Weekly Bulletin

menu

Bulletin for June 3/4 and 10/11, 2023

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

Teen Confirmation -June 10 @ 5pm Mass

We would like to welcome Bishop Robert Reed to the Paulist Center as he confers the sacrament of confirmation on Saturday, June 10 at the 5pm Mass.  Please join us for this special celebration either in-person or online.  Congratulations to our hard working teens who will celebrate on this day and receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit!  We are so proud of you!

Juneteenth

The Paulist Center offices will be closed on Monday, June 19 in observance of Juneteenth.  There will be no 11am confessions or 12:05pm Mass that day.

VIRTUS Training

Thank you to everyone who signed up to participate in the VIRTUS session on June 4, ensuring we do all we can to make this a safe environment for all.  Please check last week’s bulletin for directions on how to register through the VIRTUS website.

Celebrating Fr. Chuck!

​​​In honor of his 40th anniversary of presbyteral ordination, Associate Director Emeritus   Fr. Chuck Cunniff, CSP will preach & preside at the 10am Mass on Sunday, June 11.   Please join us, and please stay afterwards for a light reception in his honor!

 Young Adult Ministry – Summer 2023

The Paulist Center Young Adults is a welcoming Catholic community for peers ages 21-39.
Many social and spiritual opportunities are coming this summer! Find updates at paulistcenter.org/young-adult-events and email Anna with questions at youngadults@paulistcenter.org.  Thanks for supporting us as we grow our Young Adult community!

Live-streamed Mass Links

Sunday, June 4, 10am    YouTube Link     Order of Worship Link                                                                                                                    Saturday, June 10, 5pm    YouTube Link  Order of Worship Link
Sunday, June 11, 10am    YouTube Link     Order of Worship Link                                                                                                                   Sunday, June 18, 10am   YouTube Link  Order of Worship Link
Sunday, June 25, 10am   YouTube Link  Order of Worship Link

Supporting Our LGBTQ+ Siblings

Pride Weekend will be celebrated in Boston June 10-11. The Paulist Center will be supporting anyone who identifies as LGBTQ+ in the following ways:
1) St. Cecilia Rainbow Ministry, in collaboration with the Paulist Center, St. Anthony Shrine, and the parishes of Blessed Trinity, St. Joseph (West End), & St. Susanna, invite you to honor our LGBTQ+ siblings at the big “All Are Welcome” Mass at St. Cecilia Parish (18 Belvidere St) 6pm Friday, June 9. Following the Mass, there will be a reception in the parish café.
2) If you know anyone going to the Pride Parade on Saturday, June 10 who’s in search of a spiritual home, encourage them to stop by the booth run by the consortium of Catholic communities in the Archdiocese of Boston who support persons who identify as LGBTQ+, including the Paulist Center.
3) While not intended to take the place of the “All Are Welcome” Mass at St. Cecilia on Friday night, members of our own LGBTQ+ Ministry will also gather for the Paulist Center’s 6pm Mass on Sunday, June 11. While the Paulist Center extends a message of welcome to all people in everything we do, this Mass will include an explicit welcome to all people who identify as LGBTQ+, whether or not they have a comfortable relationship with the Catholic Church.
4) The consortium sponsoring events #1 and #2 above will host their monthly Zoom meeting for Family and Friends of persons identifying as LGBTQ+ at 2pm on Sunday, June 18. Fr. Rich will be leading a discussion on this article by  Fr. James Martin, SJ: https://outreach.faith/2023/05/how-to-respond-to-homophobic-messages-you-hear-in-church/.
Email Jay at lgbtqministry@stanthonyshrine.org to get the Zoom link.

Wishing a Fond Farewell to Fr. Ed Nowak, CSP

It’s hard to believe that Fr. Ed Nowak, CSP has been with us less than 10 months.
He’s had a big impact here, he worked hard, and he provided us with much-needed stability when Fr. Chuck needed to take an unexpected medical leave last July.  Thank you so much, Ed! We’ll miss you as you move to Washington DC to become the full-time Paulist Vocations Director!  We’ll bid Ed farewell at each Mass the weekend of June 17 & 18.

