The Church of Saint Sebastian 67 Cole Ave., Providence, RI 02906

(401)751-0196 stsebastianri.org

Mass Schedule

Monday - Friday: 8am

Saturday: 9 am

Sunday:

Saturday, 5pm - cantor

Sunday, 10am: organ and

cantor

The Sunday 10am Mass is

celebrated with people in

attendance, as well as on

Facebook and Zoom.

Confessions:

Saturday at 4pm or by

appointment

Adoration of the Blessed

Sacrament

Monday - Friday, 7:15 - 8am

Parish Office Hours Closed until further notice

Parish Contact Information (410) 751-0196

August 9, 2020

Weekly Bulletin

Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Kindness and truth shall meet; justice and peace shall kiss. Truth shall spring out of the earth, and justice shall look down from heaven.

Psalm 85:11-12

PARISH Directory and INFORMATION Directory

Parish Information: P: (401)751-0196 F: (401)273-2753 Web: https://stsebastianri.org/

Reverend Father Jordan Kelly, O.P. Pastor 401-500-2462 pastor@stsebastianri.org

Robert Short Pastoral Associate for Formation and Evangelization (401)751-0196 ext. 14 ssricgs@gmail.com Michael Sullivan Maintenance Megan Morrow Cantor Kathy Harrington Parish Accountant finance@stsebastianri@org Michael White Worship Editor Sarah M. Heaton Bulletin and Graphic Design Editor Parish Trustees Charles Rogers Catherine Taylor Parish Finance Council James Daly Ann Carnevale Elisa Vele-Tabaddor Douglas Nani Parish Council Sarah Garcia-Mata Mary Hill Jamie Hill Janice Opalenski Patricia Recupero Fred Reinhardt Robert Whelan Amy Thomas Karin Schrott Gerry Codola Catherine Denning Toni Dumville| Robert Lough

WELCOME to the CHURCH of SAINT SEBASTIAN In my own name and on behalf of the People of Saint Sebastian’s, welcome to our Parish! If you are visiting, coming back to the Church and Mass after some time away, or looking for a Parish, you are most welcome here at Saint Sebastian’s.

Parish Registration Registration is the official way we join a parish community, please stop in the Parish Office or register online to become a registered parishioner. To be considered an active registered member of the parish, members are asked to give of their time, talent and treasure. The parish is in need of and welcomes all three parts of your stewardship.

Sacrament of Baptism Congratulations on the birth of your child! We require all parents and godparents to attend Sacramental Preparation Classes. Once you have called the rectory to plan for the baptism of your child, we will have someone contact you to set up a special appointment for Preparation classes. These classes are usually done one on one with each family and are conducted by a couple who are well prepared to teach and assist in Baptismal Preparation.

Sacrament of Matrimony Congratulations on your engagement and decision to enter into a Catholic marriage! Saint Sebastian Parish will help you in your preparation to ensure that you make this serious and sacred step in your life a holy and happy one. The day and time of your wedding must be arranged in person by the prospective bride and groom themselves as soon as they feel called to marry. No arrangement can be made by phone or parents. All arrangements should be made nine months prior to the wedding date and done prior to scheduling the reception. The first meeting with the Pastor may be scheduled by calling the Parish Office at (401) 751-0196. Spiritual preparation is a key part of this special time. Frequent participation in the sacraments during this time is important, particularly weekly Mass attendance. It is also strongly recommended that you bring yourselves to the Sacrament of Reconciliation during this time of preparation.

Religious Education By their word and their example, parents are the first and principal teachers of their children concerning our Catholic Faith. The Religious Education of Saint Sebastian’s stands ready to assist parents in their sacred and most important responsibility. Should you have any questions about the program please contact Ms. Kristen Gold at ssriprimaryre@gmail.com or Mr. Bob Short at ssricgs@gmail.com

Catechesis of the Good Shepherd Saint Sebastian’s also offers Level One, ages 3 - 6, of the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, commonly referred to as CGS. CGS is a Montessori-based program of faith formation. Please contact Mr. Bob Short, Catechist, at ssricgs@gmail.com

