iarocci: Michael & Mary Iarocci, Mary DeCubellis, Teresa Russo, Muscatelli Family, Ann Tarzi

Jan & Grazyna Wolowski: Wolowski Family, Jedrzejewski Family, Golik Family, Zdrojewski Family, Barbara Rochnowsko, Kazimierz Scislowski, Jan Nowak, Bronia Kazmierczak, Wojtek Kurpiewski

Continued blessings of the Easter Season to all,

Fr. John Mahoney

Dear Parishioners and Visitors,

He is risen! 

He is risen, indeed!

         We learned many lessons about covenants during the 40 days of Lent this year.  And now we exult in the most important covenant – that God so loved the world that He sent His only son so that we who follow him might have eternal life.  God loves us.  God is merciful toward us.  And God wants us to live forever with Him in His Kingdom.  This is the essential meaning of our Easter celebrations.   

     Throughout the Easter Season, we continue our works of charity and mercy.  Pope Francis called mercy the “beating heart of the gospel.”  Mercy and compassionate treatment of the distressed and undeserved is another term for God’s charity.  Consider showing devotion to it by reciting the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, a rosary-based prayer that was received by Saint Faustina, a Polish nun in the 1930s, through visions of Jesus.  Divine Mercy Sunday is celebrated the week after Easter, but many make the Chaplet part of their regular prayer and devotion by reciting it every day at 3 p.m. (the traditional hour of Christ’s death). 

     Wishing you all the blessings, charity, and mercy of the Holy Season of Easter,  

Fr. John Mahoney 

Dear Parishioners and Visitors,

“Now the Passover of the Jews was near.”  As Christians prepare for Palm Sunday and Holy Week, followers of the Jewish faith tradition prepare for the beginning of Passover at sundown on Friday, April 15.  There are many traditions that led to the Jewish use of unleavened bread, or matzah, during this feast.  One of the most interesting is the usage of the Hebrew term “the bread of poverty” for matzah.  This hard, flat bread is said to remind Jews of what it was like to be poor captives in Egypt and to promote humility and a greater appreciation of the gift of freedom.  Food for thought for one and all—and for gratitude!

Here is more food for thought:  Although the term, “the Jews” as it is used in the Gospels may be interpreted by some disparagingly, the Church’s unique relationship with the Jewish people is grounded in a shared heritage, making it unlike any other dialogue with another religious tradition.  It cannot be forgotten that Jesus himself, as well as the earliest apostles, were Jewish. The Second Vatican Council relied on the Apostle Paul’s imagery to describe the familial bond: “Nor can she forget that she draws sustenance from the root of that well-cultivated olive tree onto which have been grafted the wild shoots, the Gentiles” (Nostra Aetate, 4).  

The Church recognizes that God’s covenant with the Jewish people continues to be valid. Recently, the Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews has even stated, “That the Jews are participants in God’s salvation is theologically unquestionable, but how that can be possible without confessing Christ explicitly, is and remains an unfathomable divine mystery” (“The Gifts and the Calling of God are Irrevocable”, 36).

Wishing you the blessings of Holy Week and a deeper understanding of our “shared heritage” with all of God’s children,

Fr. John Mahoney

Dear Parishioners and Visitors,

     The practice of requesting a Mass to be celebrated in memory of a loved one, living or deceased, or for a designated cause consistent with Church teaching, is a beautiful and meaningful part of our Catholic tradition.  The 1983 Code of Canon Law (cc. 945-958) and other Church legislative entities, regulate strictly the offerings and intentions that may be celebrated within a calendar year (January-December).  Mass intentions may not be scheduled for more than one year in advance, based on a rolling calendar, are limited to fifteen (15) Mass intentions per household per year, and are subject to change of date for due cause.  For more information, please see the “Saint Joseph Parish Mass Intentions Policy” on the parish’s website:   www.stjosephlincoln.org.

     Whereas supply-chain problems delayed delivery of the 2023 Mass Intentions calendar, I am happy to announce that the new calendar is now prepared and intentions are being accepted at the parish office, according to the terms of the Policy, at a rate of $10 per Mass, as set by the Bishops of the Boston Metropolitan of Catholic Churches.

With prayerful best wishes,
Fr. John Mahoney

Dear Parishioners and Visitors,

And the people begged Jesus that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak, and as many as touched it were healed (Mark 5:56).

For some, the weeks of Lent are a time of preparation for baptism; for all it is a time for preparation to renew baptismal promises with conviction. Time in prayer, self-scrutiny, celebrating the Sacrament of Reconciliation in a careful and thoughtful way can make the questions “Do you believe in God?” and “Do you reject sin?” not only words of a ceremony but the sign of a fresh commitment.  To say that the Sacrament of Reconciliation is not widely celebrated today is an understatement, but it is not an overstatement to say that it is more needed than ever.  Reconciliation is as much a matter of having your sins forgiven as it is the experience of opening yourself to the healing of God through Christ in the Sacrament.  Of what would you like to be healed? 

With prayerful best wishes,

Fr. John Mahoney