OLM Celebrates Feasts of St. Patrick and St. Joseph with School-Wide Masses and Dress Down Day
In the midst of the solemnity of Lent, the OLM School and Parish community took time to honor two great saints in the Catholic church this week: St. Patrick on Monday, March 17 and St. Joseph on Wednesday, March 19. Monday’s St. Patrick’s Day celebrations included a solemn mass with Former Auxiliary Bishop Robert C. Evans as the Celebrant, the Reverend Jusin Brophy, OP from Providence College delivering the homily and readings delivered in Gaelic by parishioner Sinead Campion. OLM Pastor Father Healey was joined on the altar by several Diocesan priests, honoring their Irish heritage. Upon returning to their classrooms after mass, Mrs. Karen Maguire’s kindergarteners were delighted to find that the Leprechaun traps they had set worked, and he had visited them and left some Irish treats.
Tuesday was a “dress down” day with students encouraged to wear red and or green in honor of the saints’ feasts. Contents were held for the most spirited, with Eighth grader Owen Sowa, Sixth Grader Carter Cathers and First Grader Sofia Maggiacomo earning top honors.
The highlight of Wednesday’s Feast of St. Joseph was not only the zeppoles from LaSalle bakery for each student in the school but a beautiful mass almost entirely in Italian, with Father Nathan Ricci from the Diocese of Providence as the principal celebrant, joined by several Diocesan priests. Readings delivered by former OLM School Parent Dr. Anthony Bruzzese and current OLM Parent Dr. Rocky Ruggerio, were read in Italian. OLM middle schoolers had prepared in advance and were able to answer many of the prayers in Italian.
With a tradition of excellence in Catholic education since 1951, Our Lady of Mercy School supports its students as they strive to be the saints and scholars that God is calling them to be. Accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, the Pre-K through Grade 8, co-educational Catholic school located in East Greenwich, RI offers its students the opportunity to pursue excellence in academics, athletics, and the arts in a nurturing environment built upon the teachings of the Catholic Church.
