Weekly Bulletin

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Bulletin for May 4/5, 2024

(A PDF version of the bulletin as printed is available here)

Walk for Hunger – Sunday, May 5

Welcome to all of those in town for Project Bread’s Walk for Hunger!  It’s not too late to donate, here is the link  give.projectbread.org/team/562353.   Please be sure to join us in the auditorium for Community Coffee after the 10am Mass and thank all those who participated in the Walk For Hunger!

Holy Day – This Thursday

Join us in celebrating the Ascension of the Lord this Thursday, May 9.  We’ll have a spoken Mass at 7:55am and Masses with music at 12:05pm and 7pm. The 7pm Mass will be livestreamed.

Family Religious Education Program (FREP)

There are no FREP Classes this Sunday, May 5, due to the Walk for Hunger.  All families are invited to come walk with us!

41st Paulist Center Auction:  Olympics in Paris:  An Evening Soiree

Our Auction last Saturday, April 27, was an evening to remember! Our sold-out event was truly a time for fabulous community building and fun. And thanks to the generosity of community members and local businesses, we raised a record breaking amount that will support our Paulist Center. Last year was a record and we expect to exceed that by 30%. 

We are deeply grateful for the support of all those who made this evening a success. If putting on an Auction was an Olympics event, this community would win the gold. Thank you for donating, sponsoring, volunteering and attending and all with such joy!  Merci beaucoup!

Sincerely, Maggie and Mairead

And the Paulist Center wants to extend our immense thanks to this year’s co-chairs, Maggie Keefe and Mairead Nolan, for doing an amazing and intense job with generosity and good humor! They epitomized putting the “fun” in “fund raiser” and made it possible for everyone else to have fun in the process of doing great things for our community!

Paulist Center Community Meeting – Saturday, May 11, 2-4pm

The Pastoral Council is thrilled to invite you to the annual Paulist Center Community Meeting next Saturday, May 11. It will be held in the auditorium from 2 – 4pm, before the 5pm Mass. In this year’s theme of celebrating our Paulist Center community, we will gather in fellowship and prayer and share with one another what it means to be a member of this faith community.   A light meal will be served at the end of the meeting.  Please help us plan by RSVPing at  https://bit.ly/3UtAqpB by May 10; or just stop by! All are WELCOME, both old and new, to the Paulist Center!

Red Line Information for May 2-10

We were just informed by the MBTA that shuttles will be running from Park Street to JFK from May 2 – 10. Park Street itself will not be closed nor have parking impacted, but they have sent a list of nearby streets that will be impacted. Please see the information they have sent us here.

Live-Streamed Mass Links

At the time of each livestream, the appropriate Order of Worship will be available at paulistcenter.org/order-of-worship.

Responses to the Paulist Fathers’ General Council

In March, the Paulist Center responded to a request by the General Council of the Paulist Fathers. The General Council asked us to provide a written response to several questions about our ministry here. Two questions asked us to share how the Paulist Center demonstrates the mission of the Paulist Fathers.

In order to respond, we solicited feedback from the community and you responded wholeheartedly. THANK YOU.

A summary of the responses from community members can be found here.  The response that was submitted to the general council can be found here and captures much of what was provided by the community responses.

Transition Information on Weekly Missive Format Going Forward (For Now) – possible volunteer opportunity

Starting next week, our weekly missive is going to look a lot simpler. It will consist of a few words from either Fr. Rick, another member of our Pastoral Staff, or a Community Leader, with a link to our weekly bulletin. More details on the rationale for this change and the logistics involved follow below, but, until the staff has more time to comprehensively assess how to approach a number of significant items with our staffing reduced to one priest with both Director and Superior responsibilities, we need to triage a number of things that were handled by Fr. Rich.

If creating Constant Contacts every Wednesday/Thursday at the level of detail Fr. Rich has created them is your gift and passion and you wish to discuss volunteering weekly for this task (bi-weekly from Memorial Day to Labor Day), please contact our Administrator, Patty Simpson, at patty@paulistcenter.org. We are open to a conversation, while also realizing that any approaches decided on for the moment must be easy to enact and accomplish.