And don’t forget that we’ll welcome back Fr. Rick Walsh, CSP as Associate Director once again at each Mass on the weekend of July 8 & 9.  Both weekends, we’ll have light receptions after each Mass.

Pastoral Council – Still Time!

There’s still a few days for additional candidates to throw their hats in the ring for the Pastoral Council elections!   Potential candidates must submit the following to Amy Logan by Tuesday, June 6:

  • a picture
  • a statement (350 words or less)
  • 25 member signatures (gathered in-person and/or electronically)

We plan to have all candidates’ statements available for review in the June 9 and June 16 editions of the electronic Missive, and in print at the Masses on June 10 & 11 and June 17 & 18.   The election will run electronically June 16–26 and in person at Masses on June 17 & 18.

Receiving the Precious Blood

As part of the easing of Covid-19 safety restrictions, Cardinal Seán O’Malley will permit the reception of the cup at communion starting on the Solemnity of Corpus Christi.  The Worship Committee and pastoral staff are working on logistics around the re-introduction of the cup here, including recruiting and training/retraining those willing to be cup ministers. Given the necessary logistics, this will likely happen sometime this fall.  If you have any concerns, please contact anyone on the pastoral staff.

On-Going Balcony Mask Policy

Out of respect for our immunocompromised members and visitors, we will continue to ask everyone in the balcony (except the smallest children) to wear masks.

A Variety of Celebrations in June and early July

We have a lot to celebrate in June and early July. Please mark your calendars now!

  • Saturday, June 10 – Teen Confirmation Mass at 5pm
  • Sunday, June 11 – Fr. Chuck Cunniff’s 40th Ordination Anniversary Mass at 10am.   Join us afterwards for a light reception.
  • Saturday, June 17 & Sunday, June 18 – Farewell Masses for Fr. Ed Nowak, CSP at  5pm Saturday, 10am & 6pm Sunday.  Join us after any of the three Masses for a light reception.
  • Monday, June 19 – Office closed in observance of Juneteenth. No 11am confessions or 12:05pm Mass.
  • Tuesday, July 4 – Special 8:00am Mass at the Paulist Center before the 9:00am city parade starting at City Hall Plaza. Office closed in observance of Independence Day. No 12:05pm Mass.
  • Saturday, July 8 & Sunday, July 9 – Welcome Masses for Fr. Rick Walsh, CSP at 5 pm Saturday,  10am & 6pm Sunday.  Join us after any of the three Masses for a light reception.

Becoming “Slow to Anger” with the Power of Threes

Pastoral Reflection for Trinity Sunday (June 3 – 4)

Anna Costello Duran
Young Adult Minister

I give credit to my mom for teaching me the power of threes. In the Catholic tradition, the number three signals completion, expressive of a beginning, a middle, and an end, all in one. My mother taught me about special groups of three: my sister, my brother, and me; the strongest shape (triangles); and the Trinity. As we celebrate The Solemnity of the Holy Trinity, let’s reflect on Paul’s three-fold blessing through our three readings. (Do you see the trend yet?)

After a long second letter to the Corinthians, Paul offers a Trinitarian blessing: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you” (2 Cor 13:13). This eloquent verse is considered one of the clearest New Testament passages about the Trinity. As I pray with this blessing, I wonder: how can we invite God’s love, God’s grace, and God’s fellowship to bless our lives?

Let’s begin with love. In the first reading, Moses encounters God in the form of a cloud who proclaims, “The LORD…[is] slow to anger and abounding in love” (Ex 34:6). Although there is much to say about God’s love, let’s focus on a characteristic that is interdependent with it: being slow to anger.

When discussing anger, it’s important to clarify a common myth: anger is neither negative nor bad. Although many of us have experienced unhealthy forms of anger, such as explosiveness or violence directed towards people, the emotion itself provides valuable information. Anger tells us that something is wrong, such as when a boundary is violated, or a need goes unmet.

