“Receive the Gospel of Christ whose herald you have become.  Believe what you read, teach what you believe, and practice what you teach.”  These are the words that Cardinal Sean O’Malley spoke to me on the day of my Ordination to the Diaconate.  The word “diakonia” means to serve.  I was consecrated to make present Jesus the servant who cares for the poor and those in need.  

It has been my greatest privilege to serve the people of the Parish of the Transfiguration.  You are a most loving family to me and always will be.  I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for embracing me as a new deacon.  You did this with your warmest hospitality.  Many of you shared the stories of your lives with me and asked for my prayers.  You frequently asked me to bring communion to family members who couldn’t physically attend church or to your friends who were suffering in some way.  During all of these times, I encountered the Crucified Christ.  Those who are poor and broken teach all of us about our faith and about what God loves.  

In today’s Gospel, our Lord sent them out in pairs.  I receive enormous benefit walking in the faith with Martha, my wife.  We have partnered on many ministries in our parish, including Friday night Adoration, bible study and Faith Sharing programs.  We are saddened to be leaving our parish family.  However, we see that the Holy Spirit is very active in the Parish of the Transfiguration.  You are the Body of Christ.  Continue to serve one another with joy.  In all things, seek to serve the one true King by serving one another.  Blessings and peace will always follow.  

Your brother in Christ, 

Deacon fred

We are coming to the close of the active part of our parish year and continue to add to the progress that Fr. Walter made to get us past the disruption to ministry that occurred a few years back in the time we all try not to think about.  As part of our year end activities, I would like to make a final pitch for our Corpus Christi procession following the Noon Mass, which concludes with an ice cream social in Villanova Hall. Whether you attend that Mass or not, feel free to come back for the Procession and social!  Personally, I’m looking forward to the town’s Fourth of July festivities, of course, but please participate in our Pie Booth, either by volunteering (see signup ad) or stopping by to help its success as a fundraiser for the Parish.

On the note of fundraising, you will be receiving a finalized budget and financial report in the future, but I can give you some preliminary information as we come to the close of the Fiscal Year, which ends in June.  It’s basically a bad news-good news-bad news-good news story.

Bad News: As you know, for the last few years we have been running about $100,000 operational deficit, not including capital expenditures, which exhausted our long-term savings.

Good News: Our operational deficit has been zeroed out through spending cuts and fundraisers.

Bad News: ANY capital expenditure, as a result, creates the deficit.  So this year’s estimated $30,000 deficit is due to final payments on last year’s parking lot projects and the doors at St. Thomas.  Next years speculated deficit of $21,000 is solely due to possible capital expenditures, though nothing is set.  I can tell you that we need to fix the air conditioning at St. Dorothy’s for next summer and that will be at a minimum of $20,000 and will probably necessitate our running a Capital Campaign this Fall.

Good News: We have great volunteers!  You may have noticed some overgrown plants that were removed recently.  Parishioner Chuck Stokes did the cutting down by himself and the brush was removed at no cost by Giroux Bros.  On a similar note, MacLellan Co. and Baudanza Electric (Bedford) refinished an antique chandelier for the parish as a donation.  And so many more volunteers plan and run events or fix items around the property to aid the parish.

We will need to continue to remove overgrown shrubs that literally classify as trees.  Chuck is willing to organize that work, but he will need help.  If you are willing to do very intensive outdoor labor (like with an axe), please call the office so that we can get a team together.

Not a bad way to work off the excess calories from Father’s Day!

Hello, Dave here from Faith Formation and Cantoring at Church. 

I am beyond excited to announce our New!! Youth Ministry Group Starting this Fall. 

If you are of High School age and have received Confirmation. So what’s next? 

We’re excited to introduce our brand-new Youth Ministry Program here at the parish! This program is specially designed for students who have been confirmed and want to continue growing in their faith. It’s fresh, engaging, and built around what matters most to teens today.

Our sessions will include:

Modern videos designed specifically for high school students

Time for prayer and Bible reflection

Small group discussions in a safe, relaxed, and welcoming environment

Community outreach project

My hope is that through this program, our teens will continue building a strong foundation of faith—one rooted in the love of Christ. We want them to feel empowered to turn to God in their everyday lives: in moments of stress, decision-making, and in their relationships.

We have 2 sets of info sessions for students and parents coming up: 

June 25th, 10am-11am and 6pm-7pm. 

July  16th, 10am – 11am and 6pm-7pm.

If you are interested or have any questions, please come up to me at Mass or email me at Daveg@ParishoftheTransfiguration.org

The Knights of Columbus offers a number of $500 scholarships for children and grandchildren of members (including deceased members). Applications can be found on the Wilmington Knights of Columbus website and are due back on June 30th. 

Please click here to watch a short video on the Catholic Appeal

FIRST SATURDAY MASS OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

9:00AM IN ST. THOMAS CHURCH 

Rosary begins at 8:30am.  Guided meditation and Confession follows Mass. 

