Christmas in the City
What: Christmas in the City is a non-profit, 100% volunteer organization. Their mission is to support and mentor homeless families in the Greater Boston area. Their Christmas party is the largest Christmas party in MA serving approximately 3,000 homeless children.  When we volunteer at Christmas in the City, we will serve as “Santa’s Helpers.”  We will serve food, distribute Christmas gifts to the children, and care for the children at “Winter Wonderland,” an event filled with fun activities.  Each volunteer is asked to bring an unwrapped Christmas gift to donate to CITC.
Who: This service opportunity is open to any person age sixteen and older.
Where: CITC takes place in the Boston Convention Center.  Volunteers will meet in the Bullock Center to carpool.
When: December 16, 2018 8:40 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. 
Click here to sign up.

The Pastoral Plan Writing Team has completed analyzing the results of the parish survey. Click on the link below to read the results.

Parish Survey Results 

Focus Group Meetings
The pastoral plan writing team conducted a survey in which we had excellent participation from you. They have distilled the results. Three focus group meetings on separate topics have been planned to hear from you. 
December 15th 5:30 PM after 4:30 PM Mass
OLOS as Model for Lay Leadership
O’Connell Hall
January 6th. 9:45 AM at coffee hour
OLOS as a Welcoming and Supportive Community 
O’Connell Hall 
January 6th 6:30 PM
OLOS with a Strong Focus on our  Faith Formation Foundation 
Rectory 

The OLOS Book Group will meet on Sunday, December 9th from 2-3:00 PM in the Bullock Center. All are welcome. We will be discussing The Cloister Walk, by Kathleen Norris. Please come ready to discuss the book. If you have any questions, be in touch with Teresa Coda (tcoda@olossharon.org) Monica LaFond. Our January meeting will be on Sunday, January 6th and we’ll be discussing My Mother’s Secret, by J. L. Witterick.

MONDAY DECEMBER 24TH: 
                  5 PM: O'CONNELL HALL & CHURCH
                  7 PM AND 9 PM
TUESDAY DECEMBER 25TH:
                  7:30 AM & 10:30 AM 
 

Evelyn House is a a transitional shelter in Stoughton that services displaced families in our area. There are 16+ families, mostly women and children, that will spend their holiday season at Evelyn House. OLOS and the Christian Services Commission (CSC) host an annual Christmas activity for the Evelyn House residents. This year it will be on December 13. Santa will arrive with your gifts for the residents; there will be refreshments and EH will take family pictures with Santa! On the weekend of November 17-18, the Giving Tree will be in the alcove with tags for gifts, activities and supplies. Please take a tag with a set of gift guidelines and return the items wrapped to the Giving Tree before December 2. Members of CSC will be at each Mass to answer questions. Thank you in advance for your generosity! If you have any questions, please contact Kate Mason at 781-784-6163

On August 19, instead of preaching on the daily readings at Mass, Fr. Daly read excerpts of Cardinal Sean’s statement regarding the most recent exposure of clergy abuse through the PA Grand Jury report released on Tuesday, August 14 and spoke about it in the context of OLOS.  Following the Mass, parishioners gathered to share in fruitful discussion about the statement, the trifecta of abuse current scandals in the church (McCarrick, St. John’s Seminary, PA Grand Jury Report) and the appropriate response of the laity.  Click here for notes from the homily and the conversation.

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FEEDBACK

A wonderful group of parishioners have been working these past months on a parish Pastoral Plan. We owe them a great debt of gratitude. They conducted a Parish Survey and over two hundred of you completed it which is a very good response rate. The preliminary findings having been put together, the team now wants to afford the opportunity for you to respond to them. The first of three open meetings will be held in O’Connell Hall after the 4:30 PM Mass on Saturday December 15. The subject is OLOS as a model for lay leadership. If there was ever before a time for the laity to step up and lead, it probably hasn’t been as great as now. Please join us, share your thoughts and make your voice heard. We are eager to listen.

 
CHEVERUS AWARD

On Sunday, November 25, Cardinal O’Malley presented the Cheverus Award to 125 laypersons, deacons and religious. Named for the first bishop of Boston, Jean-Louis Lefebvre de Cheverus, the award honors local Catholics for service to the Church.  The Cardinal has referred to the recipients as the “unsung heroes and heroines” of the Archdiocese.
 
Among the recipients this year was our own Senior Deacon Mike Iwanowicz. The ordinary process is for the pastor to nominate someone every third year and I was pleased to do so last year. This nomination of Mike however was made by regional Bishop Robert Reed and was a region-wide nomination rather than a  parish one.
 
On Sunday, December 9 at the 11:00 AM Mass, we will recognize this honor for Deacon Mike and thank him for his long service to Our Lady of Sorrows.

 
GONE PHISHING

Last weekend, some parishioners received an    e-mail, supposedly from me, asking them to purchase gift cards for cancer victims who I had visited. DO NOT DO THIS. We received notice from the Archdiocesan IT group this week that this has happened in a number of parishes. It is a scam. If you ever get anything suspicious like this, please call the parish before doing anything. We appreciate your generous instincts but don’t let someone with evil intent take advantage of your goodness.
 

SCREENS

This week, I heard a radio report that the American Heart Association had issued a warning to parents about the possible negative effect on heart health of sitting before a screen for inordinate amounts of time especially for young people. The report suggested that there are estimates that young people between eight and eighteen spend as much as seven hours a day before screens of one type or another. Many hours are spent playing video games. The recommendation is to reduce that time to two hours. For reasons other than medical, I   endorse this recommendation. Given the vast amount of material available for viewing and engagement, the health of the soul is certainly threatened not only by the content but by the messages of what’s important that gets conveyed. Video games for example were originally developed by the people who made training videos for the military. So, it’s no surprise that violence, defeat the other at all costs and the kind of competition that excludes cooperation with and consideration of others is common fare.
 
It’s true that we encounter these messages other places in our culture but rarely do we engage them and absorb them as completely. Despite the culture, we are still called to live in it as brothers and sisters, redeemed in Christ and committed to his message to love God and one another. I know that can sound countercultural but the AHA seems to be telling us that it’s healthy too.

~ Fr. Frank