From Father Steven - May 4, 2025

Father Steven Clemence • May 2, 2025

 

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

 

This is a joyful weekend for our parish family! Our children will be receiving their First Holy Communion, our seminarian Javier will be ordained a deacon, and we are awaiting the election of our new Holy Father.


Every time we celebrate First Communions, we are reminded of the beauty and significance of this sacrament. As we reflect on the many blessings of Pope Francis’s pontificate, I am reminded of a homily he once gave on the Feast of Corpus Christi. In it, he spoke of the “stupendous gift” of the Eucharist, warning us not to fall into the habit of receiving Christ in a passive or mechanical way. Can you imagine the joy of Japanese Catholics who received the Eucharist for the first time after more than 200 years? Or the martyrs who risked everything in places where having a priest was forbidden? We are encouraged to receive the Eucharist as if it were our first, last, and only time. This quote is often attributed to St. Thérèse of Lisieux, though surely many saints lived with this awareness in their hearts. It is truly a profound and special gift to receive Jesus Himself in the Eucharist. We rejoice with the children who will receive their First Communion this weekend—congratulations!


We are also thrilled that our seminarian, Javier, will be ordained a deacon. As you may know, the diaconate is one of the final steps before priesthood. Javier will be ordained as a transitional deacon, which differs from a permanent deacon (who may be married). During this year, he will serve at the altar, visit the sick, baptize children, bury the dead, and carry out other duties as he prepares for priesthood. God willing, he will be ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Boston next year—just like Mateus. Speaking of Mateus, I encourage everyone to attend his priestly ordination. Archbishop Richard Henning will ordain him on the morning of Saturday, May 17, at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston. Our parish will be providing buses to make it easier for everyone who wishes to attend. Please see the next page for more details. This is a rare and grace-filled opportunity to witness the miracle of a man being conformed to Christ in the priesthood. We are blessed to have walked with them on their journey.


Finally, many of you are following the news of the upcoming papal conclave. The conclave will begin this Wednesday, with all cardinals under the age of 80 gathering at the Vatican. They will begin with the celebration of Mass, invoking the Holy Spirit to guide their discernment. After taking an oath of secrecy, they will begin voting. A two-thirds majority is required for election. The cardinals cast their ballots in the Sistine Chapel, beneath Michelangelo’s Last Judgment. As each one votes, he prays: “I call as my witness Christ the Lord, who will be my judge, that my vote is given to the one who before God I think should be elected.” If no one is elected, the ballots are burned and black smoke appears. When a candidate receives the necessary votes and accepts the call, white smoke rises from the chimney, and he chooses a papal name. Soon after, he will appear on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica to be presented to the world.



I invite you to pray for the cardinals—that they may be guided by the Holy Spirit—and for the man whom God has chosen to lead His Church. Do not be misled by media speculation, which often distorts the sacredness of this process. I strongly discourage watching films like The Conclave, which falsely portray the Church as purely political. This is not a game of power—it is a work of the Spirit. God will give us the shepherd we need in this time, even if we don’t yet know who that is. Our Archbishop has invited us to “pray fervently that the Holy Spirit might guide the Cardinal Electors in their discernment of the next Holy Father.” He also asks that we “pray each day for the man who will be elected and assume the burden of the office of Supreme Pontiff.” He is Peter in our midst, weak, poor, like all of us, but with the heart decided to love Christ as he can as we hear in this weekend’s Gospel.

 

God Bless,

Fr. Steven

 

 

