June 12, 2003
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
A recent visitor to our Sunday worship told me, “You
can’t leave Sunday Mass at Our Lady’s Parish without knowing for
sure that you have celebrated the liturgy!” I have thought about
that comment over the past several weeks and about how we have grown as a community
in how we celebrate the church’s prayer in our parish.
Perhaps you, too, have noticed a greater fullness in our
sung response at Mass. More and more people are joining in singing the
Lord’s song and it adds a dimension to our prayer that cannot be gained
in any other way. On those occasions when Fr. Sever or Fr. McCarthy celebrate
one of our weekend liturgies, I’m often back in the sacristy having a
cup of coffee and taking it easy. It lifts my heart to hear you lift yours
in song as fully as you do! I’m not sure what a poll would reveal
about our community’s favorite hymn, but I know that our Easter Gospel
acclamation, “Halle, Halle, Halle!” is the one that creates the
loudest volume! I know you join me in thanking our music ministry whose wonderfully
able direction inspires and invites us into sacred song. The ministry
of Jim, Jennifer, Julie, Lauren and Carol every week, and the beautiful instrumental
offerings of Sarah, Suzanne, Louanne and Ganesh as well as our adult and childrens
choirs, all contribute to helping us be a singing, celebrating community of
faith.
The Easter season found us inviting some 60 children to receive
the Eucharist for the first time - and joyful indeed were the celebrations for
their First Communion. Eight years ago when we first made the move from
a large group, Saturday morning First Communion Mass to small group celebrations
on Sundays (and some Saturday afternoons) with the larger community, there was
no small amount of resistance. It is not unusual for us to want things
“the way they used to be” even if a new way has much to recommend
it. At this point, however, I believe that our First Communion families
and the larger parish family have come to see that the place, par excellence,
for welcoming children to the Lord’s Table is that celebration where the
church regularly does what the Lord asked of us at the Last Supper.
We have built some “parish traditions” in the
process. I know that parents who once carried their child down a center
aisle for baptism are proud to walk their youngster down the aisle in the entrance
procession on First Communion day. I know that the children look forward
as much to standing up on their pew benches to be introduced to you as you look
forward to my inviting you to drink in the beauty and innocence of their young
faces. And certainly during the “First Communion season” our
second most favorite song has come to be, “I’ve Got That Joy, Joy,
Joy!”
Just as our parish has come to understand that the
premier place for celebrating infant baptism is in the context of the community’s
Sunday worship, so have we come to understand the value of letting go our nostalgic
memories in order to share the grace of these celebrations with the whole parish.
Ponder this: the children who received the Eucharist for the first time over
the last seven weeks will know from day one that Communion is deeply connected
to their membership in the worshiping community and that the Sunday assembly
has now made room for them at the Lord’s table.
This weekend we celebrate Father’s Day.
I confess to you that I sometimes find myself jealous of some of the father-son,
father-daughter relationships I see in our parish. My own dad and I were
not especially close and I will always regret my own part in the distance between
us. (Curiously, my stubbornness in our emotional stand off was a rather
fine imitation of his own!)
Although there are still many dad and child relationships in need of mending,
healing and growing, I see many others which are rich in intimacy and
affection. My father was an honest man, a hard working man, and a man
faithful to his God, his wife, his family, his country and the Democratic party
- usually in that order! God rest his soul! And God heal and rest
the hearts and souls of fathers and their children who do not share the closeness
that some do.
On Mother’s Day I suggested taking a few moments to
think of the simple things about your mom which you treasure. I suggest
the same for me and you today as we honor our fathers.
The pastors of the archdiocese have been invited by Bishop
Lennon to an “important meeting” on this coming Tuesday afternoon,
June 17. I suspect that at that meeting we will be introduced to the new
Archbishop of Boston, whoever he might be. Pray with me that the church
has been attentive to the Holy Spirit in choosing the bishop for this position.
Sincerely,
Fr. Fleming
May 16, 2003
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
May 19th is the 30th anniversary of my ordination as
a priest of the archdiocese of Boston. On the weekend of my 25th
anniversary, which happened to fall on Pentecost Sunday 5 years ago, I preached
about the ways the Holy Spirit surprises all of us, and in particular about
some of the ways in which the Spirit had surprised me in the quarter century
after my ordination. Little did I know then the surprises that would come
upon all of us Catholics in the year just behind us...
