Saint Stephen Parish

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221 Concord St,

Framingham Massachusetts 01702.

Tel. 508-875-4788

We are family!

A message of love and solidarity.

Here at Saint Stephen Parish, we will never stop living and promoting our Catholic Faith!

Each day we will post news, initiatives and information that is important to all of us as a parish family.

We are going to use, to the best of our ability and creativity, the means that this era of technology offers us, to stay connected with our brothers and sisters because “We are family”.

That is the title of the brief posts you’ll find on our web page or on the Parish Facebook page. Since we are a bilingual community, everything will be posted in the two languages, you just need to scroll down the page to find the English post. So, log on to www.ststephenparish.org each day and let us stay connected with each other.

Feel free also to comment and sent suggestions that may be helpful, thanks.

Altar Servers Invited Back

After a hiatus of several years, we would like to have our young people resume their role of serving at Mass.

This is a great privilege in assisting the priest as he brings Jesus down from Heaven into our parish churches.

This service is open to boys and girls who have served in the past or who would like to serve now. You must have received your First Communion to be eligible and you must be available to fulfill your assigned Masses.

Training will be provided. If you are interested, please contact Mr. Drummey at classes on Sunday,

Helping the St. Vincent de Paul Society

We know that many of you gave up things during Lent that may have saved you some money. Some of that money has been used in past years to help different charities, like the Rice Bowl program, the Bethany project to help prisoners, the Pro-Life movement, etc.

How about this time donating the money you saved by denying yourself certain pleasures to the St. Vincent de Paul Society? The SVDP does a wonderful job helping the most needy among us. This is the way we try to respond to our call to help the poor here at Saint Stephen's

Faith Formation in the Fall

Religious Education in English and Spanish for the young people in our Parish, especially for those receiving First Communion and Confirmation, will begin on Sun-day,

 September 17th, at 10:15 a.m. for grades 1 to 6 and at 11:45 for grades 7 to 10.

Registration forms will be going out shortly or you can scan the QR code here to sign up on line. If you have any questions, please call Mr. Drummey at (508) 875-4788.

Visits and Holy Communion to the sick and homebound.

As Catholics, if we have the misfortune to end up being sick for a while, or in recovery; one of the most comforting things for us is, to be able to watch Mass on TV, and that is why we continue to broadcast our Masses that you may follow each weekend by linking to our webpage and, most of all, to receive Holy Communion. If you hap-pen to know any of our Parishioners to be in this situation, please, call the office and notify us about it. One of our Priests, Deacons or Extraordinary Minister of Communion will be more than happy to visit your relative and bring him/her Holy Communion. Please, let us know!

“Will Only a Few People Be Saved?”

Jesus was asked this question and responded that we must “enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and those who enter through it are many. How narrow the gate and restricted the road that leads to life. And those who find it are few” (Matthew 7:13-14).

People have debated for centuries about what Jesus meant by “many” and “few.” No one knows. What we do know, however, is that we want to be among the few. How can we do that? Well, for one thing, we can keep the Ten Commandments, as Jesus told the rich young man who wanted to know what he had to do to get to Heaven.

The Commandments explain in more detail what Jesus called the two great commandments. First, we must love God with all our hearts, all our minds, and all our souls. Second, we must love our neighbor at ourselves.

If you were to ask people if they expect to go to Heaven, many would respond in the affirmative. If you ask them why, they will say, “Because I’m a good person. I shop for my elderly neighbor, I help out at a homeless shelter, I coach youth sports, etc.”

But that’s only the second great commandment — to love our neighbor. What about the first great command-ment — to love God above everything and everyone else?

Does helping other people make up for neglecting God? Does coaching sports on Sunday morning make up for not going to Mass? We would say no.

A good person should first of all be a “Godperson.” The two should go hand in hand, always putting God first in our lives and others second. Then we can be sure of being saved.

Good News for the Church

Whenever there is bad news about the Catholic Church, the media report it endlessly. But when there is good news, they are silent. The latest example is the good news about the almost complete eradication of clergy sexual abuse.