From Father Steven - May 24, 2026

By Father Steven Clemence • May 22, 2026
A Call to Pray for Priests Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, This weekend, as we celebrate Pentecost, we are all called to be with the Virgin Mary and the apostles praying in the Cenacle for the revelation of God through the Holy Spirit. A long-time parishioner has asked me to share with you a letter she wrote about a special ministry that she is promoting here in the parish. Please read her letter below. God Bless, Fr. Steven =============================== How privileged we are as a parish to have celebrated recently the ordination of Father Javier. What a joy and gift a priest is to God’s people! Priests accompany us at some of the most intimate, joyful and difficult moments of our lives. These self-sacrificing shepherds, our brothers, carry not only the full weight of our burdens but their own as well….please pray for them. We parishioners have a great privilege and duty, out of love, to pray for priests, especially those who serve us so tirelessly and unselfishly here at Immaculate Conception Parish. We all need prayer. It is the start of holiness. No one can become a saint without praying. Our priests need prayer too! They are our brothers along with us on this path to holiness, all as members of The Body of Christ with Jesus as the Head. On Friday, June 12th, the Church will celebrate the World Day of Prayer for the Sanctification of Priests on the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. How grateful I am for this day to remind us to pray for our priests. Recently I was introduced to a beautiful apostolate dedicated to praying for priests: The Seven Sisters Apostolate. The Seven Sisters Apostolate is a call to strengthen the Church by ensuring that a Holy Hour is prayed each day of the week for the sole intention of a specific priest or bishop, a “holy wasting” (cf. Mt. 26:10) or lavishing of prayer for his deeper conformity to Christ. Seven women each commit to one holy hour a week on a specific day, praying exclusively for a particular priest and his priesthood for one year: A Seven Sister, One Holy Hour, One Day, One Priest, Each week, One Heart of Prayer. Since its founding in 2011, Seven Sisters has established sisterhoods praying for bishops and priests worldwide. The ultimate goal is for every priest and bishop in every diocese to have a sisterhood covering them in prayer. Each group is started by an Anchoress who recruits members, passes on needed information, and communicates the existence and intentions of the group to the particular priest. There are also opportunities for men to support this apostolic work by substituting for Sisters to make a holy hour and also by fasting on one given day a week for the priest. I have always prayed for priests but not in this particular way. I think my attraction to the Seven Sisters Apostolate is the fruit of my prayers and nudges from the Holy Spirit during the many hours of Adoration and opportunities for confession I have enjoyed here in our parish. Everyone can pray for priests. You do not need to belong to any kind of group or apostolate, although that is an encouragement for keeping one’s commitment to pray. Keep on with your prayers without ceasing. Pray every day for God’s priests who suffer the same struggles, temptations, discouragements and sorrows that we all do. Wrap them in your prayers, fasting, and sacrifices. Beg the Blessed Virgin Mary to keep them pure and holy for her son, Jesus Christ. You only need to do it.  There will be a Q&A meeting for those interested on Wednesday, May 27th at 7:00pm in the Upper Church. If you would like to find out more about The Seven Sisters Apostolate visit their website: www.sevensistersapostolate.org or email Christine Lehane: cmolehane@gmail.com .

From Father Steven - May 17, 2026

By Father Steven Clemence • May 15, 2026
Dear Brothers and Sisters, This weekend we celebrate the ordination of Father Javier! It is always a great privilege for us to witness the transformation of a young man into a priest, a servant of God configured to Christ. This weekend, I would like to reflect with you on the different vocations to which God calls His people. The first vocation, as we see in the Book of Genesis, is matrimony. We hear that God created man and woman to complement one another. “It is not good for the man to be alone.” Therefore, it is natural for a man and a woman to be united in marriage. However, marriage is not about seeking the satisfaction of one’s own needs in another person. Rather, the sacrament of matrimony is a sacrament of self-giving and service. Husband and wife are called to serve one another in love. Matrimony is defined as “the covenant by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life, and which is ORDERED TOWARD THE GOOD OF THE SPOUSES and the procreation and education of offspring; this covenant between baptized persons has been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament” (Canon 1055 §1). Marriage, then, is a path by which God sanctifies us through self-giving love, just as Christ gave Himself for us. Spouses become a gift to one another, and it is in this gift of self that true joy is found. Some people receive a different call. If it is natural for a man and woman to be united to one another, then it is supernatural for a person to be united entirely to God. The religious vocation anticipates the reality of heaven by seeking union with God already in this life. One can be called to become “eunuchs for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven,” living celibacy for the love of God and His Kingdom. This includes consecrated virgins who live in the world while dedicating their lives entirely to the Lord and those who do not get married. Others are called to religious life as sisters, nuns, brothers, or monks. There are many religious communities and institutes through which a person is consecrated to God according to a particular charism or mission. Some are called to serve through teaching, serving the poor, caring for the sick or children, immigrants, or those most in need. There are also contemplative communities whose principal work is prayer and total dedication to the Lord, often lived in cloistered monasteries. Finally, we also have the priestly vocation. This call invites men to act in the person of Christ the Head ( in persona Christi capitis ) in the world. Through ordination, a man is configured in a profound way to Jesus Christ. This does not mean that the individual ceases to be himself; rather, by the grace of God, he is united to Christ in a unique and sacramental way. The priesthood is not only for a select few. Many saints throughout history have spoken about how God calls many men to this vocation. Sometimes there is hesitation because a person feels unworthy or inadequate. Yet throughout Scripture we see that God often chooses ordinary people with weaknesses and imperfections. The Apostles and the saints were not extraordinary because of their own abilities, but because they allowed God’s grace to work through them. As the saying goes, God does not call the qualified; He qualifies the called. As you can see in Fr. Gabriel, Fr. Victor, and myself, we are very ordinary and imperfect men. It is the grace of God that enables us to do what we do. A man may feel incapable of becoming a priest or discouraged by his sins and limitations. Yet, just as Peter told Jesus, “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man,” we remember that it is not we who choose Christ, but Christ who chooses us. Ultimately, our primary vocation is holiness. We are all called to become saints. The particular path we take—whether marriage, religious or single life, or priesthood—is secondary to the greater call to holiness. Those called to matrimony are called to holy matrimony, to become holy husbands and holy wives. Those called to religious life are called to become holy sisters, brothers, monks, and consecrated virgins. Those called to the priesthood are called to become holy priests. Each vocation is not an end in itself, but a path by which we are led to heaven and united more fully with God. God Bless, Fr. Steven