FROM THE PASTOR

   Great success!  Grass in the backyard of the rectory has sprouted after a week of watering.  For those who have hand-watered grass seed, this can contain moments of discouragement before you realize you haven’t killed it.  The rectory overall has been kept up very well, but that side was nonetheless untended, so I hired a landscaper to trim it back, even cutting down a couple of trees that were a bridge to the roof.  I was asked if I wanted to buy some of that roll-out sod, to which I answered that we can’t afford it.

   What?  Say that again.

   Yup.  You’ll hear more about that at the Grand Annual Appeal, but suffice to say that we are running an operational deficit and have no savings for additional capital improvements, so work that I’d like to do in the rectory to personalize it as my final residence (pray God) requires a little sweat equity.  It’s enjoyable, though: I feel like a productive resident.

   This weekend saw a lot of sweat equity on the parish side, too, by volunteers that began the cleanup of Villanova Hall.  Also, another set of parishioners donated their time to refinish a section of floor in the rectory.  Thank you to those who gave their time to improve our facilities, which is an ongoing and sometimes unpleasant job!  Nevertheless, we will need more volunteers in the future for parish projects, as well as service ministries, and other nice to have items that are unaffordable at this time.  Here is a sample list to think about how you can donate to improve the parish:

FUNERAL MINISTRY- Right now, much of our outreach to bereaved families and coordination for the funerals that we celebrate is taken care of by the Funeral Directors.  I am enormously grateful for their great effort and sensitive care of families in this area of parish life, but we need to be more involved as a matter of pastoral responsibility.  Similarly, we have some very dedicated parishioners, to whom I am also very grateful, who serve at funeral Masses, but a couple more would provide additional coverage.  It would be very helpful if we had some faithful parishioners with the ability to donate time during weekdays to be part of this very important ministry.

MASS VESTMENTS- Like the rectory backyard, our sacristies have become overgrown and untended by the decades!  Both churches are in need of a full set of Mass vestments, including priest chasubles and deacon dalmatics, in what we term the “Boston” design.  We have a few, particularly in white, but not for each of the four liturgical seasons nor the rose-colored vestment used for Gaudete or Laetare Sundays.  Each vestment runs about $600 and can be memorialized with the name of a loved one.  Please call the office if you are interested in providing one or more vestments to fill out what we have of the unfinished sets.

PATRIMONY LUXURY- You may have heard that the rectory has large oil paintings in storage on the third floor that date back, we think, over a hundred years.  I need to get them appraised, but we already know that to have them restored ranges from $2500 to $8000 depending on the level of repair!  I don’t think the painting needing $8,000 of repair is worth saving, but we do have a couple that truly fit the historic nature of the rectory.  My guess is that they were always expensive to restore and have just been left for another day.  However, if that intrigues you, let me know.  Click below to see paintings.  

     Painting 1

     Painting 2

Click here for more details

Parish Fall Fundraiser, Saturday, November 16, 2024 9:00 - 4:00 in Villanova Hall

We are looking for volunteers to plan and organize our upcoming Parish Fall Fundraiser. We will need assistance with advertising, securing vendors, soliciting and collecting donations, assembling gift baskets, baking, and helping on the day of the event. If you are interested, please contact Diane Garrity at ladiessodality@gmail.com by Sunday, 9/15.

Women’s Club Meeting Oct. 14th at 7PM in the downstairs at St. Thomas Church.

We will be making blankets for the Linus Project.  You will need to bring 1½ yards of fleece and scissors. It’s a win win project, the women have fun and most of all the children benefit.  

The Linus Project provides love, a sense of security and comfort to children who are seriously ill, or traumatized.  If you are not able to make the meeting and would like to donate fabric, handmade blankets or afghans please contact Kathy Catanzano at 97-658-9189. We will be delivering the blankets mid November. 

 All women of the Parish are welcome

SOCKS The weekends October 12/13  and  19/20 The Parish Women’s Club will be collecting new socks for Helpis (Help me help someone, Inc.)

HMHS is a social Network that promotes and encourages kind and charitable deeds. One of the many different things they do is to collect socks for the homeless, children in hospitals and shelters, veterans etc, the list is endless. They are in need of all size socks for both male and female.

Any way you could help support this organization would be gratefully appreciated. Thank you in advance. 

Boxes will be at the back of the church and at the CCD office to leave the socks. 

Any questions please feel free to call Kathy Catanzano @ 978-658-9189 or Diane Ward 978-658-5697

The Mass will be at 12 PM followed by Lunch (Sponsored by the Parish Women’s Club). It will be held in Villanova Hall at St. Thomas'. 

Anyone interested in attending please contact Kathy Catanzano at 978-658-9189 or Diane Ward at 978-658-5697. 

We will need a final count by Sunday Oct.13th

Sunday, October 20th - After the 

10am & Noon Masses.

The Ladies Sodality bake sale will be after the 10:00 am Mass at St. Dorothy Church. and The Women’s Club bake sale will be after the Noon Mass at St. Thomas.  The Bake Sales are to raise funds for our scholarships! We appreciate your support!