Parish Auditors Ellen Boyle Jennifer Pizzuti

NEW MASS SCHEDULE

Beginning on Saturday, September 5 a new weekend Mass Schedule will go into effect. The Schedule is:

Saturday: Confession at 4 pm Mass at 5pm

Sunday:

9am: Religious Education 10am: Family Mass

11am: Religious Education Noon: Sung Mass

PARISH UPDATE

At long last the Parish Hall is just about complete! All of the construction work has been completed, including finding a hidden manhole! A completely new drainage system has been installed; a high-volume sump-pump; a new asbestos free floor; and two fresh coats of paint! We are extremely fortunate that the bequest from Connie Bissonnette paid for much of the work, and also for the tremendous generosity of two parishioners which has allowed the rest of the work to be completed. Carpenters and design artists continue their work for the new Altar of Reservation (where the Tabernacle sits). I hope to see a complete rendering before I leave for vacation. The first sketch looks wonderful. The current screen remains and the center of it is raised a bit higher to allow depth for the Tabernacle as well as ease of access for the priest or Eucharistic Minister. During a visit with the designer I asked him if angels which were the sides of old pews could be used? He is working to incorporate these angels as well as the current sanctuary screen. We owe a profound debt of gratitude to Albert Terrano and Allen Walentukonis who have donated the Altar of Reservation in memory of their recently deceased Mother, Cornelia Lucia Pacheo. Thank you Al and Allen! We are still interviewing candidates for the position of Director of Music and Organist. We have had many excellent applicants. Bob, Megan, and I met with two “finalists” and offered the position to a wonderful candidate. After some thought, she later turned down the offer because of the demands of being a senior in college. I am waiting to hear from the other possible candidate.

MY DEAR FRIENDS,

May the Grace of Our Lord remain always with us! How can it be August 10th? In one way it doesn’t seem possible, and yet in another way it seems much later than August. I hope you are well and that you have had time to get some rest and relaxation, and that you are managing the day to day realities of life well. As I noted in last week’s bulletin and today, I am doing my best to get away for a while, although it isn’t easy to find a place to go where one feels safe and that is easily accessible. My last week will be at our Dominican House in the Catskills; the first two weeks will be a great travel experiment! While I am away, Bob Short will oversee the Parish. Bob will check voice mail and my email (pastor@stsebastianri.org) several times a day. Bob knows what to do if there is a sacramental emergency or if a funeral comes in. Bob will also be able to reach me at any time. There are priests from the College and the Diocese who will be celebrating Mass. I will be back for the Saturday morning Mass on August 29. GETTING READY My return date shows that September is just around the corner, and September brings the reopening of school. Who knows what the reopening school will look like? Let us pray for administrators, teachers, and students – like everything these last months – this will be a September like nonother! I hope you have seen the YouTube post from Mr. Bob and me about resuming Religious Education. In his usual fashion, Bob has planned for every possibility – remote or in person. Please register your child/children for Religious Education, especially if they are ready to begin preparation for First Penance and First Holy Communion, as well as Confirmation.

From FATHER JORDAN, O.P. , Pastor

Sadly, Elaine Ginn, our Parish Receptionist, has chosen not to return both because of a decrease in hours and the new growth of COVID-19. We might try to manage Elaine’s position with some volunteer help. Sue Carlino, the Financial Administrator, has returned to the Rectory after her father’s death. We assure Sue of our sympathy and prayers during this difficult time. SOME FINAL REFLECTIONS In the midst of all the worries that surround us, find something beautiful each day, and find a reason to be grateful. As the pandemic, political unrest, the uncertainties of these months perdure, we must discover something good, something beautiful, something happy in each day! God did not create us to be miserable: He created us to be happy – and very often – to find the happiness in each day! Until we meet at the altar…

O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to Thee!

In the Lord,

From FATHER JORDAN, O.P. , (CONT)

FATHER JORDAN AWAY FROM THE PARISH

Fr. Jordan will be away from the parish from August 9

through August 28.

Prayer Shawl Ministry will reconvene on August 4th

and 18th at 7pm on Belle’s Patio, AKA the Handicap

Ramp.

STRONGER THAN ANY VIRUS!

