by SFXparish | Jul 19, 2016 | NEWS
This year’s Altar Boy Boot Camp (ABBC) took place 27-29 June. ABBC is a three day event for the altar servers of St. Francis Xavier Parish in Acushnet MA. It involves the training of new servers and the honing of skills for accomplished servers. There is also training for MCs who are our older young men who help organize the various liturgies of the parish. This year five new boys completed their training and have begun their year of probation. The first year if service is one of getting used to the various role which the servers can take and indeed just getting comfortable being at the altar. During the Camp the boys get to participate in many exercises aimed at increasing their serving skills. There are also many sporting activities which the boys participate in Combat Soccer being a highlight. As part of ABBC there is usually a field day on which we get to visit a church and do some fun activity. This year we visited Good Shepherd Parish (St. Patrick’s Church) and were given a tour by Fr. Andrew Johnson the Pastor. Afterwards the boys went to Lazer Gate in Fall River and played Laser Tag. Our server program at SFX is extremely strong we have a total of 35 Altar Servers. This year we will loose 5 MCs who will be going to college but we will keep our numbers by adding the five new boys. Our program allows us to promote vocations to these young men in a very unique way. This year Fr. Chris Peschel the Assistant Vocations Director for the Diocese of Fall River gave the boys a presentation about the Vocation of Service at the Altar. Thank you to Jonathan Hamel our Arch-server and Dominic Correia for their help in running this year’s ABBC.
by SFXparish | Jul 18, 2016 | NEWS
Thanks to all who donated blood this past Sunday, July 17th. We had 33 donors show up that day with 8 deferrals and 25 units donated. Monsignor O’Connor and the Events Committee extend their gratitude for your participation in this great Pro-life effort.
by SFXparish | Apr 12, 2016 | NEWS
St. Francis Xavier School teaches Latin in the 7th and 8th Grades. Each year students along with some other 154,000 students throughout the United States and various other countries take the National Latin Exam. The Philosophy of the NLE is as follows:
The philosophy of the National Latin Exam is predicated on providing every Latin student the opportunity to experience a sense of personal accomplishment and success in his study of the Latin language and culture. This opportunity exists for each individual student since, on the National Latin Exam, he is not competing with his fellow student on a comparative basis, but is evaluated solely on his own performance on the exam. The basic purposes of the NLE are to promote the study of Latin and to encourage the individual student.
We at St. Francis Xavier are proud that each year we have been taking the exam some of our students have been awarded prizes.
This year the following students received these awards:
8th Grade (Latin I):
Brendan Sullivan – Gold Medal
Thomas Marcotte – Silver Medal
7th Grade (Intro):
Allison Baptiste – Outstanding Achievement Award
Sophia Arruda, Connor Araujo, Baylen Brunelle & John-Paul Martin – Certificates of Merit
Photo – From left to right:
Msgr. Gerard O’Connor (Teacher), Thomas Marcotte, Sophia Arruda, Brendan Sullivan, Connor Araujo, John-Paul Martin, Allison Baptiste, Baylen Brunelle.
by SFXparish | Feb 27, 2016 | NEWS
In Rwanda there is a shortage of footwear among many communities. This leads to all sorts of illnesses and sometimes can exclude the children from attending school.
In the build up to Christmas 2015 we asked our parishioners to donate $10 to buy a pair of shoes for our friends in Rwanda. These donations could be given in the name of a loved one or friend as their Christmas gift. We collected some $6,000.
Father Leonard Kayondo, a friend of our parish from Rwanda presently serving as Chaplain to St. Anne’s Hospital in Fall River, just recently returned from Rwanda after distributing over 500 pairs of shoes to various villages and school communities in his diocese. These shoes were truly a Christmas blessing for the youth of his communities.
Fr. Leonard brought back some moving photos of the recipients of your generosity, which will be placed in the entrance of our church.
Fr. Leonard was excited to relate the joy and the gratitude that the shoes produced in these impoverished communities.
Thank you for your continued generosity to our friends in Rwanda and thank you to our Women of Grace Apostolate which facilitated this beautiful act of charity.
by SFXparish | Feb 10, 2016 | NEWS
THE ORIGINAL IMAGE OF DIVINE MERCY
A DOCUMENTARY
A team of documentarists travel through Europe and the United States uncovering the details of the untold story about the little-known Original Image of Divine Mercy. In 1934, at the request of Jesus himself, Saint Faustina and her confessor, Blessed Fr. Michal Sopocko, secretly began working with a relatively unknown artist to duplicate on a canvas her mystical vision of the Merciful Jesus. With Fr. Michal modeling as Christ for many hours, the three unlikely friends came up with the only Image of Divine Mercy that Saint Faustina ever saw. But after all the corrections and touch-ups at the insistence of Saint Faustina, the violently anti-Catholic Soviet Occupation of Vilnius, Lithuania, forced the painting into hiding. Finally, two humble nuns accepted the “mission impossible” and transported the miraculous painting across the dangerous border between Lithuania and Belarus. In 2005, after 75 years of wandering, the painting was placed in a permanent home in a beautiful shrine in Vilnius according to the wishes of Saint Faustina and Blessed Fr. Michal Sopocko.
Despite the popularity of the devotion to the Divine Mercy around the world, very few realize that there is only one Original Image of Divine Mercy. How did so many other renderings of Saint Faustina’s vision become so well-known around the world while the Original Image remains in obscurity? Is this Original Image unique for reasons above and beyond the fact that it is the only image of Divine Mercy that Saint Faustina ever saw? What qualities about the painting are integral to the devotion and are unique to the Original Image? Did John Paul II know about the Original Image when he canonized Saint Faustina? Does this Image have a special role in the upcoming Year of Mercy?
A timely documentary, The Original Image of Divine Mercy features key witnesses to the mysterious case of a painting that survived the Soviet Occupation of Vilnius, with exclusive commentary by Bishop Robert Barron, George Weigel, Christoph Cardinal Schönborn of Vienna, Stanisław Cardinal Dziwisz of Kraków, Fr. Dwight Longenecker, Harry Connick Jr., Jim Gaffigan, Immaculee Ilibagiza, Archbishop Fisichella, and many others including a special footage with Pope Francis. The Original Image of Divine Mercy is set to be THE FILM EVENT of the Holy Year of Mercy, and, beginning on Ash Wednesday of 2016, will be playing internationally throughout the Holy Year at parishes, schools and conferences celebrating the Jubilee Year of Mercy.
THIS FILM IS BEING SHOWN HERE AT SFX on FRIDAY 1 April at 7:00pm (School Gymnasium)
by SFXparish | Jan 22, 2016 | NEWS
Men’s Day of Recollection with Guest Speaker Dr. Anthony Esolen. Saturday 27th Feb 2016. Starts at 9:00am with Holy Mass in the parish church and then we move up to the school for refreshments and our 1st Conference. Our first speaker (10:00am) is our own Pastor, Msgr. Gerard O’Connor, the topic of his talk is: The Catholic Man: his Roles and responsibilities.
Dr. Esolen’s first talk is at 11:00am entitled: The Imagination of a Boy followed by a break and lunch at noon. Followed by Dr. Esolen’s second talk at 1:00pm entitled: The Missing Icon: The Band of Brothers
At 2:00pm there will be adoration and the Rosary. The day ends at 2:45pm with benediction.
There will be confessions available from 10:00am – 3:00pm.
Call 508-995-7600 to make a reservation. The cost is $20 including lunch and refreshments and can be paid on the day.
