St. Anne Shrine of Fall River

Can you all believe that it is already November! That means the Holiday Season is already upon us. This year has been no ordinary year, but we hope and pray that we will see better days in 2021. We wanted to take this quick opportunity to update you on what is happening at the shrine in November. We hope that you will be able to join us for some if not all of the events.

FIRST FRIDAY MASS & DEVOTIONS: On Friday November 6, 2020 we will have our monthly First Friday Mass and Devotions. Beginning at 5:30PM we will have the rosary followed by Holy Mass celebrated this month by Father Jason Brilhante. Immediately after mass we will have exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and Devotions to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 7, 2020: The shrine will be closed all day so that the members of the Board of Directors can join our Chaplain, Father Edward Murphy, for a Day of Recollection at an off-site location. Please pray for the board members and Father Murphy during this time away from the shrine. The Shrine will reopen for regular hours on Sunday November 8 at 12:00 noon.

HEALING MASS THURSDAY NOVEMBER 19, 2020: The monthly Healing Mass will be held beginning at 6:00PM with Rosary followed by Holy Mass and a Healing Holy Hour. The Sacrament of Confession will be available before Mass

MISSION OF MERCY HOLY HOUR NOVEMBER 22, 2020: The monthly Mission of Mercy Holy Hour will be held at the shrine at 2:00PM. It will include the Rosary, Chaplet of Divine Mercy, Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and the Sacrament of Confession.

THANKSGIVING DAY NOVEMBER 26 The Shrine will be closed

ADVENT VESPERS NOVEMBER 29, 2020: We will once again pray the Solemn Evening Prayer of Vespers at 4:00PM throughout the Advent Season on Sunday afternoons.

We hope that you will be able to join us for these events at the shrine, either in person or online. We will continue to pray for you and hope that you remain safe in this uncertain time. We also wish each and every one of you a Happy and Blessed Thanksgiving.

We would like to extend a sincere and heartfelt thank you to all those that participated in our annual Novena to Saint Jude. We hope as time goes on to expand the novena in the future. God bless you all and may Saint Jude intercede for us.

Today the church celebrates the feast of the apostles St. Simon and St. Jude. For the last nine days we have offered up our prayers of petition with the Novena of Saint Jude. Tonight at 6:00pm on our Facebook page, please join us for devotions honoring the Feast of Saint Jude.

The Shrine downstairs has always been a place of quiet, contemplation, and peace, and your Society is endeavoring to maintain this space as a place of refuge from the noise and chaos of the world.

To that end, having obtained the Tabernacle from Holy Cross parish, which closed the day before our final parish Mass on November 25, 2018 at St. Anne’s, we’ve located it, front and center, in the Shrine sanctuary:

Please be aware that, with the Tabernacle now front and center in the Shrine, the entire Shrine central space is in the presence of our Lord. Catholic tradition and practice is that reverence should be shown to the Lord in the Tabernacle: genuflecting before entering and upon leaving a pew, a respectful silence while in His presence, and maintaining proper decorum in dress and activities is always required, as befitting being in the presence of the Son of God.

The Sanctuary space itself, marked by the velvet ropes around the rear and the altar rail in the front, should be respected as a limited access area; please refrain from entering the Sanctuary itself unless part of a liturgical activity since this space is now sacred with the presence of our Eucharistic Lord in the Tabernacle.

We hope that these changes prove beneficial to you, and we welcome you to the ongoing improvements and changes to the Shrine to further our mission of returning St. Anne Shrine to its proper place as a destination of Catholic devotion in the Fall River Diocese.

A structure, a landmark, a notable destination such as our Shrine is a perfect subject for photography … and even more striking are those captured by drone pilots.

This high-resolution photograph, courtesy of Azor Aerials, was taken recently and posted on other social media sites. Joao Medeiros, who took the photo, is a supporter of St. Anne Shrine, and graciously gave permission for the Society to use this photo here. Thank you, Joao!