When we’re slow to anger, we don’t lash out (experts call this “anger at”); rather our rage signals a need for change that can motivate us to take action to correct injustice (“anger that”). Some have called anger the power that protects love. So, instead of judging anger, we can start listening to messages behind it.

This brings us to the next blessing: God’s grace. Our gospel reading proclaims, “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn…but that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:17). When we emulate Christ, we move from criticism to offering grace freely for ourselves and others.

This biblical concept has been integrated into a trauma-informed practice called “pre-forgiveness.” Pre-forgiveness acknowledges that all humans make mistakes, normalizing forgiveness and reconciliation. We’re all familiar with these ideas, which are summed up in the golden rule (Matthew 7:12) and the 90’s W.W.J.D. bracelets (anyone?). However, many of us have found that we’re more likely to “beat ourselves up” about little things than to criticize others.

I’ll never forget a lesson on forgiving myself that a friend once taught me. We were driving a new, borrowed car, navigating slowly as families and little ones wandered to and fro in a packed parking lot. After stopping for the umpteenth time, I finally saw an exit route and began a three-point turn. As I reversed, I gently tapped an item that I hadn’t noticed in the rearview mirror: a porta-potty. (I’ll let that metaphor sink in.) As I jumped out of the car, flustered and scanning for damage, my rage turned into negative self-talk. Thankfully, my friend helped me slow down and advised, “What would you say to a friend if they’d done this? I want you to be as kind to yourself as you would be to a friend.”

It’s time to allow Christ’s grace to bless us as individuals, just as often as we bless others. What types of self-care might we adopt – more sleep? play? other forms of rejuvenation? – in order to show up with the patience we need to emulate Jesus’s grace instead of following the urge to criticize?

The final blessing in Paul’s Trinitarian prayer is for the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. We often experience the unity and accompaniment of the Holy Spirit when in relationship with people and the natural world. The Paulist Center knows this well and we hold fresh memories of celebrating Pentecost together. Like the fire of the Holy Spirit, anger is a gift in our lives, offering piercing clarity and a sense of control over powerlessness.

With the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, we can learn to recognize our emotions and discern their path. How might we practice attuning to our feelings – noticing a hint of sadness or a spark of awe – to cultivate being slow to anger? Through practice, we’ll become more aware of what the simmer of rage feels like. Then, if we want to listen to anger’s message, we can take a walk, practice breathing exercises (such as inhaling for three counts and exhaling for six), change our environment, or make time for prayer.

Slowing down increases our capacity to discern, only allowing anger to burst out of righteousness, such as when we learn of abuse, oppression, poverty, and suffering. This is the anger of our God: an anger that stems from unconditional love and an anger that knows its power as an agent of change to fuel our work for justice.

As we move towards Ordinary Time, I pray for the extraordinary power of the Trinity to guide our way as “slow-to-anger” people. May the blessings of God’s love, Christ’s grace, and the Holy Spirit’s fellowship be with you all!

Living the Eucharist: The Giving of Self

Pastoral Reflection for Corpus Christi (June 10 – 11) 

Fr. Ed Nowak, CSP
Associate Director

In our weekly gathering for Eucharist, we are nourished by God’s Word and by Jesus’ own Body and Blood. We then are sent forth to live the faith we just celebrated. There is a Family Circus cartoon that depicts this reality. In the cartoon, little Dolly says to her family as they are coming out of church, “Grandma says this is where our real religion begins – when we come out of church.”

Our gathering together for Eucharist has the power to transform us into living our faith 24/7 in service to God, but we must be open. Transformation happens as we grow in awareness of what we celebrate and participate in. St. Paul reminded the Corinthians that the bread that is broken is the Body of Christ; the cup that is blessed is the Blood of Christ. Each time we celebrate this Eucharist, we are connected to the sacrifice of love that Jesus offered for us. We are united with his suffering, death, and resurrection.