We certainly need nothing less than the power of God’s
Spirit to help us reach out to those who have been abused and to work for change
great enough that the policies and structures of the Catholic community will
never again allow such tragedy to go unchecked. In next week’s bulletin
you will find a novena for these intentions to be prayed from Ascension Thursday
(May 29) through Pentecost Sunday (June 8).
On my 30th anniversary my greatest joy is that I am
the pastor of Our Lady Parish and that you are the community which daily draws
me to the Lord and encourages me to serve in his name. I am grateful to
God for all the ways the Spirit has led me through the “surprises”
of the last 30 years and grateful to you for your faithfulness, your support
and your friendship.
***********************
I am grateful to those who served on the Fr. King Scholarship
Review Committee and happy, on their behalf, to announce the names of this year’s
recipients. These scholarships are awarded from a fund established from
a bequest to the parish from Fr. King. (That same bequest was the source for
purchasing our beautiful outdoor Nativity scene.) The King Scholarships
are awarded on the basis of faithfulness to Sunday worship in our parish community;
service to the parish; and financial need. Upon the recommendation of
the Review Committee: Peter Manzelli and Rachel Windheim have each received
a scholarship in the amount of $2,000 and Kayla Flynn, James Marchetti and Maia
Tekle have each received a scholarship in the amount of $500. The number
and quality of applicants this year was noteworthy which made the decision process
a difficult one. I am grateful to all who applied and to the Review Committee
for its work.
***********************
Members of our parish staff, of the Parish Pastoral
Council, of the Parish Finance Council, and representatives from catechists
in our Religious Education program will be meeting soon over five Tuesday evenings
to discern the direction of our parish catechetical efforts and to determine
the kind of professional leadership which will best benefit our program.
For the coming year, however, we will need the services of an administrator
for grades 1-5 in religious education. The skills we seek in a candidate
for this position center around organization and coordination. For this
interim position, a theological background would not be required. Candidates
for this position (15-20 hours/wk) must be available to work with the program
and staff during the day. If you are interested in applying for or learning
more about this position, please give me a call.
***********************
In order to calculate the grand total on our Lenten
Offering Boxes for building homes in Haiti,
we needed to take two wastebaskets full of coins to the bank to be counted!
Our grand total is a wonderful $7,600.32! Enough for TWO homes!
In a week or two I will write with more information on this project.
Sincerely,
Fr. Fleming
************************************************************
May 9, 2003
Dear Sisters and Brothers,
Some thoughts on Mother’s Day...
I had occasion to be in New Hampshire on Friday afternoon
and rode by several homes where the family’s wash was hung out on clothes
lines. It struck me that I seldom see this anymore, and I remembered how
much my mother loved the fresh, clean smell of clothes that had dried “on
the line.” I found myself in a reverie of other things my mother
loved: a cup of tea in the afternoon; watching Olympic and professional
skaters on television; the lengthening of daylight in the summertime; the daily
paper, first thing in the morning; jigsaw puzzles; falling asleep in her favorite
chair while reading a novel; freshly washed windows; and coming home from anywhere,
no matter how nice “anywhere” had been, because home was always
better... Perhaps you’ve lost your mother, as I have. I suggest
you take a few moments this weekend to remember the simple, little things your
mother loved and enjoyed. Perhaps the memories will bring you, as they
brought me, to a place as simple and lovely as clean clothes waving on a clothes
line on an afternoon in May...
I’m grateful to a woman in the parish who forwarded
me some information about the early origins of Mother’s Day in the United
States. Her email prompted me to do a little investigating and I have
found that three women in American history are credited with being at the roots
of our annual Mother’s Day celebration, all of them living in the late
1800’s: Julia Ward Howe, Juliet Calhoun Blakeley, and Anna Reese Jarvis
and her daughter Anna M. Jarvis.
