This weekend we begin a new church religious year. Our year is based upon telling the story of Jesus Christ Our Savior. In a sense, we begin at the beginning and end at the end when everything has been said. To begin telling the story we need to back up a bit before the actual birth at Bethlehem. Thus, we have four weeks called Advent to help us get to the story of Christ's birth and its meaning in our lives. The readings of this weekend help us by focusing us on the future. They, in fact, invite us to rejoice, even in the face of our times and situations, because we know that God will not fail us. They strongly encourage us to plan for the future, because we believe that God will not dash our hopes. They greatly encourage us to strive and work for the promise of a better tomorrow, because we are absolutely convinced that on this very day and every day God is fulfilling His promises and acting on our behalf. We believe that the "Son of Man" is coming and has come. Our great hope and the way we live can make for a brighter future for all who seek him.

Dear Parishioners and Friends of Saint Mary Parish,

This letter will be a bit short because the parish work schedule is a very short week with the staff only in for two and a half days along with my heading to the family home at the Cape to help with food and guest preparation (and of course my specialty: dropping the turkey (!) and also (lots and lots of) dish and pot-washing). On behalf of our Pastoral and Support Staff along with Deacons Guy and Ron and also Fathers Jack and Frank, I wish you a Blessed and Happy Thanksgiving. May this holiday weekend bring some joy and light to your life.

Our scripture readings are thematically related to the theological concept of the life-pact between God and ourselves that is verified by Jesus' sacrifice on the cross. We know from the scriptures that God initiates the covenant and invites us to enter into it and to complete it. We learn that what our "high priest" has begun, we are to continue through celebration and service.

When Jesus told his friends to remember him by breaking bread and drinking wine, he did not mean just to have "good thoughts" about him. In our religious tradition all the way back through the earliest of times in the Old Testament, to remember is a very special action. To remember means to make events or happenings from the past come alive now in this very present.

Dear Parishioners and Friends of Saint Mary’s,

This coming Thursday is Thanksgiving Day which is a very beautiful and wonderful time for us. For the most part we all gather with family and friends to celebrate with a special meal. I know that the Pandemic will influence how we celebrate this year, but our celebration will be closer to what we normally do. Not everyone is blessed to have family and friends that they can gather with on this day, so please recognize how blessed you are in your gathering with loved ones. All of us, of course, will hold in our hearts the special people of our lives who have gone before us to the other side of life. May they rest in peace. Amen. Also remember that some are missing from our tables because of bitter fights, long held grudges or remembered or forgotten resentments. Perhaps the Pandemic will help some of us to realize that a lot of our “issues” really do not matter and we should extend a hand of welcome to our missing family and friends. In the long run most negative issues we carry really do not merit the darkness we have kept in our hearts and the work to keep the alienation going. Some of my family will be gathering at our home down the Cape. There will be the traditional turkey dinner, (with the 3 minute rule if I drop the turkey! And the code of silence about it!)

We are now drawing close to the end of our Church's religious and liturgical year. Thus our readings this weekend focus on the end times of our world, which is the return of Jesus Christ in his Second Coming. This usually is not a topic we think about or talk about. Some do, however and they usually make it sound scary and frightening. Our readings today approach all of this differently, these readings call us to faith and draw on our faith to help us face the end times without trepidation.

Dear Parishioners and Friends of Saint Mary Parish,

The march of time happens every day. Thanksgiving is shortly in the distance and then comes the wonderful Season of Advent for weeks and then our great Celebration of the Nativity of Our Lord, Christmas. I suggest we just put one foot forward at a time and step along each day and we will end up having a wonderful and beautiful Winter Religious Season along with the gatherings of our families and friends.

We witness the kindness and generosity of the poor in the two different widows in the first reading and the Gospel reading this weekend. In reading from the first Book of Kings, we learn about a very dire time of famine in Israel. The prophet Elijah in his travels met a pagan widow. We need to remember that Elijah had been told by God that there would be a great drought and a widowed woman would appear to help him. When Elijah saw the woman, he asked for a drink of water. Asking for a cup of water in a desert climate and place was quite normal. He, however, asked for a second cup He even pressed further before she had even answered and asked for some bread. This clearly poor widow had so little to give him; in fact, she did not even have any bread on hand. She was planning to bake the last of her supplies of flour and oil. In a dramatic way Elijah gave her a promise that if she gave what she had, she and her family would not go hungry during this terrible drought.

Dear Parishioners and Friends of Saint Mary’s,

The Fall is always a very busy time for everyone with lots of important events taking place and long term plans being made. It is easy to get lost in all of this activity and end up feeling overwhelmed. Critical events also take place that add to the pressure and stress of trying to know and understand and also to act and do everything that is expected. All we can do is take one step at a time and hopefully be moving in a forward direction. This letter has many things for you. So my advice to you is to do the best you can with the items that you believe yoREAD MORE

Most of us have experienced at least one painful or scary time in our lives. This can be the sudden and tragic death of a spouse, perhaps even the loss of a child. A scary moment can be the loss of a sole income for a family. At these times we never really know what to say. In fact there is very little we can do for the suffering person, but we do know that we have to be there, after all that is what friends do. Friends are people you can turn to in times of need.

