One Door Closes, Another Opens

Today we begin a new Church year with the Season of Advent. You may recall this season of “the coming” of Christ bridges the themes of recent weeks (preparing for Christ to come again) and the upcoming Nativity of the Lord (Jesus’ first coming). As a new year, it is a gradual closing the door on last year and opening the door to the new Church year when we will hear from the Gospel of Mark on most Sundays. While we look forward to closing a door on 2020 when the pandemic began (and opening one to a year of hoped-for treatments and vaccines), figurative closing a door often refers to an obstacle or the sadness of something good coming to an end.

It is in this sense that we face an impending closing in our town of Plainville that affects our wider Catholic community. The Jesus and Mary Mission Center on School Street, home for thirty years for our local Sisters of the Religious of Jesus & Mary, is in the process of closing in the next month or two. Their campus was previously the Dominican Academy and home to Dominican Sisters who taught there and in St. Martha’s “CCD” program of religious education. The school then served as a retirement home for the Dominican Sisters for a few years before the Religious of Jesus and Mary
purchased it in 1990 and became the “new nuns” in town!

The Jesus and Mary Mission Center has allowed us to have the wonderful presence of the RJM Sisters among us in St. Martha Parish. Sister Michelle recalls, “We were very happy, and felt renewed, being actively part of a parish... members and friends of parishioners.” Many Sisters were active in the Parish and our wider Collaborative. Just two examples: Sister Carmel Ethier, who died just recently, was our Choir Director; and
even in retirement Sister Pauline Joyal provided individualized Faith Formation to help older children prepare for Reconciliation and Communion. They also welcomed us in their home, hosting our St. Martha daily Masses over the years - most recently every Saturday
morning. When it became crowded, they even recruited parishioners at Soule & Sons to remove a wall in their chapel to allow more parishioners to attend!

With the decreasing number of Sisters in Residence and increasing expenses, the RJM North American Province has made the difficult decision to close this Community. We will miss their warm hospitality in their chapel, regularly followed with coffee, snacks, and great discussion in their refectory (large dining room). Most of the Sisters are moving to other RJM Communities in Rhode Island, an assisted living community in Wellesley, and Sister Beatrice will join the Madonna Manor community in North Attleboro. Please pray for them as they face their moves and the sad closure of a Religious Community, and pray, too, in Thanksgiving for their vocation, example, and Christ-like love among us!

As we open the new Church year, the other door that has opened will allow two of our Jesus & Mary Sisters to remain right here in Plainville! Sister Alice Cote and Sister Michelle Authier soon will be moving into the St. Martha Residence, which has been underutilized since Franciscan Sister Ann Marie Raftery retired and moved away. Like before, this will be the private residence for Sr. Michelle and Sr. Alice, but I am confident they will continue to be wonderful, active members of St. Martha Parish!

- Fr. Joe