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Sunday, March 15, 2026
Hello folks,
The Lord be with you all!
“Rejoice, Jerusalem, and all who love her. Be joyful all who were in mourning; exult and be satisfied at her consoling breast.” Thus commands the Lord in the entrance antiphon for the Mass on this Laetare (“Rejoice”) Sunday. This command exhorts us, even if we find ourselves in difficult circumstances, to put our trust and our hope in the Lord, and to not be fearful. God is good all the time!
Today’s Gospel tells the story of the man born blind so that “the works of God might be made visible through him.” In a spiritual reading of this text, we understand that we are also born ”blind” through the effects of original sin which darkens our understanding and our ability to pursue the good and the true. The Lord also heals us in the sacraments of baptism, confession, and anointing of the sick. Let us not be blind to His goodness, but be instruments of His grace reaching out to the whole world!
On Tuesday, we celebrate the patron of the Archdiocese of Boston: Saint Patrick. He was “humbled” in his youth to be kidnapped and enslaved in a foreign land. Yet, it was there and in those difficult circumstances that he learned to rejoice in the Lord and pray a hundred times a day, even before the Lord rescued him from this awful slavery. However, his dramatic rescue was not the end of the story, but now that he was committed to following the Lord wherever the Lord led him, he returned to Ireland after ordination as a priest and bishop where he risked being enslaved again or even worse… Yet, his faithfulness in so many trials allowed the Lord to use him to convert a nation!
On Thursday, we celebrate Saint Joseph, patron of the Universal Church, and of our church in Pepperell! Patron of workers, carpenters and fathers too, I have been asking his help with what to do about our rectory situation, and we seem to be moving forward finally towards possibly rebuilding in Townsend. As I learn more I will communicate more about this possibility to you. Please keep it as a little intention in your prayers from time to time. To honor Saint Joseph, I will celebrate a Mass in Saint Joseph’s in Pepperell on Thursday evening at 7pm, following the usual 6-7pm Holy Hour of Eucharistic Adoration with confessions there.
We have a lot of children who will be making their first confession in both parishes this week; please pray for them to recognize their sins and to rejoice in God’s mercy towards them. If you yourself have been away from confession for a long time (without being in a situation where you cannot receive the sacraments), then please ask the same for yourself: to have the Lord help you to recognize your sins, to seek conversion and repentance and to rejoice in God’s mercy towards you in the sacrament of confession! Do not delay in approaching Him in the confessional!
God bless,
Father Maher
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