 More background. As you may or may not be aware, Fr. Rich dedicated many hours each week to take the bulletin (assembled by our Administrative Assistant, Dorothy Messenger) and create the missive and create and schedule our social media posts. This happens primarily on Wednesday and Thursday after the content for the weekly or bi-weekly bulletin is firm. This is a task that can only be done by someone who knows the Paulist Center very well and understands our community, the liturgical year, and events happening in the Church. Since covid, we have repeatedly discussed whether we could eliminate the bulletin and only produce the Missive. However, the number of people who take our bulletin each week, along with our desire to have something current in a print format for visitors, which printing the missive would not visually satisfy, has led us to repeatedly determine that we do still need a bulletin.

We have only had a few weeks as a community and as a staff to prepare for this significant transition. Those weeks encompassed our busiest time of the year, with Lent, Holy Week, and the Auction. Over the summer, we will be assessing how best to handle the many tasks before us, but this first task – our plan for weekly communications – needs to be our first order of business.

The staff is deeply appreciative of your support and understanding as we all journey through this time of transition together. Let us, with compassion and generosity, continue to support and encourage one another as we journey together in faith, hope, and love.

Thanks for being here with us!
— Fr. Rick, Patty, Susan and Norm

 Rest In Peace, Fr. Charles “Chuck” Cunniff, C.S.P.

Just as this bulletin went to press, our dear Fr. Chuck, Associate Director 2018-2022, died after a prolonged illness. Details for his funeral will be announced in the upcoming days.  Please remember Chuck, his Paulist brothers, and his extended family in your prayers.

In the Liminal Space Between Life, Death, and Eternal Life

Rev. Richard R. Andre,
C. S. P., Director

 

I am writing this as I sit in the corner of Fr. Chuck Cunniff’s bedroom, watching him fitfully doze on May 1, the 9th day of his at-home hospice care. I’m reflecting on how intertwined my life has become with his over the past 20 years.

I first met Chuck at my sister’s church, the Newman Center at the Ohio State University. Perhaps it was when he baptized my second niece. At the time, I was applying for admission to the Paulists. Chuck called me almost every month while I was in the seminary (2005-2011) to check on how I was faring in the formation process. The only exception was 2008-2009, when I lived and worked alongside Chuck at Ohio State for my pastoral year. Even though he wasn’t technically my supervisor, he gave me a lot of guidance and coaching in the evenings, patiently putting the TV on “pause” whenever this extreme extravert had a question or a comment to share!

When I become the Director of the Paulist Center on July 1, 2022, I never imagined that my time here would frame Chuck’s final illness. At the time, we presumed Chuck would continue on as the Associate Director for another few years. That all changed in 22 days when he took a medical leave and was soon diagnosed with an aggressive prostate cancer. As I write this, it seems unlikely that Chuck will still be alive by the time I leave Boston later this spring.

Today, I realize what a “full circle” moment this is for me, and for Fr. Rick as well. Chuck has had a reputation for decades in the Paulists for the excellent care he has provided to our older brothers. Long ago, he and Fr. Rick Walsh worked together to care for retired Paulists in Texas. In Ohio, I witnessed Chuck care for two older priests, both of whom had previously served at the Paulist Center. Chuck attended my mother’s and father’s funerals in Pennsylvania in 2009 and 2012, respectively, and I attended his father’s funeral in Connecticut in 2022. Even after his cancer diagnosis, Chuck still did a lot to help us care for our other brothers here in Boston. It has been a difficult week, but Rick and I are honored to care for our brother who has cared for so many others. We’re now joined by members of Chuck’s family and the Paulist Center Community in providing the care Chuck so richly deserves in his last days.

Many of us who caring for Chuck have been prone to crying this week. Some of the tears are due to Chuck’s rapid diminishment or in response to the brief moments when he feels pain before a medication kicks in. But more than that, the tears flow from the realization that we are bound together in an extended act of love. Together, we are living out Christ’s command to love one another (cf. John 15:11-12). And in realizing that, our joy is complete.

Worship Committee Update

The Worship Committee, a permanent committee of the Paulist Center Community, is looking to fill 3 open positions. Current members are Claire Byrne (Chair), Chuck Ferrara, Barbara Lapinskas, Chris O’Rourke, Rachel Rumely, Marianne Saccardi, Norm Gouin, and Fr. Rick. We are grateful to Lucia Papile, Barbara Miller, and Michael Volonnino, as well as Fr. Rich, who have finished their current service on the Committee.

The overall purpose of the Worship Committee is to advise and assist the Pastoral Minister of Liturgy and Music in preparing and providing for the spiritual development of the Paulist Center through liturgical celebrations and significant prayer experiences. Members serve three-year terms.

