Please click HERE to view the Mass for the First Sunday of Advent.

Tuesday, December 8th is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Under this title, Mary is recognized and venerated as the Patroness of the United States of America. Mass will be celebrated in the Church at 9:00 AM. Please observe all public health advice and sign up HERE. 

Thursday December 10th at 7:30 PM.

Advent is a time of calm anticipation for the coming of the Lord. Please join us for an evening of quiet reflection and prayer. Set aside an hour for prayerful healing. The service will be livestreamed and will be available for you to view during the entire Advent season. Click HERE to join us.

There are a number of variables in trying to arrange a Christmas Mass schedule this year that we haven’t had to navigate in the past. The pandemic might well worsen by Christmas; the Cardinal is allowing Masses to begin earlier on Christmas Eve; in-person attendance now is approximately 20 percent of pre-pandemic; and music will be limited at Christmas in-person Masses.

With all that in mind, we are offering a schedule of Masses on Christmas Eve, Thursday, December 24 in the Church at: 2:00 pm, 5:00 pm and 8:00 pm and on Christmas Day, Friday December 25 at 10:00 am. We will also be offering a Christmas Mass with a full music program on video.

The Masses are planned three hours apart because the Church will need to be cleaned between each Mass.

We are asking you to sign up for one of these Masses at this early date so that we can plan and make whatever adjustments are necessary. Please do so below.

Blessings and Be Well
~Fr. Frank

December 24th at 2 PM
December 24th at 5 PM
December 24th at 8 PM
December 25th at 10 AM

On Sundays at 10:00 AM we will offer Mass in the Church in addition to the Sunday Vigil Mass in O'Connell Hall on Saturdays at 4pm. Public Health guidelines require us to limit the number of those attending to 40. In order to do this and have a list for contact tracing should that become necessary, we need everyone planning to attend to sign up beforehand. Click the link below for the Mass you wish to attend or call the parish office at 781-784-2265.

Saturday December 5th 4 PM in O'Connell Hall
(Please bring your own chair)
Sunday December 6th at 10 AM in the Church

MASKS ARE REQUIRED. With the cold weather upon us, you will want to be sure you are warmly dressed. Windows will have to be open because of the need for adequate ventilation. We also add the public health caution for those 65 or older or those who have a compromising condition. If you have any questions please contact the parish office at parish@olossharon.org or 781-784-2265.

Please join us by Zoom on Monday, December 14th at 7:00 pm for a session on combating racism and white privilege. We will view Fr. Bryan Massingale's conversation with America magazine's Michael O'Loughlin about racism, white privilege and what the Church can do to address these issues moving forward. Fr. Massingale is the author of Racial Justice and the Catholic Church and a professor of Applied Christian Ethics in the Theology Department at Fordham University. Fr. Massingale's interview is about 25 minutes long; the remainder of the hour will be for discussion.
This Adult Faith Formation program is the second in a series of six presentations. In the new year we will spend time on Pope Francis' recent encyclical Fratelli Tutti. In the light of our common humanity and especially the continuing global health crisis, the Pope urges us to rethink our attitudes and styles of life.

Please email ljacobs@olossharon.org to receive Zoom link for the meeting.

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

There are many service opportunities this holiday season. Please click HERE to see what ways you can help your community. 

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.

Click HERE to view our Annual Report.

All are welcome to join our Zoom Bible Study on Wednesday from 10am to 11am. 
The group, which meets weekly, includes and welcomes sisters and brothers of other faiths. Our examination of the biblical text honors the bible in both the Hebrew and Christian traditions.We are currently reading Exodus.

For more information email Lynn Jacobs at the parish office at ljacobs@olossharon.org.

9-22-2020