According to Bill Donohue of the Catholic League, an audit by the StoneBridge Business Partners for the U.S. Bishops, covering the period between July 1, 2022 and June 30, 2023, found that 17 minors — 4 male, 11 female, and 2 unknown — made allegations of sexual abuse. Of the allegations, only 3 were substantiated.

During this period, there were 47,987 Catholic clergy in the United States. This means that 0.006 percent of them had a substantiated case of sexual abuse made against them by a minor (there were 7 substantiated cases in the previous year),

If there had been an increase in the number of cases, it would have been all over the news. It would have been report-ed by the Associated Press, New York Times, Boston Globe, ABC, NBC, CBS, and CNN. But because this problem has been wiped out in the Catholic Church, the media are silent.

“There is no other organization in the nation where adults regularly interact with minors that has a better rec-ord on this issue than the Catholic Church,” said Bill Donohue. For more information, see his book The Truth About Clergy Sexual Abuse: Clarifying the Facts and the Causes.

Most of the cases occurred between 1965 and 1985 and 91 percent of the clergy involved are now either dead or were kicked out of ministry. It is also a fact that 80 percent of the allegations involved homosexual clergy preying on teenagers. Only a very small percentage of these offenses were committed by pedophiles.

:Summer Is Here ...  

A few gentle reminders:

 Dress modestly when you come to Church. Remember you are entering the House of God, not going to the beach, and you don’t want to be a distraction to those around you who are trying to worship the Lord.

 Turn off your all your electronic devices so that you can listen attentively to the Word of God.

 And last, but not least, enjoy this time of relaxation, renewal, sun, gatherings, and fun; but remember, never take a vacation from God! If you honor Him, He will reward you at the end of life! Happy Summer!

Baptisms and Marriages

Two great Sacraments that God has given to His Church are the sacraments of Marriage and Baptism. We encourage those who are planning to get married to contact one of our priests for an initial meeting at least six months prior to the wedding date you have in mind. And for newborn babies, bring them to the fountain of Baptism as soon as possible to give them the greatest gift of all — the grace to become children of God.

Baptism begins our journey to Heaven. We cannot receive any of the other Sacraments without having been baptized. It is imperative that parents not neglect to have their children baptized shortly after birth.

July Is the Month of the Most Precious Blood!

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In the Catholic Church, July is the month dedicated to the devotion of the Most Precious Blood of Jesus. Special prayers will be said each morning, and there will be a special Mass to honor this devotion. Please learn this prayer as we keep this devotion:

“Blessed be Jesus, always and forever,

who redeemed us by His Precious Blood.”

Or there is this prayer:

“May the Precious Blood of Jesus Christ save me,

my family, my country, and the whole world.”

Time for a Eucharistic Revival

During a 1985 visit to the United States, Pope John Paul II was scheduled to visit with the seminarians at St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore. The Holy Father, however, asked to spend a few minutes before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament in the seminary chapel. This request sent his security detail into action. In addition to inspecting every nook in the chapel, highly trained dogs were also sent in to detect any unauthorized person who might be there. They went up and down each aisle and into every pew to make sure that they were empty. When the dogs reached the tabernacle, they sniffed, whined, pointed, and refused to leave until their handlers led them away. The dogs were convinced that they had discovered Someone there. We Catholics know that they were right — they had found a real, living Person in the tabernacle, namely, Jesus Christ Himself. During the coming week, thousands of Catholics will converge on Indianapolis for a Eucharistic Congress. Four groups of pilgrims — from East, West, North, and South — are walking hundreds of miles to Indianapolis carrying Jesus with them in large monstrances. While there have been some negative comments from bystanders, most of those witnessing these processions have remained silent or kneeling as Jesus passed by. Let us pray with these pilgrims for a Eucharistic revival in our land, that people will turn to Jesus in the Eucharist both for our country and for our salvation.