Welcome to the parish of Mary, Mother of Mercy!

“We do not want … a Church that moves with the world.
We want a Church that will move the world.” ~G. K. Chesterton

A Letter from Our Pastor:

Here is a link to the letter Father Bernard sent today to his parishioners: Dear Parishioners March 2020. The letter was originally sent via e-mail to all parishioners whose emails were in the parish’s directory. If you did not receive this via e-mail and would like to be added to the parish’s e-mail list you can contact the parish office at immmercy@dor.org.

Our Church’s Responses to Covid-19:

In our diocese, in response to information provided by local and state government and health officials concerning the Covid-19, public Masses are suspended until further notice. State officials have agreed that churches may remain open “for private prayer but not congregant services.” Priests will continue to say private Mass and some diocesan parishes plan to continue live streaming Masses. The Catholic Courier will be live-streaming Bishop Salvatore R. Matano’s celebration of Mass for the fifth Sunday of Lent at 11 a.m. on Sunday, March 29. You’ll be able to watch it here. For updated and additional information, please visit the diocese’s web page related to the Covid-19 response.

The Diocesan Office of Evangelization and Catechesis, is working hard to discover and develop new ways to reach out to families in these unprecedented times. The first issue of their weekly newsletter called Family Zone is now available. Within the pages of the newsletter you will find a weekly Gospel connection, a lesson adapted to all ages, prayer, important online links for further catechesis and support, and some “just for fun” activities for families to enjoy.

In our parish, Masses are cancelled and “all events comprising of a gathering of people are suspended.” Each of our three churches will remain open during the day for private prayer. The sacrament of reconciliation will still be available (see below).

Next Sunday, April 5, is Palm Sunday. Though safety precautions preclude us from gathering for Mass on that day, the palms have arrived and will be blessed and placed in each of our churches. Please pick up palms for your household and have them in hand as you share in the Passion of the Lord. There are numerous live-stream links (see above) to celebrate Mass on Palm Sunday, Easter, and daily. You can find links to the readings for Palm Sunday at the USCCB website here. “Truly, this was the Son of God!”

From our bishop: “May Jesus Christ, the divine physician, grant us health and bring us to a resolution of this global pandemic. May our patron, St. John Fisher, and Mary, Our Mother, protect and intercede for us.”

Gospel Meditation—Encourage Deeper Understanding of Scripture

Fifth Sunday of Lent ~ March 29, 2020

Even though we say that we believe, there is a part of us that doesn’t. There are many times in our lives when we experience death, whether it be the physical death of someone we love, a failed relationship, the loss of a job, or a broken dream. As we are going through these death experiences, we can easily find ourselves reaching out to God to make it better and fix it! We think that the proper order of life is to maintain the things of this world, especially those things that are essential to our sense of well-being and security. We do not like change. The grieving that comes from our death experiences can keep us stuck and in despair. If we have lost something or someone of great value, the very meaning and essence of life is lost with them. We need gentle companions to lift us from despair and that is precisely who God desires to be in our life as well.

God calls us out of our tombs, where we have been closed up in fear and despair, and shouts, “Come out!” He desperately wants to show us the path to hope and the new life that is possible after loss and death. But our faith can be weak, and we still prefer to cling to the memory of what we had rather than the joyful possibilities of tomorrow. We sometimes live as if God is not real and that the transformative power of His resurrected presence is a story found in the Bible rather than a narrative unfolding in our lives.

God is the God of surprises, not our demise. God opens new possibilities, begins new chapters, creates new verses, and brings us to new heights! We spend so much time and energy ruminating over what we left behind yesterday that we are far too tired to see what can unfold tomorrow. Loving someone new doesn’t negate our past loves. Embracing the love of a person, God, or life itself tomorrow doesn’t diminish the love of yesterday. Each of our loves is different, and one cannot be replaced by another. They don’t cancel each other out. God truly has tended to every detail of our lives, and if we listen to each detail, we find that they all lead us back to Him. Jesus wants us to come out of our closed-up tombs. Are we going to listen this time?

© Liturgical Publications Inc.

Welcome to the web page for the parish of Mary, Mother of Mercy. This parish has three churches:

• Holy Cross in Ovid, New York;
• St. Francis Solanus in Interlaken, New York; and
• St. James the Apostle in Trumansburg, New York.

The parish office is located at the Parish Center: 3660 Orchard St., Interlaken, New York.

The title Mother of Mercy is thought to have been first given to Blessed Virgin Mary by St. Odo (d.942), Abbot of Cluny. It is a fitting title of Our Lady both because she brought forth for us Jesus, the Christ, the visible manifestation of the mercy of the invisible God, and because she is the spiritual mother of the faithful, full of grace and mercy. Please join us in faith and in person at any of our three churches. Our mass schedule is listed below and additional resources are available on subsequent pages.

To join the parish community or to celebrate the sacraments of baptism, confirmation, anointing of the sick, or marriage, please phone the parish office (607 294–0064) or email: immmercy@dor.org to make arrangements.

Father is available for confessions at St. Francis church in Interlaken every Friday from 6:30–7:00 p.m. You may also phone the parish office (607 294–0064) to make an appointment to receive the sacrament of reconciliation with a priest.

While the diocesan day of penance and mercy on April 1 has been cancelled by the bishop, Fr. Bernard will still be available to provide the Sacrament of Reconciliation, with a confessional screen (no face to face confessions), at 10:00 a.m. until noon, 2:00–4:00 p.m., and 6:00–8:00 p.m. at St. Francis Solanus.

A list of our Mass intentions for the week are listed below. Other Mass intentions, along with parish meetings and events, are available on our parish calendar page. All are welcome!

Mass Intentions at St. James the Apostle in Trumansburg, Holy Cross in Ovid, and St. Francis Solanus in Interlaken for the week of March 28–April 5, 2020:

 Beginning March 17, these Mass intentions will be celebrated by the priest without assembly.

Prayer to Mary, Mother of Mercy
Blessed Virgin Mary, who can worthily repay you with praise and  thanks for having rescued a fallen world by your generous consent! Receive our gratitude, and by your prayers obtain the pardon of our sins. Take our prayers into the sanctuary of heaven and enable them to make our peace with God.