St Joseph Church in New London http://saintjosephcatholicchurch.org, St. Mary Star of the Sea Church http://stmarystaroftheseanewlondon.org, Our Lady of Grace Church on Fishers Island, , and St. Paul Church in Waterford http://stpaulchurchwaterfordct.org form the cluster of St. Brendan The Navigator which was established in 2017.
La iglesia Saint Joseph http://saintjosephcatholicchurch.org, La Iglesia Santa María Estrella del Mar, la Iglesia http://stmarystaroftheseanewlondon.org, Our Lady of Grace en Fishers Island, , y la Iglesia Saint Paul en Waterford http://stpaulchurchwaterfordct.org forman la comunidad de San Brendan el Navegante que se estableció en 2017.
BULLETIN ANNOUNCEMENT
To all Parishioners: Some changes have been made to our cluster of four parishes St. Joseph, St Mary Star of the Sea, St. Paul and Our Lady of Grace that comprise St. Brendan the Navigator Community. On some weekends the priests celebrate up to 14 Masses. To celebrate the Masses there is the pastor, and two parochial vicars-that is 3 priests. We are fortunate to have one retired priest residing at St. Mary, and other retired priests who participate in assisting with weekend Masses. Every weekend one priest is needed to travel by ferry to Our lady of Grace on Fishers Island, New York, on Saturdays.
During the week, there were 12 Masses at 3 churches. This has changed. We now have 10 Masses celebrated during weekdays. Also, during the week, one priest celebrates Mass at 5 rehabilitation centers, and another priest celebrates another Mass at one rehab facility. Though Fr. Dennis Mercieri is hospital chaplain for both Lawrence and Memorial and Backus Hospitals, we are often called to anoint the sick either at their homes or in the rehab facilities or in the hospital. We also serve the needs of Faith Formation for children receiving their sacraments of Reconciliation, First Communion and Confirmation. (This year there will be 84 people receiving Confirmation.) We strive to support St. Joseph School with special children’s Masses every month.
Needless to say, we, as priests, have many responsibilities. Many days weekday morning Mass is followed by celebrating a Funeral Mass. Weekend Masses are frequently followed by a baptisms. Weddings often occur on Friday afternoons, Saturdays, and occasionally on Sunday afternoons.
After much prayer, thoughtful consideration, and consultation with the priests of our cluster, the parish councils, heads of ministries, and parishioners, we have decided on a REVISED MASS SCHEDULE that will serve the needs of our community and facilitate meeting the needs of all parishes and all parishioners while making priests available for your service.
We have done our best to revise the schedule to make it easier for our priests to better serve all our parishioners in the cluster.
Please review the schedule that will begin on May 1st of this year.
Saturday Vigil Masses : 4PM at St. Joseph, 4:30PM at St. Paul, 5:30PM at Our Lady of Grace.
Sunday Masses: 7AM at St. Joseph, 9:30AM at St. Mary, 10AM at St. Paul, 10:30AM at St. Joseph, 12Noon Spanish Mass at St. Mary Star of the Sea.
The Neocatechumenal and Life Teen Masses have their own schedules: please check the bulletin.
We hope and pray that this schedule will work for the good of all.
Fr. Mark D. O’Donnell, Pastor