The Pastoral Council invites self-nominations from individuals who are invested in the liturgical life of the Center, and who wish to make a contribution towards ensuring our worship is prayerful and engaging for all. Potential members should be actively involved in a liturgical ministry. Members attend monthly meetings over Zoom with the occasional in-person gathering and may be asked to work on small projects. If interested in serving, please send a brief statement of interest and related experience to worship@paulistcenter.org by Wednesday, May 15.  Thank you for your consideration.

Stewardship

​The Paulist Center receives no funding from outside sources. All costs to operate our ministries for both members and the wider Boston community, maintain the building, and pay our staff are supported solely by your financial donations. We are so grateful for your financial support!  See paulistcenter.org/give/ways-to-give for a variety of ways to give to the Paulist Center.
Two options include:

Give a one-time or recurring donation using your bank account or credit card by visiting tinyurl.com/DonatePaulistCenter or scanning the QR code on this page outlined in blue. You can use this method for donations for specific programs, too, and, if you are a registered member with us, these donations will be included in a year-end tax statement sent to you for any donations that are tax deductible per IRS regulations. Giving by this method helps us with our budgeting and stewardship efforts.

Use Apple Pay or Google Pay by visiting donorbox.org/paulistcenter, scanning the QR code on the red cards in the pews, or scanning the QR code on this page outlined in red. Please note that these donations will not be included in any year-end giving tax records, and they solely support our general operations.

Community Gift

The Paulist Center gives 5% of our annual offertory to 52 other charitable organizations with missions consonant with our own. These organizations receive an equal amount from our annual offertory.
The weekend of May 4 and 5 we raise up Project Bread’s Walk for Hunger, whose mission is to alleviate, prevent, and ultimately end hunger in Massachusetts. The Walk for Hunger is the major funding source for our Wednesday Night Supper Club, now 56 years running.

Creation Care Ministry

The next Creation Care meeting will be this Monday, May 6 at 5pm on Zoom.  Please email  paulistcentercreationcare@gmail.com to receive the Zoom link. All are welcome.

Are You Being Called to Serve?

The Pastoral Council will be holding an election in June for three council member seats. We hope some of you will consider running and joining us in this act of service. As you ponder your possible candidacy, please read the description for more information on the role and election guidelines.

The Role: The Pastoral Council includes eight community members and offers leadership in the Paulist Center community in several ways. The role includes supervising the operation of the Center in collaboration with the Paulists and staff, organizing and overseeing community projects (like this election!), approval of the budget, appointment of permanent committees, and communicating with the Paulist Center community about Council actions and general issues affecting the community.

Council members are expected to attend monthly meetings (currently held on Wednesday evenings), be an active member in the community, be willing to listen to different voices, and represent the perspectives of all community members in order to help the Director fulfill his responsibilities. Council members typically contribute 4-8 hours of time per month including meetings, email correspondence, liaising with ministry representatives, and supporting small projects. They are, also, encouraged to be visibly present at Mass and community events.

Guidelines: To apply, candidates must obtain 25 signature endorsements from Paulist Center Community Members and submit a 250-300 word statement as to why you wish to serve in this capacity. Endorsements and statements are due by Friday, May 24. Elections for council members will be held from June 8-16 for three member seats for a two-year term from September 1, 2024 to August 31, 2026.

For more information please contact Deb Heimel, Pastoral Council Chair, at pccouncil@paulistcenter.org.  We look forward to hearing from you!

Around the Community

The Archdiocese’s Project Rachel Ministry will offer post-abortion healing retreats 9 am – 5 pm on Saturday, May 11 and Saturday, June 8. Call 508-651-3100 or email help@projectrachelboston.com.

Parent Preparation for Infant/Child Baptism

The Paulist Center offers a preparation session on Saturdays, from 10am – 12pm. The next two dates are May 11 and June 8, at the Paulist Center in the 3rd Fl Library and in the Chapel.  Expecting parents are invited to attend before their child is born/adopted.
To register for the session, please contact Fr. Rick at rick@paulistcenter.org.

Paulist Center Rosary Circle Intention Form

Do you have a special intention that you would like the Paulist Center Community to pray for?   Our weekly Rosary Circle (see below)  is happy to include your intentions (may be anonymous).   Go here for the form.

Paulist Center Rosary Circle

All are welcome to the Paulist Center Rosary Circle, every Monday at 7:30pm.Zoom link – http://bit.ly/RosaryCircle  Meeting ID: 487 503 158   Passcode: 021078