06-10-2022Letters From Fr. BrianRev. Brian F. Manning

Dear Parishioners and Friends of Saint Mary Parish,

This Sunday evening at 5 PM there will be a Prayer Vigil/Service on the Town Common for the people of Ukraine. The Franklin Interfaith Council along with invited guests will be participating in the service. Please plan to come and stand with and for the Ukraine people, pray for them, and also the end of the horrible violence. You will notice that it is early evening so people may find it more convenient to attend. If it rains, we will use Saint Mary Church for the Service. Everyone is welcome. You may wish to bring a “beach chair” to sit on.

On this Monday night, June 13 everyone is welcome to a Parish Meeting for the “Synod on Synodality” which is a special interest, and by request of Pope Francis. It is to discern the topic of “listening” in particular. Michael and Louann Swan are the Leaders of this meeting. The meeting will be from 7 PM until 8:15 PM in Sacred Heart Hall on the lower level of the church building. The Parish Pastoral and Finance Councils participated in this request and met about three weeks ago. It was a most interesting meeting.

The counting of the paper and electronic ballots for the New Parish Pastoral Council Members has been completed and the new members are Pandora Carlucci, Jim Lane, Lisa Oxford, and John Ristaino (listed alphabetically). I want to thank those who also offered their service as potential candidates. In addition, it is a wonderful sign of healthy parish life when there are more candidates than positions for the Parish Pastoral Council election. We welcome them to our Pastoral Council. These members assist and advise me as the Pastor on how best to create and maintain a vibrant faith community. I also want to thank Roberta Trahan, Faith Flaherty, and Christopher Feeley who are the outgoing Members of the Council. Their prayerful caring, thoughts, reflections, and advice are deeply appreciated. I thank them for their special commitment to serving on the Council. We must all bear in mind that the Pandemic has disrupted everyone’s life in various ways with obvious and subtle effects and going forward our Parish Council will assist in developing a parish faith community that can exist and flourish in the same, but very different environment of our Town. Our patterns of life have changed in the last two or so years and we must envision our Parish within that same, but new context.

We are stepping more and more into summer during this past week. How delightful it is to have the long sunny days and warmer air. We must all enjoy this better weather in the coming weeks. During this summer time, I will be writing less and less often in terms of a letter each week, but I will continue to write the Pastoral Reflection throughout the summer (with the exception of 1 or 2 weeks).

I personally thank you for your continued personal financial support of Saint Mary Parish and our Saint Vincent de Paul.  

As always we remember that our Parish is dedicated to Mary, the Mother of God. We invoke her intercession for all of us and those whom we hold in our hearts. We ask Saint Rocco, our special Patron and Healer to intercede for those who are ill, especially our young.

God bless,
    Father Brian

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