From Father Steven - June 16, 2024

Father Steven Clemence • June 14, 2024

 

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

 

This weekend we celebrate Father’s Day! We are grateful to have Fr. Victor join our parish. Please see the letter below from Fr. Victor. Happy Father’s Day!

 

God Bless,

Fr. Steven

 

My Dear Parishioners,

 

I am your new priest in town. I flew in last week early morning at 12:40 AM from St. Croix, US Virgin Islands. My name is Fr. Victor Vitug. I was born and raised in the Philippines. My parents are Juanito Vitug & Leonila Luna, both are deceased. I still have 7 living siblings.

 

I entered the seminary when I was 57. It was a late vocation, actually “very late.” I was the one found by the Lord standing ‘idle’ almost at the closing hour. Basically, I see my life in the gospel of St. Matthew where the owner started calling for workers for his vineyard. He began at nine in the morning, then recruited some more at noon time and at 3:00 in the afternoon. And not wanting to miss anybody, he came back at the last hour, where he saw me standing and waiting.

 

For all my life, I was such a fool, having all the things I wanted but my life was empty. All I desired was to be happy, but I found myself in search of happiness in the wrong places and things. I was looking for money, fame, success and enjoying whatever life can give me. Going out for fun and doing basically what I want to do.

 

So immediately after graduating from college in 1973, wanting to gain experience, I got myself a job in the bank. I was hopping from one industry to another. From banking to Pharmaceuticals to transportation-shipping industry to the Airline, then to Hotel Industry and finally settled with the Insurance industry. It was a long and tortuous journey, but was necessary in order for me to discover the love of God. He was patiently waiting for the right moment. He never gave up on me. He never ceased loving me. And the best part, he kept pursuing me like a true lover until finally surrendered myself to him and welcomed the kind of love he has for me. I understood what St. Augustine meant when he wrote, ‘my restless heart, found rest in him, simply because we were made for him.’ At hindsight, responding at the last hour was actually the “perfect” time for me. There could be no other hour for me than that. Thanks to the community I joined 32 years ago, it was very instrumental in leading and showing me the mission the Lord has prepared for me today.

 

At 67, I was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Boston at the Holy Cross Cathedral in May 2019, together with 12 men. My first assignment was at Reading, Massachusetts at the St. Agnes and St. Athanasius for two years. Then I was a hospital chaplain briefly before I was sent to the Virgin Islands where I served as Parochial Vicar for two years. My pastor was Fr. Andrea Fillippuci who used to be one of your priests sometime ago. Still strong and walking at 72, Cardinal Sean O’Malley sent me here to Immaculate Conception to continue my mission. Together with Fr. Steven and Fr. Gabriel, our two young & energetic priests, may we continue to minister to all your spiritual needs and a witness of the love and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ in our lives.

 

Thank you for welcoming me to your “home.”

 

Yours in Christ,

Fr. Victor 

From Father Steven - January 25, 2026

By Father Steven Clemence • January 23, 2026
Dear Brothers and Sisters, As we come to the end of January, it is certainly a good time to have a deep sense of gratitude in recognition that we are truly loved by God and that we are called to spread that love to everyone. Perhaps today we could take some time to think about God’s goodness to us and how He invites us to share our faith with those who have not yet heard the Good News. For our annual Mission Appeal for 2025 (sorry for the delay!), Sister Lisa Valentini, MSC, a Missionary Sister of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, is coming here to Marlborough next weekend to share with all of us about the Missionary endeavors of her Sisters in Mission around the globe. Right now, the MSC Sisters who are serving in a place called Kurugodu in the Bellary area of Karnataka State in India, have a specific project for which they are in desperate need of support: They need to build an addition onto their elementary school. When Sister Lisa was in India six years ago, there were 550 students in Sacred Heart of Jesus School. Now, there are 1,400 students and the school continues to GROW. Sister Lisa will share with us how the children in Sacred Heart are coming to know about Jesus because the MSC Sisters are there. There are two ways of being a Missionary: One is to GIVE by GOING – which is what the MSC Sisters do… the other is to GO by GIVING. . . This Mission Appeal gives us the opportunity to “GIVE” so that we can be a part of the Missionary work of the MSC Sisters. We will be having a second collection next weekend to help them in their mission. We always invite you to be generous to them as God has been generous to us! On a separate but related topic, I would like to highlight that here in the parish, we also have 2 women who are missionaries. Jackie Chung is currently serving the college students of University of Rhode Island in Providence through Focus. Along with other missionaries, they evangelize other young adults who are studying at URI. They try to touch their lives and rekindle God’s love by offering them opportunities to encounter Jesus, either by bible study groups, retreats, or peer to peer conversations. This is her second year. The other person is Janet Guzman. She is in her third year in mission in Turks and Caicos through the Neocatechumenal Way. Although the surroundings are beautiful, she is currently serving the underprivileged local population in a school that the local parish opened a few years ago. The whole school is run by women who have heard the call from the Lord to serve. Some are trained professional teachers while others serve in other capacities. Janet is very happy working with the children and teaching them about the love of God and a few other things. We also have 5 seminarians from the parish. We have one parishioner in a seminary and 4 seminarians that were adopted by the parish. Leonardo Orellana after discerning his vocation, desired to follow the call to be a missionary priest and was assigned to a seminary in Washington, DC. Then we have the guys that you usually see around, Deacon Javier, Alex, Henry, and Michael (that is currently in mission in California). There are a few young people who are also discerning their vocation. Some have felt called to serve God as priests, others as nuns, missionaries, or holy couples. It is very important that we pray for them EVERYDAY! It is not easy to be young these days. There are many challenges that we didn’t face when we were young. We priests also ask for your prayers so that we can continue serving the people and doing God’s work! There is much hope for the future! Although the news and politics seem to paint a gloomy picture, the future is very bright!!! Let us never lose hope! God Bless, Fr. Steven 