To keep the First Saturday Devotion in reparation for the sins and blasphemies against the Immaculate Heart and to receive the graces promised from it, one must attend Mass and receive Holy Communion, pray the rosary, and meditate on a mystery on the Rosary for 15 minutes. All are welcome to join us in this devotion to honor the Blessed Mother

Father in heaven, may the faith you have gifted us in your son Jesus Christ, our brother,

and the flame of charity kindled in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, reawaken in us the blessed hope for the coming of your Kingdom. 

May your grace transform us into diligent cultivators of the evangelical seeds that make humanity and the cosmos rise unto the confident expectation of the new heavens and the new earth when,  with the powers of Evil overcome, your glory shall be manifested eternally. 

May the grace of the Jubilee reawaken in us, Pilgrims of Hope, the yearning for heavenly treasures  and pour over all the earth the joy and peace of our Redeemer.

To you God blessed in eternity, be praise and glory for ever and ever.  

Amen.

We would like to thank everyone again who donated to our Novemberfest last year - whether it was time, talents, or treasures.  We hope you will support our Parish's largest fundraiser again! 

We will be in need of gift cards, monetary donations, raffle baskets, silent auction items, bake sale items, treasure chest merchandise, etc.  We will also add children's activities so there's even more to get involved with!  There are so many ways you can contribute!  We will have more details next month.

Our next meeting will be on Wednesday, 7/23 from 6:30 - 8:00 downstairs in St. Dorothy Church for anyone that wants to join our committee.  We welcome new members!

Please email Diane Garrity at ladiessodality@gmail.com with any questions 

A CORI FORM must be completed EVERY YEAR BY ALL VOLUNTEERS,  The new year began July 1, 2025 and will continue through June 30, 2026 

NEW (FY) 25/26 CORI FORMS are available in the sacristy of both churches and at the Parish Office.   

A Code of Conduct will be given to All New volunteers when the Cori is returned to be verified. 

Again all volunteers must complete a CORI background screening prior to beginning ministry and annually after that. 

All  Staff and Volunteers including all those in worship ministry, must complete a Protecting God’s Children VIRTUS TRAINING CLASS . 

The Training class is only needed to be taken once.. 

A Training class will be held: 

Wednesday, June 11, 2025 at 10:00am -

    Downsairs, St. Dorothy Church

Tuesday, June 17, 2025 at 6:00pm -

    Downstairs, St. Thomas Church

Sunday, July 20, 2025 at 9am -

   Downstairs at St. Thomas Church

Please sign up by going to:
www.VIRTUSonline.org 

Any questions please call Jeanie Pettingill 978-658-6040

Do you like to carve wood?  We create handcrafted ornaments that we sell to provide money to vets and other people in need.  We meet on the first Saturday of every month in the basement of St. Thomas Church from 10AM to 4 PM. For More information, contact:   darren_boehm@yahoo.com

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Faith Formation Registration is now open for 2024-2025. Click here for the registration form. We also offer an adaptive faith formation class for students that need more assistance in the classroom. We also offer a heritage faith formation session class for students that have missed 1 or more years of faith formation and would like to return. If you have any question please email jeaniep@parishofthetransfiguration.org or call 978-658-6040.

Click here for more details

Looking for spiritual help and support from addiction? Click here to learn more.

SATURDAY MORNING MEN'S PRAYER GROUP MEETING. Click here to learn more.

CATHOLIC TV DAILY AND SUNDAY MASS

Cardinal Seán encourages Catholics to participate in the daily and Sunday Masses broadcast from the CatholicTV chapel.

• Daily Mass airs live at 9:30am and is rebroadcast at 7pm and 11:30pm.
• Sunday Masses air throughout the day at 10am, 4pm, 7pm, and 11:30pm.
• The Sunday Spanish Mass airs live at 8am and is rebroadcast at 5:30pm and 10pm.

Viewers can watch these Masses on demand at any time at www.WatchtheMass.com. For more information about CatholicTV and where you can watch it, visit http://www.catholictv.org/.

Forgive us for the war, Lord. Lord Jesus, son of God, have mercy on us sinners. Lord Jesus, born under the bombs of Kyiv, have mercy on us. Lord Jesus, dead in the arms of a mother in Kharkiv, have mercy on us. Lord Jesus, in the 20-year-olds sent to the frontline, have mercy on us. Lord Jesus, who continues to see hands armed with weapons under the shadow of the cross, forgive us, Lord. Forgive us if, not content with the nails with which we pierced your hand, we continue to drink from the blood of the dead torn apart by weapons. Forgive us if these hands that you had created to protect have been turned into instruments of death. Forgive us, Lord, if we continue to kill our brother. Forgive us, Lord, if we continue to kill our brother, if we continue like Cain to take the stones from our field to kill Abel. Forgive us if we go out of our way to justify cruelty, if, in our pain, we legitimize the cruelty of our actions. Forgive us the war, Lord. Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, we implore you to stop the hand of Cain, enlighten our conscience, let not our will be done, do not abandon us to our own doing. Stop us, Lord, stop us, and when you have stopped the hand of Cain, take care of him also. He is our brother. O Lord, stop the violence. Stop us, Lord. Amen.          Pope Francis