Author: Bryan Boyle

A special mass for Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI will be held on Wednesday at 6:00pm at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Fall River. We hope you will be able to attend.

Let us pray for the happy repose of his soul.

Speaking in 2012, he said:

“How should we Christians respond to the question of death? We respond with faith in God, with a gaze of firm hope founded on the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. So, death opens to life, to eternal life, which is not an infinite duplicate of the present time, but something completely new. 

Faith tells us that the true immortality for which we hope is not an idea, a concept, but a relationship of full communion with the living God: it is resting in his hands, in his love, and becoming in him one with all the brothers and sisters that he has created and redeemed, with all Creation. 

Our hope, then, lies in the love of God that shines resplendent from the Cross of Christ who lets Jesus’ words to the good thief: “Today you will be with me in Paradise” resound in our heart. This is life in its fullness: life in God; a life of which we now have only a glimpse as one sees blue sky through fog.”

O God, who in your wondrous providence

chose your servant Pope Benedict to preside over your Church,

grant, we pray,

that, having served as the Vicar of your Son on earth,

he may be welcomed by him into eternal glory.

Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

God, for ever and ever.

Amen.

“Do not be afraid; for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.
For today in the city of David a savior has been born for you who is Christ and Lord.

And this will be a sign for you: you will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.” Luke 2:10-12

From the members of the board, volunteers, and staff, we wish you a Blessed Christmas and prayers for a healthy, happy, and faith-filled 2023.

Bells play an important part in noting the passage of time, events in our lives, and the presence of the sacred in our space.

The bells of St. Anne Shrine have been silent for too long. Today, though, through the generosity of many benefactors, the bells of St. Anne are heard, once more, throughout the city. The video was taken with a smartphone…but…the audio (including the sounds of the city and ambulance) is clear, and the tolling of the 5PM hour clear.

While the strict celebration of this most venerable of observances is optional, there is a certain rhythm to our Faith’s liturgical cycles in harmony with those of the natural world. An easy way to remember when the days are celebrated are contained in these ancient nmemonic poem?  “Lenty, Penty, Crucy, Lucy”, or else “Fasting days and Emberings be / Lent, Whitsun, Holyrood, and Lucie.”