After the Civil War, Julia Ward Howe (the
first president of the New England Woman Suffrage Association and the composer
of the lyrics of the Battle Hymn of the Republic) issued her own “proclamation”
calling for a “congress of women” to fashion an agenda for international
peace. Howe’s proclamation is a challenging call for disarmament
and comes from the same pen that wrote the words of the Union’s most familiar
battle hymn in the Civil War. Her words still ring with force 130 years
after she wrote them:
Arise, then, women of this day! Arise all women who have hearts, whether our
baptism be that of water or of fears! Say firmly: "We will not have
great questions decided by irrelevant agencies. Our husbands shall not
come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall
not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of
charity, mercy and patience. We women of one country will be too tender
of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.
From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own. It
says "Disarm, Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."
Blood does not wipe our dishonor nor violence indicate possession. As
men have often forsaken the plow and the anvil at the summons of war, let women
now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead. Let
them then solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means whereby the
great human family can live in peace, each bearing after their own time the
sacred impress, not of Caesar, but of God. In the name of womanhood
and of humanity, I earnestly ask that a general congress of women without limit
of nationality may be appointed and held at some place deemed most convenient
and at the earliest period consistent with its objects, to promote the alliance
of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement of international questions,
the great and general interests of peace.
This appeal to women is recognized by many as the proclamation
of the first Mother’s Day. Howe’s annual efforts in this regard
lasted for several years, but two other women would be the one’s to make
Mother’s Day a national event.
In May of 1877, Juliet Calhoun Blakeley stepped into the
pulpit of the Methodist-Episcopal Church in Albion, Michigan to complete the
sermon being delivered by Rev. Myron Daugherty who was too distraught to continue
because an anti-temperance group had forced his son to spend the previous night
in a saloon! Proud of their mother’s quick response, Charles and
Moses Blakeley urged others to honor their mothers and the Albion church began
celebrating Mother’s Day annually in Juliet’s honor.
Nearly 150 years ago, Anna Reese Jarvis, an Appalachian homemaker,
organized a day to raise awareness of poor health conditions in her community,
a cause she believed would be best advocated by mothers. She called this
“Mother’s Work Day.” In the early 1900’s, Jarvis’
daughter, Anna M., worked to memorialize her mother’s contributions to
society and her lobbying of politicians led to the President Woodrow Wilson
signing a bill recognizing Mother’s Day as a national holiday.
The goals and words of these three women are a far cry from
the verse on a typical Mother’s Day card! The words and deeds of
Howe, Blakeley and Jarvis came from the hearts of women who cared deeply about
peace and about the welfare of children. We have a tendency to trivialize
our holidays: many mark the rising of Jesus from the dead with candy eggs
delivered by a bunny! It’s helpful and important for us to know
the origins of our celebrations even if the historical lines cross and are not
altogether clear.
Perhaps the most historically faithful Mother’s Day
celebration will take place this Sunday
when the 7th Annual Mother’s Walk for Peace steps off from Fields Corner
in Dorchester at 8:00 a.m. The walk was created by Clementina and Joseph
Chery to symbolize their defiance of the street violence that claimed the live
of their son, Louis Brown, 15, who was murdered by gang crossfire in 1993.
Proceeds from the walk help fund the Louis Brown Peace program which provides
scholarships to public school students, and Survivor Support Services which
assists families of homicide victims. (For more info, go to www.peacewalkboston.com)
Over the past few weeks I have been part of a number of conversations
in which others have talked about sending cards and buying gifts for Mother’s
Day. And of course the stores and newspapers are filled with advertisements
for the same. Those who have lost their mother, or who are estranged from
their mother, know the bitter-sweet reality of such moments. This day
is also difficult for women who have lost a child, and for women who have had
difficulty in conceiving a child. Indeed, no special day on our calendar
finds all of us prepared to celebrate with equal enthusiasm: sorrow dwells
and joy wells up from the same place deep in our hearts.
I pray that Mary, the Mother of Jesus and the Mother of all of us, his brothers
and sisters, will gently hold in her embrace those whose hearts are heavy this
Mother’s Day weekend and those whose hearts are filled with joy.
