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On Saturday, August 15th, our 9 AM Mass for the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary will be live-streamed. (www.facebook.com/stmfairfield/live) After this Mass, we will be discontinuing our live-streaming. Our volunteers who have been assisting will be returning to college and are no longer available to help with streaming.
So many high-quality resources are available for viewing Daily & Sunday Mass and other spiritual programming. We encourage you to check out these resources until you can return to our liturgical & sacramental life: - http://www.catholictv.org/masses/catholictv-mass - https://dailytvmass.com/ - EWTN Channel 033/291 or Fios 285 - STM Website (http://www.stmchurch.net) & Facebook Page (https://facebook.com/stmfairfield) - https://formed.org Each Sunday, we will post a link on our Facebook Page for a recorded Sunday Mass from one of these resources. If you are home-bound, shut-in, or ill, please notify our rectory so we can pray for and walk with you. As we press on in faith, hope, and charity, we will #StandUnitedInPrayer as the Parish Family of St. Thomas More! May God bless you all & keep you in His peace! Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Saturday, August 15, 2020 Mass Times: 9AM & 12:10 PM While the Solemnity falls on a Saturday and is not a Holy Day of Obligation (requiring Mass Attendance) this year, a prayerful, Scriptural reflection, and Act of Spiritual Communion is strongly encouraged if you are unable to attend Mass. As the “general dispensation” from Cardinal Tobin continues on through the pandemic times, we encourage you to remain spiritually connected to our Parish Family. We hope you will join us soon for our liturgical and sacramental life!  The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is God's crowning of His work as Mary ends her earthly life and enters eternity. The feast turns our eyes in that direction, where we will follow when our earthly life is over. The Assumption looks to eternity and gives us hope that we, too, will follow Our Lady when our life is ended.
Read more about the Solemnity of the Assumption here.  Over the last few years, priests and parish ministers are experiencing family members of deceased Catholics forgo a Roman Catholic Funeral Mass for their loved ones. These Catholics practiced their faith which gave them joy, strength and the compass to raise a Catholic family. Some family members say: "Well, we just want something private, Mom/Dad were low key people", or "Most of their generation has already passed, so not many people would attend", "Mom was a saint, she doesn't need our prayers" or "I'm not a Catholic, why would I have a Mass?"
These are real sentiments, but we must understand what the Funeral Mass is and what it is not. It is not a "memorial service," it is not exclusively for the living, it is not a "tribute" to the deceased. There is another time and place appropriate for those wonderful gatherings. Let's look at what the funeral Mass is. The Church through its funeral rites commends the dead to God's merciful love and pleads for the forgiveness of their sins. At the funeral rites, especially at the celebration of the eucharistic sacrifice, the Christian community affirms and expresses the union of the Church on earth with the Church in heaven in the one great communion of saints. Though separated from the living, the dead are still at one with the community of believers on earth and benefit from their prayers and intercession. (Timothy II: when Paul prays for someone who died named Onesiphorus, saying: “May the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that day.”) At the rite of final commendation and farewell, the community acknowledges the reality of separation and commends the deceased to God. In this way it recognizes the spiritual bond that still exists between the living and the dead and proclaims its belief that all the faithful will be raised up and reunited in the new heavens and a new earth, where death will be no more. Have you expressed to your family in writing your wish to have the Roman Catholic Funeral Mass celebrated at your death? You cannot assume that they will understand your wish to be accompanied by the prayers of the Church. Learn more about the Catholic Funeral Mass HERE. (Article by Louis Scarpa)  "Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me."
-Matthew 25:40 |
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