St. Mary's Church, Roslyn: Pastor's Page

Immaculate Heart of Mary

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My dear people of St. Mary’s:

You will remember that in April of this year I made a pilgrimage/retreat with my priest friends to the town of Ars in France, the home of St. John Vianney, the patron saint of all parish priests.

This year is the bicentennial of the saint’s arrival in his parish as its new pastor. He arrived on February 9, 1818, in the little farming village some 14 miles north of the city of Lyon. The church was tiny and, on his arrival, the parish numbered only 230 parishioners. In assigning him there, the Vicar-General of the diocese had said to him: “There is not much love of God in that parish; you will have to bring some into it.”

He did all that and more over the course of the next forty-one years as their curé, or pastor. By the time of his death in 1859, it is estimated that more than 100,000 pilgrims were coming to the town of Ars annually to attend Mass or go to confession to the man they knew to be a living saint.

On May 1, 1836, the Curé of Ars did something very beautiful, and very valuable for his people: he consecrated the entire parish and all parishioners to the Blessed Virgin. He had a votive heart made to hang around the neck of the statue of the Blessed Mother in the Church. Then he took a long ribbon and, with his own hand, inscribed the names of all of his parishioners on it, and then placed it inside the votive heart. On it he had engraved these words: “Consecration of the Parish of Ars to Mary Conceived Without Sin, Made the First of May, 1836, by M. John Marie Vianney, Curé of Ars.” This was his way of making sure that his parish and his people were always under the patronage and protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and always kept in her maternal heart.

During my pilgrimage to Ars, while praying before the statue of the Blessed Mother in the church, with that heart hanging around her neck containing the names placed there by the saint 182 years ago, I realized that I had to do the same thing here in our parish.

Below you will see an image of the votive heart I have obtained for our parish. Made of silver, it was handcrafted in France around the year 1880. The front is engraved with the letter “M” surmounted with a cross, indicating Mary standing at the foot of the Cross of her Son, and united with Him in His work of redemption. This is also the symbol on the obverse of the Miraculous Medal, as seen in the vision of St. Catharine Labouré in 1830. Around the edge, it is engraved with lilies, a symbol of the Blessed Mother. Finally, the heart is surmounted by a flame, always seen in depictions of the Immaculate Heart, and representing Mary’s burning love for God and for all of us as her spiritual children. Inside, there is a compartment where the names will be placed.

This week I encourage all parishioners to fill out a card with the names of your family’s living parishioners (we will collect the names of deceased parishioners for the heart at a later date). Then, thanks to computer technology, all of the names can be printed in small enough type to fit on a paper to go inside the heart. On December 8, 2018, we will consecrate our parish to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and bless the votive heart and all the names contained within and place it around the neck of the statue of the Blessed Mother in our Church.

In this way, you the people of St. Mary’s will always know that you are under Our Lady’s protection, and occupy a special place in her heart.

—Fr. McCartney

St. Agnes Medal

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My dear people of St. Mary’s:

In 2007, during the Golden Jubilee of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, Bishop William Murphy instituted the St. Agnes Medal, an award given to members of the Catholic laity for service to the Church. Each year, pastors from each of the 133 parishes in the diocese are asked to nominate lay people who unselfishly donate their time and talents to their parishes. The medal itself, designed and struck in Rome, features on one side the image of St. Agnes, patroness of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, and a depiction of our diocesan cathedral on the reverse.

On Sunday, October 27, 2018, Bishop John O. Barres presented the awards to this year’s recipients at a prayer service at St. Agnes Cathedral. “Honorees are lay people whose love of the Church has been shown through the devotion to the Holy Father, to our diocese and to their parish,” said Bishop Barres. “Recipients are the unsung heroes in our midst who build up our parish communities by extraordinary service in parish ministry, parish administration or some significant volunteer role.”

This year, the St. Agnes Medal was awarded to a married couple from our parish: Paul and Dina Ditrano. Paul is a science teacher at Kellenberg Memorial High School, and Dina is a science teacher at the Hicksville Middle School. Both are longtime parishioners and were even married here at St. Mary’s.

Paul Ditrano attended St. Mary’s parochial school, and received his Sacraments of First Holy Communion, Confirmation and Marriage at St. Mary’s. He served as an altar boy from 1977 to 1986; as a festival worker throughout the 1980’s; as an assistant youth minister from 1988 to 1990; as a youth minister from 1990 to 1996; as a lector from 1986 to the present; as a sacristan from 1986 to the present; and has served for many years as an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion.

Dina and her family moved to the parish in 1985. She served as a youth minister from 1990 to 1996. She serves on our parish Fun-Raising Committee planning, coordinating and running special events like our annual Oktoberfest and parish picnic. She maintains the parish Facebook page; assists with the parish website; and serves as our coordinator for our parish Constant Contact e-mail outreach. For many years she has served as an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion. As a family, Paul and Dina, along with their teenage children Nicholas and Katie, weekly volunteer as hosts at our Saturday evening Mass at Msgr. Ryan Hall. This means that as a family they arrive early, open up the church, set up for Mass, coordinate all aspects of the liturgy, serve as lectors, Extraordinary Ministers, and altar servers, and then take care of everything again at the end.

If anything needs to be done in the parish, Paul and Dina and their children are always the first to respond. From their childhood and teenage years to the present they have been involved in absolutely every aspect of parish life. And what they do, they do generously and with joy. They are a couple who love their Catholic Faith and live it in an unassuming way that is obvious for all to see.

And so, please join me in congratulating Paul and Dina Ditrano for receiving this great, and well-deserved, honor. But most of all, on behalf of all of us here at St. Mary’s, I want to thank them for their service to our Lord, our parish, and our people.

—Fr. McCartney