Sincerely,
Fr. Fleming
*********************
May 1, 2003
Dear Sisters and Brothers,
Not too long ago I included the name of Mr. Rogers in our
weekly prayers of the faithful upon the occasion of his death. I’m
old enough to have had a pre-Mr. Rogers youth, and although I don’t usually
include celebrities in that space, it seemed to me that Mr. Rogers had such
a wonderful impact on the lives of so many that we should pause prayerfully
in his memory. Someone who did influence me in my youth died this
past week: Gerry Williams of talk radio fame. When I was in high
school our “highest” tech toy was the transistor radio and I was
the proud owner of one of these marvels after my aunt traded hers in for a better
model. My transistor radio was small enough to tuck under my pillow at
night and a small earphone allowed me to tune in long after my parents had declared
“lights out.” It was under these circumstances, when Gerry
Williams’ show was a night time event, that I was introduced to the world
of current events and politics. His capacity to argue his positions and
the way he took on callers impressed and fascinated me. Listening to Gerry
at night got me to want to read the newspaper the next day, to learn more about
the issues he dealt with. When out in my car, talk shows are still my
“radio of choice” but no one comes close to the talented and exciting
discourse of Gerry Williams: may he rest in peace...
About a month ago, you had an opportunity at Sunday Mass
to fill out “commitment cards” for the archdiocesan capital campaign,
“Promise For Tomorrow.” The archdiocese had fist told me that
you would receive informational material in the mail prior to being asked to
make a choice about participating in the campaign, but then informed me that
the informational materials would come after the distribution and collection
of the commitment cards. My pointing out that this seemed to be a foolish
way of doing things did not change the archdiocesan mind. To my knowledge,
the campaign materials have yet to be mailed to the households of our parish.
For your information: the campaign representative from chancery estimated
that on “Commitment Weekend” we would receive back approximately
150 cards and that I should not be surprised if as much as $100,000 was pledged.
In fact, 266 cards were returned and a total of $24,000 was pledged. I
thank you for responding to my earnest request to fill out the commitment cards
regardless of what your response might be.
The fruits of our Easter Giving Tree were plentiful this year. Sixty six
children from the Family Life Center and six concord children received gifts
of clothing. Sixty three teens from the Family Life Center and ten concord
teens received Marshall's gift certificates. In addition, $470 in Stop
and Shop gift certificates and $660 in cash and checks were donated. So
many people were blessed by the generosity of our parish family! (Unfortunately,
there were a number of tags taken for which gifts were not returned. The
Social Action committee had to do some last minute shopping to purchase these
gifts. Please remember that if you take a tag, we are counting on you
to return your gift to the church by the date specified on the tag.)
I am pleased to announce the success of our Lenten Haiti
Housing project. We have received $4,500 in checks and folding money -
and we have not even begun to count the coin! This means that we are already
prepared to build one home in Fond des Blancs and that we are half way there
towards building a second one!
It was just a year ago that our parish formed a chapter of
Voice of the Faithful. Over the course of the past year our parish VOTF
has met almost weekly and has invited survivor-victims and others as guest speakers
in the parish. I am grateful for their important contribution to our parish’s
response to the crisis. As you may remember, last fall Cardinal Law put
a “freeze” on new chapters of Voice of the Faithful meeting on church
property: chapters already formed (like our own) were permitted to continue
to meet but new chapters were banned. Other bishops followed suit in 8
dioceses. On April 29, Bishop Thomas Daily of diocese of Brooklyn REVERSED
the ban in his diocese, stating that his reading of VOTF documents shows them
"to be in accord with the teachings of the Church." Bishop Daily
is known as a very conservative bishop and so his decision is telling.
I pray that Bishop Lennon in the Archdiocese of Boston, and bishops of other
dioceses where VOTF has been banned, will pay careful attention to Bishop Daily’s
decision and give VOTF a more fair and open hearing than it has thus far received.
So many among us contributed to the beauty of our Holy Week
and Easter liturgies and we owe them a resounding “Thank you!”
In particular I want to thank, on your behalf, the women who care for our sacristy
and sanctuary, and those who prepare our beautiful flower arrangements;
the music ministry of our parish which never fails to lift our hearts and spirits
in beautiful song; and the ministers of word and sacrament who so faithfully
minister the Lord’s presence among us. Please keep in your prayer
those who help to make our prayer together so beautiful in so many ways.
It’s “that time of year” when our sacramental
celebrations are many and joyous! We will be welcoming 60 second graders
to receive Communion for the first time and a number of children will be baptized
at our weekend liturgies. Information regarding the timing of these celebrations
can be found in the main bulletin.
Sincerely,
Fr. Fleming
*************************************************