While it seems that the Corona Virus is trampling our country yet again, there are two things that are stronger than any virus: The Power of Prayer, and our Life of Faith! The Virus, summer schedules and vacations, may keep us from gathering to share prayer or to gather to grow in Faith, the Parish Council has been busily making plans to reach you at home. Join Father Jordan as we consider the following:

Nine Days to Welcome Peace Morning Prayer with Father Jordan

Slippers and Coffee: A Bible Study for Women led by Women

Nine Ways to Rediscover the Joy of Prayer Liturgy 101: The Mass and What it Means Lectio Divina: Praying with the Scriptures,

led by Pat Recupero

Keep checking the online bulletin and watching your “in – box” to find email invitations and announcements.

MASS Intentions

SATURDAY, AUGUST 16 – 9AM IN CHURCH

Our Holy Father Saint Dominic - Solemnity In thanksgiving for the Dominican Order 4pm – Confession 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time 5pm: Cantor + Adolf Schrott

SUNDAY, AUGUST 9

19th Sunday in Ordinary Time 10am: + Mary Dyer Bogan on the 5th Anniversary

of her death

MONDAY, AUGUST 10 – 8AM IN CHURCH

Saint Lawrence, Deacon and Martyr + Mary Dyer Bogan on the 5th Anniversary of her

death – Bequest

TUESDAY, AUGUST 11– 8AM IN CHURCH

Saint Clare, Virgin For all Poor Clare Nuns – Living and Deceased

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12 – 8AM IN CHURCH

Saint Jane Frances de Chantal – Religious

Month’s Mind Mass for Adolf Schrott

THURSDAY, AUGUST 13– 8AM IN CHURCH

Weekday + Regina Marie Duffy Radocaj on her birthday

FRIDAY, AUGUST 14 – 8AM IN CHURCH

Saint Maximillian Kolbe, Priest and Martyr Intentions of Jim DeLucia

SATURDAY, AUGUST 15

The Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed

Virgin Mary

9am: + Emmett James Kelly on the 47th Anniversary

of his death

4pm: Confessions

5pm: The Living and Deceased Members of our Parish

PARISH PRAYER Requests

If you would like someone included in the Prayers

for the Sick, please call the office at 401.751.0196 .

LET US PRAY FOR ALL WHO ARE ILL:

William Dolan, Chantal Esnault, Samantha Polon, Kathy

McGinty – Radocaj, Douglas DiBiassio Rossi, the people

of Beirut, Stephen Paesani, Deirdre McQuade, those

injured by the hurricane, Belle Calenda, Annemarie

Patriarca, Joseph Kennedy, Pope Emeritus Benedict

XVI, those who live with anxiety, depression, or

addiction; those with COVID - 19; let us pray to the Lord.

LET US PRAY FOR OUR BELOVED DEAD:

Those who die because of violence and rioting; those

who die from COVID-19; those who were killed in

Hurricane Isaias; Donna Guevremont, the Godmother of

Bob Short; Dorothy Buccina; Caleb and Kyler Kiessling.

JOIN us IN PRAYER

PRIEST, PUBLISHER, EVANGELIST, MARTYR

Known throughout his life as the “Knight of the Immaculata,” St. Maximilian Maria

Kolbe, OFM Conv., was born in Poland in 1894. When he was about ten years old, the

Immaculate Virgin appeared to him and offered him two symbolic crowns: the white

crown of chastity and the red crown of martyrdom. He chose them both. Maximilian

entered the Franciscan Order at the age of sixteen. So intent were he and his brother,

Francis, on becoming religious, that they crossed secretly in a haycart from the Russian

to the Austrian partition of Poland to enter the seminary. Max was sent to the Order’s

International Seraphic College in Rome for his philosophical and theological studies.

TO JESUS THROUGH MARY

On October 16, 1917, while still a student-friar in Rome, Maximilian founded the

Militia Immaculatae (MI) Catholic evangelization movement. Its purpose was to

bring about the reign of the Sacred Heart of Jesus by encouraging each and every

soul to make a total consecration of themselves to the Immaculate Virgin Mary.

