I hope you all had a relaxing and enjoyable Thanksgiving holiday!

As I do every year, I went to be with my family in Florida, where we have our traditional Thanksgiving Mass at St. Richard's Church.

This year, we had a smaller group of about three dozen O'Malleys, but our numbers were bolstered when we were joined by the Dever family from Westport, County Mayo. Msgr. William Dever had been a priest with me in the Virgin Islands, and he is now pastor in Fort Lauderdale. When he heard I was going to be there, he contacted my family and joined us with all of his relatives. It was lovely to be with them!

After the Mass, we had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner at my Aunt Pat's house.



Funeral Mass

Last Saturday, I went to St. Anthony's in Woburn to celebrate the funeral Mass of Mrs. Josephine Clancy, the mother of Father Richard Clancy.

It was a very beautiful Mass and Father Clancy gave a wonderful homily, in which he reflected on his mother's life of faith. It was certainly very moving.



Anniversary Mass

On Sunday, I went to St. Mary's in Scituate for a Mass to celebrate the parish's 100th anniversary. It was the first Sunday of Advent, which is a very nice time to celebrate an anniversary since it indicates a new beginning.

I was joined at the Mass by co-pastors Father Matt Conley and Father Anthony Cusack as well as former pastor Father Ken Cannon. We were also joined by a number of seminarians who are helping out there and the parish's permanent deacon, Deacon Mattie Henry.

It was a lovely celebration, and I was very happy to be with them to mark this very important occasion.



Formation meeting

On Tuesday, I had another of our ongoing formation meetings with priests ordained within the last five years. We come together about every six weeks for a meal, a holy hour, and a time of conversation.

We had a very lively conversation about rectory life, the spiritual life of the priest, and preparations for Advent and Christmas. It was a wonderful gathering, and I think the priests enjoyed the opportunity to be with each other and with their bishop.



St. Andrew Dinner

Tuesday night, being the vigil of the feast of St. Andrew, it was very appropriate that we should hold one of our St. Andrew Dinners for young men discerning a vocation to the priesthood. We gathered at St. John's Seminary and were joined by many high school students from Malden Catholic and St. Sebastian's.

Of course, these St. Andrew Dinners are called such because it harkens to the scene in the Gospel where St. Andrew finds Peter and takes him to Christ, who then calls him to be an apostle. We know that vocations often come through the mediation of other people who challenge us to reflect on what the Lord is calling us to do with our life.

The St. Andrew Dinners are an opportunity for these young men to come together to visit the seminary, pray, share a meal, dialogue with the archbishop and listen to the testimony of seminarians who share their own vocation stories.