Actions of self-sacrificing love are what Eucharist is about. Anyone who has truly loved another understands Eucharist, because Eucharist is the giving of self to nurture a loved one’s wholeness. Jesus comes to our Eucharistic table, celebration after celebration, to give himself to us, to heal our brokenness and to make us whole.

We come to the table as broken people, a people needing healing and forgiveness. Jesus responds to our brokenness by breaking himself, that we may be whole again. The more profoundly we know our own brokenness, the more deeply Jesus will be able to heal us. This is true for us as individuals and as a church. When we experience or offer unconditional love and forgiveness, we live the Eucharist we celebrate. When we can look at the most broken individuals among us and say, “This is my body, this is my blood,” we begin to realize the profound reality of being united with each other through the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.    Jesus’ ultimate gift of himself in this Eucharist unites us in a unique way with him and with each other. 

Our awareness of Jesus’ gift of himself in this Eucharist is diminished if we do not believe that God accepts us and cares for us just as we are with all our imperfections. It can be diminished if we do not accept that God continually offers us forgiveness no matter how many times we need forgiveness. It can be lost if we do not share that same love and forgiveness with each other. When we believe in one another, accept one another, forgive and love one another unconditionally, then the power of this Eucharist to transform us and the world is present to us.

Time and time again we gather at this Eucharistic table in our brokenness. We gather to be nourished and healed by the Body of Christ so that we may more indeed be the Body of Christ and in turn nourish and heal a world so hungry for love, forgiveness, and peace.

As I transition from this Eucharistic community at the Paulist Center to my new ministry as Vocation Director in Washington, DC, I want to thank this community for truly being the Body of Christ for me through your warm welcome and support during my all too brief time here. You will be in my prayers whenever I celebrate with others at our Eucharistic table. I appreciate your prayers and I do hope to see you again from time to time as I trust that my new ministry will periodically bring me back to Boston. It has truly been a blessing to be here with you these past 9 months! 🙂

​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!

Two ways to give to the Paulist Center:

  1. To make a one-time or recurring donation to the Center using your bank account or credit card, click on this link: https://tinyurl.com/DonatePaulistCenter
  2. Text a whole dollar donation to 844-899-7511; this will be designated as your “Weekend Offering.”

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, but we highlight one of them each weekend.

The weekend of June 3 and 4 we raise up Catholic Near East Welfare Association which works in places of poverty, war, and displacement across the Middle East, Northeast Africa, India, and Eastern Europe, helping to alleviate poverty, affirm human dignity, build up the Church — and inspire hope.

The weekend of June 10 and 11 we raise up the Paulist Center’s Lay Ministry Grant which offers tuition money to an  active Roman Catholic lay student for a first level graduate theological or pastoral degree program. Envelopes will be in the pews should you wish to make an additional donation.

2023 Lay Ministry Scholarship

The Paulist Center offers a grant of $700 – $1,000 to an active Boston-area Roman Catholic lay graduate student.
The grant is to be applied to tuition for a first level graduate theological or pastoral degree program (M.Div, MTS, MA in Pastoral Ministry, or equivalent).  The award is open to any lay person after successful completion of her/his first year of a master’s-level degree program in a Boston Theological Institute (BTI) school.
Information sheets are available online here, in the racks, or by contacting Patty Simpson at patty@paulistcenter.org.
The application deadline is Monday, July 31.

Paulist Center Rosary Circle and Intentions Form

All are welcome to the Paulist Center Rosary Circle, every Monday at 7:30pm.  Here’s the Zoom link
Meeting ID: 487 503 158   Passcode: 021078
Do you have a special intention that you would like the Paulist Center Community to pray for? Our weekly Rosary Circle is happy to include your intentions (which may be anonymous).   Go here for the form.

Around the Community

For nearly 30 years, Gospel Night at the Pops has lifted Symphony Hall beyond music into the soulful ministry of racial justice and ecumenical joy and hope.  Join the all-local choir (including some Paulist Center Community members) 8:00pm on Saturday, June 10.  Tickets and more at bso.org/pops.  Contact annmoritz@comcast.net. Discount tickets available.