Deacon Ed Casey who is at Pope Saint John XXIII Seminary in Weston (seminary for second career vocations) and is a candidate for the priesthood for the Diocese of Scranton in Pennsylvania will be coming to our parish on weekends for his field placement assignment. Deacon Ed was a social worker for Catholic Charities in the Scranton area for many years and looks forward to being with us. If all goes well, he will be ordained a priest for the Diocese of Scranton next year. So you won’t get him mixed up with the two Jesuit Deacons who are with us this year, Deacon Ed will be the older looking one!!!

“We are Saint Columbkille Parish, a community of faith celebrating Christ’s presence in us through the Eucharist, the other sacraments and the preaching of the word of God. To be true to the Gospel we must live our faith every day, responding to our call to holiness by caring for, encouraging and strengthening each other.”

This week I received an official letter from Cardinal Sean O’ Malley informing the parish that he is appointing Fr. Christopher Bae as a parochial vicar at the parish effective September 1. It is a tribute to the parish that Cardinal Sean wishes to assign him to Saint Columbkille’s.

Fr. Chris was ordained for the Archdiocese of Boston in 2016. He will be physically moving into the rectory on Wednesday, September 6. Fr. Chris was born in Korea and grew up in California as a teenager attending college at UCLA and then coming to New England for a Masters Degree at MIT where he majored in Mechanical Engineering. Fr. Chris will be involved in the varied ministerial activities of the parish, including taking some courses to become fluent in Spanish. We welcome him to the Saint Columbkille Parish family.

On Sat, Sep 2, at Saint Ignatius Church in Newton, Jesuit Seminarians who will be entering their last year of Seminary formation will be ordained Transitional Deacons with the prospect of being ordained Priests sometime next Spring or Summer. Two of the new deacons will be assigned on a limited basis at Saint Columbkille Parish.

On August 4 we expect to welcome Fr. Dominic Le, a priest from Viet Nam who will be pursuing a PhD in Philosophy at Boston College. Like Fr. Sau Phung, who left us last month, he will be a priest in residence pursuing higher studies, helping to celebrate Mass with us once or twice a week. I am sure he will receive the usual fine St. Columbkille greeting as other priests have received in the past.

Fr. Fitz

“We are Saint Columbkille Parish, a community of faith celebrating Christ’s presence in us through the Eucharist, the other sacraments and the preaching of the word of God. To be true to the Gospel we must live our faith every day, responding to our call to holiness by caring for, encouraging and strengthening each other.”

May is the month of our Blessed Mother. Happy Mother's Day to all of the mothers in our parish. Thank You to all who worked so hard to make the beautiful flowers for the women of the parish for Mother’s Day. Please join us for our school May Procession on Tue, May 16 at 10:15am on Leicester Street and ending on the field.

May is the month of our Blessed Mother. Happy Mother's Day to all of the mothers in our parish. Thank You to all who worked so hard to make the beautiful flowers for the women of the parish for Mother’s Day. Please join us for our school May Procession on Tue, May 16 at 10:15am on Leicester Street and ending on the field.

On February 26, the second collection is being taken up to help defray the costs incurred due to winter expenses. Winter expenses not only include plowing and heating bills, but also maintenance and repair of our church and rectory heating systems. On average, our gas bill is between $5,000.00 and $6,000.00 for each winter month.

So, as you can figure out, our regular weekly collection does not come near to covering the expenses. Please be as generous as you can to support this collection. Your support is greatly appreciated.

If there is one place in a kid’s world where imagination still thrives, it has to be sports. Listening to a group of boys at the playground, you can hear them compare themselves to the great basketball players or football players of today. The young players imitate the moves of the professionals, mimicking the stance, their style and their play. Boys have done it for years and probably for years to come.

As we celebrate Christmas 2016, may the memories and blessings of Christmas past remind us that Christ is always with us. He is Emmanuel. Christmas day not only calls us to look back on one great moment in history, it also challenges us to look forward to the hour when Christ will come again.

While Thanksgiving is a civic holiday, in a true sense it is also a Holy Day. In the course of a year, there are many situations that we face that are difficult and sometimes overwhelming. However, the challenge of the Christian life is to be a person of hope. To do so, we also must have an attitude of thanksgiving for the positive aspects of our lives. Saint Paul tells us “Always be thankful”. Therefore, being thankful is a part of being holy.

On Sunday, September 4, Pope Francis will canonize Mother Teresa of Calcutta at a Mass in Saint Peter’s Square in Rome. Her selfless dedication to the poorest of the world lives on in the religious order she founded, the Missionaries of Charity. Their ministry now is spread throughout the world, even in our own Archdiocese.