“Through the Immaculata to Jesus” was a lifelong motto. The immediate stimulus

for this movement was Maximilian’s desire to counteract the militant naturalism of

International Freemasonry that year. He had personally witnessed Masonic activists

blaspheming under the windows of the Vatican. He was ordained a priest in 1918

and returned to Poland in 1919, with doctorates in philosophy and theology, and he

had contracted tuberculosis. Nevertheless, he immediately began spreading the MI

Catholic Evangelization and in January of 1922, began publishing the monthly

magazine, Knight of the Immaculata.

FOUNDER OF THE CITY OF MARY (IMMACULATA)

So great and rapid was the growth of the magazine Knight, today known as Immaculata, and the community of

Conventual Franciscans that formed around Kolbe, that in 1927 he founded a large apostolic center near Warsaw

call Niepokalanow, the “City of the Immaculata.” Kolbe’s method of evangelization through the sponsorship of

Mary was a major development of the Franciscan charism, stimulating considerable growth in the Franciscan

Order itself. For instance, the City saw its original staff of eighteen friars grow to over 650 members in just twelve

years.

APOSTLE OF THE MASS MEDIA

While living in strictest religious poverty, the friars utilized the most modern printing

equipment and administrative techniques available, enabling the Knight magazine to reach

an incredible monthly circulation of one million and a daily newspaper to reach 230,000. In

1930, Father Maximilian took four brothers to Japan and founded another City there.

Future plans called for a City in every nation with the Knight magazine published in every

language. All forms of communication media, including radio, movies and even television,

were to be used without limit for the work of evangelization under the mantle of Mary.

About ST. MAXIMILIAN MARIA KOLBE

AROUND the PARISH

MARTYR OF CHARITY

Kolbe went back to Poland in 1936, for treatment of

advanced Tuburculosis, and reassumed direction of

Niepokalanow – by then the largest Catholic publishing

center in Poland, possibly in the world. When the Nazis

overran the country in 1939, they eventually imprisoned

Kolbe in the Auschwitz death camp, where in 1941 he

offered to take the place of a man condemned to die in

reprisal for an escaped prisoner. His offer accepted, he

died two weeks later on August 14, the vigil of Mary’s

Assumption. In the process he ministered to nine others

dying with him from starvation. Pope Paul VI beatified

Maximilian in 1971. In 1982, St. Pope John Paul II

canonized him as a “martyr of charity,” calling him

“patron of our difficult century.” He is the patron saint of

journalists, media communications, the family and the

chemically addicted.

GROUNDBREAKING THEOLOGIAN

Fr. Maximilian was a

profound theologian

as well as a heroic

martyr. While the

Gestapo thundered

toward

Niepokalanow to

whisk him away to

the death camp,

Kolbe hurried to

finish his book

outline on Mary’s self-title at Lourdes, France: “I am the

Immaculate Conception.” For Kolbe, Mary, “full of

grace,” is so united with the Holy Spirit that in a sense she

is the incarnation of the Spirit. This and other insights

have helped develop further the understanding of Mary as

Mediatrix, or “gateway” of the graces of Jesus’

redemption, and Advocate for the people of God.

Learn more about Saint Maximilian Kolbe at https://

kolbeshrine.org/

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION REMINDERS! Is your child in 1st grade? Are you planning for

First Holy Communion in 2nd grade? Sacramental Preparation is a two-year process. If you child is in 1st grade, please register them to begin Religious Education in the Fall of 2020. If you have Catholic friends who have children

who are in 1st grade and want them to make their First Holy Communion in 2nd Grade, please let them know about our awesome

Religious Education Program! If your student is in 7th Grade? Students desiring to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation in 2022 should register for Confirmation Prep Class. Students in Grade 7 and higher are eligible for Confirmation. Religious Education Registration for the School Year 2020 - 21 Mr. Bob is working away getting ready for a new year of Religious Education! Whether you are a returning student, or a family new to the Parish, and you have a child between 1 and 10th Grades, there is a place for you in Saint Sebastian’s Religious Education Program. Please go to our website: www.stsebastianri.org to learn more about Religious Education and to register for classes this Fall. THE PEOPLE OF BEIRUT We promise our prayers for the many injured and deceased people of Beirut. Let us pray too, for our former parishioners Al and Barbara Badre who have so many family members and friends in Beirut. Mary, Our Mother, Come to their Aid!