From Father Steven - January 18, 2026

By Father Steven Clemence • January 16, 2026
Dear Brothers and Sisters, This week I would like to share with you some news from our parish. We had a great year during the Jubilee, with many wonderful events. There are also some updates on other things that are happening that people may not be aware of. Lastly, we have a few upcoming events that I would like to bring to your attention. In the past fiscal year (July 2024–June 2025), many people accepted the grace of receiving the sacraments. We had 65 baptisms, 95 confirmations, and 82 First Communions. Some of these were received by adults, others by teenagers, and most by children. We also had 29 couples married during this time. Another statistic worth noting is the number of funerals celebrated. We honored the lives of 76 brothers and sisters who were called home to the Lord. Looking back on the year 2025 as a whole, there were many beautiful moments in our parish life. A few are worth highlighting. In January, we took 56 pilgrims to the March for Life, and we will be doing so again this week. We were also blessed to be designated a Jubilee Pilgrimage Site for the Jubilee Year. After forming four planning groups, we began offering Adoration and Confessions Monday through Friday from 6:00–7:00 p.m. Countless people experienced the mercy of God during this time. We also offered talks three times a week—one in each language—with excellent speakers covering a wide variety of themes. Throughout the year, we hosted 11 retreats and welcomed special guests for various events, including Immaculée Ilibagiza and Sean Forrest. We also held our annual Corpus Christi procession and Parish Festival, both of which were very well attended. We began a bereavement ministry and launched a new parish group, Friends in Faith. In addition, we enjoyed several social events, such as fish fries, bingo, Spanish Family Night, and other dinners. We conducted a parish-wide 33 Days Consecration to Mary and celebrated the Marian feasts of Our Lady of the Rosary, Our Lady of Aparecida, the Immaculate Conception, and Our Lady of Guadalupe. This last celebration marked the first visit of our Archbishop, Richard Henning. This is a very brief summary of the 45 events we held in 2025. Looking ahead, we will have 24-hour Adoration this Sunday, taking advantage of the holiday. (If you are able, please sign up online so we can ensure all hours are covered.) Then, on Thursday, 55 youth will travel on pilgrimage to Washington, D.C., to participate in the March for Life. On the weekend of January 31–February 1, Sister Lisa, MSC, will be with us for the Mission Appeal. On February 15, after the 11:00 a.m. Mass, we will hold the annual Anointing of the Sick in observance of the World Day of the Sick. As noted on our cover page, we will host a couples’ retreat on February 21. This will be a wonderful opportunity for couples to rekindle their love for one another. Lent will begin on February 18 with Ash Wednesday. Finally, on February 28, Sister Olga will visit the parish to give two talks: one for women and young ladies on vocation, and another open to the public (topic to be determined). One more novelty, we are very happy to introduce you to Ms. Gabriella Lindhurst as our new Music Director. She got her music degrees from Assumption College (Bachelor) and Notre Dame (Masters). She comes from Southborough and has sang and performed in many different places for the past 10 years. Please make sure to welcome her as you see her this weekend.  There are many other things happening in our parish, but I wanted to share just some of them with you. These events are inspired by the Holy Spirit to fill us with grace and bring us closer to Jesus. I understand that some events may feel challenging or even intimidating, but I encourage you to ask yourself, “Is God calling me to attend this?” If you have any questions or need clarification, please feel free to contact the parish office. As John the Baptist pointed Jesus out to those around him, so do we. Hopefully, one day we can all say, “Now I have seen and testified that he is the Son of God.” God Bless, Fr. Steven