Our Parish will be offering a six-week Faith Sharing program that will begin in the Fall.  Small groups will meet once a week for six weeks, focusing on what it means to seek an encounter with Christ through faith sharing. 

Join Deacon Fred and others as we walk together with our Lord.  Jesus is inviting you to share yourself as a gift within his body and to receive his blessings that will be poured out through his body, the People of God.

The schedule for the start of the program and the specific days the groups will meet have not yet been set and will be dependent on the feedback from participants.  

If interested please contact the parish secretary with your name, phone number and email.

A CORI FORM must be completed EVERY YEAR BY ALL VOLUNTEERS,  The new year began July 1, 2024 and will continue through June 30, 2025  

NEW (FY) 24/25 CORI FORMS are available in the sacristy of both churches and at the Parish Office.   

A Code of Conduct will be given to All New volunteers when the Cori is returned to be verified. 

Again all volunteers must complete a CORI background screening prior to beginning ministry and annually after that. 

All  Staff and Volunteers including all those in worship ministry, must complete a Protecting God’s Children VIRTUS TRAINING CLASS . 

The Training class is only needed to be taken once.. 

A Training class will be held: 

Sunday, July 28th after the 8am (9:15am)Mass in the downstairs of St. Thomas Church and

Thursday, Aug 22nd in the downstairs of St. Dorothy Church at 6pm 

Please sign up by going to:
www.VIRTUSonline.org 

Do you like to carve wood?  We create handcrafted ornaments that we sell to provide money to vets and other people in need.  We meet on the first Saturday of every month in the basement of St. Thomas Church from 10AM to 4 PM. For More information, contact:   darren_boehm@yahoo.com

Please click here to watch a short video on the Catholic Appeal

Forward in Faith

Once a year, Catholics throughout the Archdiocese are asked to partner with one another to support their parish and the many outreach ministries by contributing to the Catholic Appeal.  Many of you have received a letter from Cardinal Seán requesting your participation and early support of the 2024 Appeal.  We hope that you will respond to his invitation with a generous gift, knowing that each contribution has a significant impact on the lives of thousands across the Archdiocese. 

2024 Catholic Appeal  Totals as of 6.25.2024

         Our Parish Goal:       $65,300.00

Total amount pledged: $56,580.00

                    # donors:              221

           Total needed:                 $8,720.00

When our parish reaches its goal a portion of the additional funds received will be returned to us for use in our parish. To make a gift online, visit www.bostoncatholicappeal.org . Please include The Parish of the transfiguration to be sure the Parish gets credit for the donation.  

Click here for letter

Faith Formation Registration is now open for 2024-2025. Click here for the registration form. We also offer an adaptive faith formation class for students that need more assistance in the classroom. We also offer a heritage faith formation session class for students that have missed 1 or more years of faith formation and would like to return. If you have any question please email jeaniep@parishofthetransfiguration.org or call 978-658-6040.

Click here for more details

Looking for spiritual help and support from addiction? Click here to learn more.

SATURDAY MORNING MEN'S PRAYER GROUP MEETING. Click here to learn more.

CATHOLIC TV DAILY AND SUNDAY MASS

Cardinal Seán encourages Catholics to participate in the daily and Sunday Masses broadcast from the CatholicTV chapel.

• Daily Mass airs live at 9:30am and is rebroadcast at 7pm and 11:30pm.
• Sunday Masses air throughout the day at 10am, 4pm, 7pm, and 11:30pm.
• The Sunday Spanish Mass airs live at 8am and is rebroadcast at 5:30pm and 10pm.

Viewers can watch these Masses on demand at any time at www.WatchtheMass.com. For more information about CatholicTV and where you can watch it, visit http://www.catholictv.org/.

WCTV also publishes Mass from the Parish of theTransfiguration at 9:15am and 2:45pm on channels Comcast 6 and Verizon 39 and at 10:30am on channels Comcast 9 and Verizon 37.  These times are all on Sunday, and the Mass continues to be one week behind

Forgive us for the war, Lord. Lord Jesus, son of God, have mercy on us sinners. Lord Jesus, born under the bombs of Kyiv, have mercy on us. Lord Jesus, dead in the arms of a mother in Kharkiv, have mercy on us. Lord Jesus, in the 20-year-olds sent to the frontline, have mercy on us. Lord Jesus, who continues to see hands armed with weapons under the shadow of the cross, forgive us, Lord. Forgive us if, not content with the nails with which we pierced your hand, we continue to drink from the blood of the dead torn apart by weapons. Forgive us if these hands that you had created to protect have been turned into instruments of death. Forgive us, Lord, if we continue to kill our brother. Forgive us, Lord, if we continue to kill our brother, if we continue like Cain to take the stones from our field to kill Abel. Forgive us if we go out of our way to justify cruelty, if, in our pain, we legitimize the cruelty of our actions. Forgive us the war, Lord. Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, we implore you to stop the hand of Cain, enlighten our conscience, let not our will be done, do not abandon us to our own doing. Stop us, Lord, stop us, and when you have stopped the hand of Cain, take care of him also. He is our brother. O Lord, stop the violence. Stop us, Lord. Amen.          Pope Francis