View the Sunday Mass with Fr. Clooney by clicking the link below:

The 19th Sunday of Ordinary Time Mass

We will be celebrating Mass this Saturday at 4pm in O'Connell Hall. You are required to sign-up HERE if you would like to attend. 

PLEASE BRING YOUR OWN CHAIR AND A MASK. IF YOU FEEL SICK PLEASE DO NOT ATTEND. 

If you have any questions please contacct the parish office at parish@olossharon.org or call 781-784-2265

I have found it difficult to put thoughts together to comment on the trauma that our world and especially our country and society are going through. While I have been musing, the moment of intense attention has passed but the problems certainly linger. As if extraordinary divisions in our national community and an illness that has killed more than 150,000 of our brothers and sisters were not enough, the stark and chilling murder of George Floyd in front of our eyes on the streets of one of our major cities reminds us that there is something wrong in our national psyche.

Statements have been made from all quarters, including a very forceful one from our own Archbishop, Cardinal Sean and one wonders what there is left to say. Let me share some of the thoughts I have had in this struggle. 

As a baptized Christian and a priest, my first reference is Jesus of Nazareth. The scriptures present not only what he said. His words are compelling. They also present who he is. Time and time again, Jesus challenged the attitudes, the culture, the institutions and the societal structures of his day. He stood up for the powerless they were designed to oppress and it led to his death. We might imagine that “take your knee off their neck” was his cry. He was an inspiration to Ghandi who stood up to an Empire, to Archbishop Romero and Fr. Rutilio Grande SJ who challenged evil power and paid with their lives as well as to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr who confronted racism without a sword and like his savior also paid with his life. 

Despite the variety of depictions of Jesus over many centuries, the fact remains that he was a middle-eastern male with more color in his skin than I have in mine. In his public life, he was homeless, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” (Luke 9:58). Not only that but he reminded us of the importance of that perspective in each of our lives: “For we have here no lasting city, but we are looking for the city that is to come” (Hebrews 13:14).

Notwithstanding that stark reality, I sometimes think we have managed to domesticate Jesus into a middle class religious leader guiding us comfortably to salvation. In fact, he was in the streets, in the plazas, in the temple courtyard, in the dwellings of the outcasts challenging the customs, structures, institutions and attitudes of his day that stacked the deck against the powerless, the marginal, and the vulnerable. Where do you think he would be today?

It brings to mind the TV ad “Banks don’t do that,” “Yes, they do.”  

You don’t challenge the law of the Sabbath and cure the man born blind. Yes he did. 

You don’t disrupt the established custom and economics of the temple courtyard in defense of poor people who are being extorted. Yes he did.

You don’t defy custom by sitting in the middle-eastern noon-day sun listening and responding to an outspoken woman from an outcast people. Yes he did.

He is the Word of God, a word which speaks and acts. Undeterred by the power structures of the day and the drive to protect the status quo, He is concerned only with doing the will of his father. 

We too should adopt that posture undeterred by the distractions and the politics and listen to the marginalized who demand to be heard and the thousands who have marched in our streets in support of them.

Pope Francis’ first visit outside of Rome after his election was to the island of Lampedusa off the coast of Sicily, the destination of refugees from Africa many thousands of whom perished crossing in less than seaworthy vessels risking all to seek freedom. In his speech, Francis denounced the “globalization of indifference.” He challenged the structures and attitudes designed to keep them out even if it cost them their lives. Refugees are not entitled to less rights, less dignity and less loving care. Francis listened and his response was in word and deed. He followed the pattern of the savior and became a model for us.

Like him, we are called to do no less and follow in word and deed the road travelled by the savior in the world in which we find ourselves.

~Fr. Frank

Good morning everyone,
Below is the link to my homily for this sunday, august 9th: In Matthew 14, having feed the 10,000 (last Sunday), Jesus goes off to pray again, but then walks out onto the lake to meet and save his disicples. In 1 Kings 19, it takes Elijah a while to find out how God is speaking to him in the quietest way of all. Have a good weekend, and keep well and safe.
~Fr. Clooney 

When God suddenly Appears

The reality of the pandemic has required us to rethink and reimagine all aspects of our life as a faith community, from our celebration of the Eucharist to our parish pastoral plan to our faith formation activities.

As we look ahead to the new faith formation year beginning this fall, we expect that the need for social distancing will continue. After careful consideration of the constraints imposed by our facilities, which even in ordinary times require us to borrow space at the Cottage Street Elementary School, and after consultation with the Parish Pastoral Council, the Faith Formation staff and I have decided that Pre-Kindergarten through Confirmation faith formation programs will be online during the 2020-21 faith formation year.

Teresa Coda and Monica LaFond are working on adapting our faith formation curriculum to this new online world. This spring, Teresa piloted a weekly online small-group discussion program with the middle schoolers that worked very well. Next year’s faith formation program will build on this format, with monthly online small sessions for children and youth grouped by age range, and additional components for 2nd graders preparing to receive their First Eucharist.  The sessions for children and youth will be supplemented by optional online sessions that will help parents explore ways they can share our Catholic faith with their children at home. As the Church teaches, parents are the first and foremost educators of their children, with both a right and a duty to form, develop and guide their children into adulthood. For this reason, the Second Vatican Council used the ancient expression “domestic Church” to describe the family as the center of a living faith where parents are the first preachers of the faith to their children, by word and example. 

The family as the domestic Church is especially apparent during this time, when the exigencies of COVID-19 prevent us from gathering in person as a parish community. While we look forward to the day when we will be able to resume in person programs and activities, we embrace the unique opportunities that come with moving our faith formation program online. For one, adapting our traditional faith formation program to the new, online reality is prompting us to reimagine faith formation in all its aspects, including its relevance to adults who have the solemn right and duty to pass on our Catholic faith to their children. For another, being online means that Teresa Coda can continue to direct our middle and high school faith formation programs despite the fact that she and her family have relocated to Pennsylvania to be nearer to her extended family. Teresa is an integral part of our Faith Formation team, so I am very happy that she is willing and able to continue as director of our middle and high school programs from her new home.

Teresa and Monica will continue to develop the new faith formation program over the next few months. If you would like to help with the planning or serve as a faith formation volunteer in the fall, or if you have comments or concerns, they can be reached at 781-784-2265, tcoda@olossharon.org and mlafond@olossharon.org.

- Fr. Frank

Stay connected to Our Lady of Sorrows Parish throughout the week for the latest news and announcements. Sign up for our weekly email newsletter and each week you'll receive news and information, including some that just doesn't fit in the bulletin.