Dear Parishioners and Friends of Saint Mary’s,

November begins this week and we tend to begin preparing for the great Feast of Thanksgiving these coming days. For many of us it is the issuing of invitations, the planning of menu’s and the decorating of our homes. We also usually have some thoughts and feelings inside of us of remembering those who are no longer with us and have gone to the other side of life.

The prophecy of Jeremiah found in the first reading was selected because it provides an initial insight into our Gospel passage. Clearly God's compassion, described in the first reading prepares us to learn about the compassion of Jesus for the blind, desperate Bartimaeus.

From the first reading we realize that people who are bound and captured and also exiled in a strange land always pay close attention to their captors and oppressors. They can sense the slightest nuance of change, and now in this passage they can sense change. They know that their captors are now threatened by others and are becoming weaker. The once powerful Assyrians are losing their power as the Babylonians and Medes begin to overwhelm them. The Assyrians seem to be concluding that these exiled Jewish captives are not worth the time and effort and so they should send these foreigners back home.

Dear Parishioners and Friends of Saint Mary Parish,

I have been away for the last few days and will be away one week more. I was participating in a family wedding in Raleigh NC and  then will be away for a few more days. So, this week there is no letter. I did write a Pastoral Reflection for you. Hopefully the letter resumes next week end!

My Best,

Father Brian

If you reflect upon the first and second reading at Mass this weekend, you may conclude that the readings balance each other and offer us some kind of equilibrium and strength for us to continue in our journey as disciples of the Lord. Most people find the first few words of the first reading absolutely shocking as Isai­ah writes: "The Lord was pleased to crush him in infirmity." How can this please God? How can people being crushed please God? How are we to understand this? Most people conclude that God seems to allow the suffering of the innocent to go on and on, with no intervention or relief.

Dear Parishioners and Friends of Saint Mary’s,

Unfortunately, this past weekend our Live-Stream software was not working correctly, and Masses were not Live-Streamed. All of this is above the heads of 99% per cent or more of us and we must wait for the ‘tech’ to come and fix it. I am disappointed that we were unable to share the Holy Mass with some of you this past weekend. Sometimes there is nothing I can do, especially when it has to do with tech equipment. All of us are now well experienced in waiting for assistance from people whether it is on-line, on the phone or even in-person. Hopefully it will all be working this weekend.

Our Gospel passage this weekend is about Jesus and the Young Man. One should notice that the young man has self-confidence and is also generous in spirit, and in addition, is vibrant in his approach to life. Jesus obviously saw the young man and wanted to speak with him. We realize, of course, that the young man's request was quite a legitimate question to ask Jesus. Perhaps the young fellow was a little out of line by the salutation of "Good Master" for Jesus certainly corrected that. He reminds the young man that God alone is good, and thus in a sense any good we do is because of God. Yet we must hear the entire story for everything to fit together properly.

Dear Parishioners and Friends of Saint Mary Parish,

We all have stepped along to mid-October and the Autumn Season. It does not take too long for the days of summer to fade from our memories as we push closer to the cold winter time. The great holiday of Thanksgiving is not really that far away. Our family starting its plans for that weekend in late August and we have stepped it up a notch or two since October 1st.  Just a reminder: the Sunday before Thanksgiving Day our parish will host the Franklin Interfaith Council’s Interfaith Thanksgiving Service. It will also be Livestreamed via our website. More details to follow in a few more weeks. Just “save the date” for that Sunday evening at this point! I enjoyed the Town’s Harvest festival last weekend. The weather certainly allowed it to flourish and be a wonderful opportunity for everyone to wander and see all that was to be offered. The Harvest Festival Leadership and Committee are to be commended for their extraordinary service to all of us.

A bishop, priest, deacon, or lay preacher who is preaching this weekend can certainly stand tall on the preaching box and rant about marriage in this present age and in these times. It is easy to focus a talk on pre-marital sex, divorce or same sex marriage instead of attempting to lift up marriage and encourage people to see the beauty and wonder of marriage. Religious preachers can be quite lazy and often go about bashing and beating people up and do not put thought and effort about lifting up the Word of God and his gifts to us. We all know it is easier to throw around nasty names and criticize without understanding anything than it is to think decently and thoughtfully about something that is important. Oftentimes this bashing and destroying is a substitute for what it is really going on. Certainly, the Gospel tells us this in plain and clear terms.

Dear Parishioners and Friends of Saint Mary Parish,

During these past few weeks our Parishioners have been engaged in the re-start of our community life. Our most dedicated Saint Vincent de Paul held its Annual Walk for the Poor and it was most successful. Over 100 young people from our Town joined in the Walk. I was very impressed to see that your young people understand the issue of food scarcity and neediness and that they responded in person to walk. Our Catholic Women’s Club which is celebrating its 100th Year held its Annual Opening Mass and Social. Father Jack, this Mass’s customary priest celebrated this special Opening Mass.