Weekly Bulletin
Bulletin for April 27/28, 2024
(A PDF version of the bulletin as printed is available here)
Walk For Hunger – Next Sunday, May 5
In 1969, a group from the Paulist Center Community, led by Patrick Hughes, established the very first pledge walk in the country. An estimated 2,000 people walked 29.6 miles through Quincy, raising $26,000.
The Walk had two purposes:
- raise funds to help people experiencing hunger, and
- stand together for social justice and social change that would eventually eliminate hunger.
From this iconic event, Project Bread was born!
Now, 56 years later, we are once again walking to raise money for hunger, both in our state and city, and for our beloved Wednesday Night Supper Club. Next Sunday, May 5, please join the Supper Club Team and the many FREP families who will gather at 8:30am in front of our Chapel doors for a blessing, and then head over to the start of the 3 laps around the Boston Common.
Join us for the 10am Mass afterward.
Please use the QR code to register, join the team, or make a donation; or, donate at give.projectbread.org/team/562353 Thank you! Please be sure to join us for Community Coffee next Sunday, May 5 in the auditorium after the 10am Mass and thank all those who participated in the Walk For Hunger!
Family Religious Education Program (FREP)
Class locations for this Sunday – April 28:
K – 1: 6th Fl, Rm 16
2 – 3: 2nd Fl Seminar Rm
4 – 6: 6th Fl, Rm 22
Jr. High & Sr. High: no classes
**There are no FREP Classes next Sunday, May 5, due to the Walk for Hunger!
Live-Streamed Mass Links
- Sunday, April 28, 10am 5th Sunday of Easter
- Saturday, May 4, 5pm 6th Sunday of Easter
At the time of each livestream, the appropriate Order of Worship will be available at paulistcenter.org/order-of-worship.
Paulist Center Community Meeting – Saturday, May 11, 2-4pm
The Pastoral Council is thrilled to invite you to the annual Paulist Center Community Meeting on Saturday, May 11. It will be held in the auditorium from 2 – 4pm, before the 5pm Saturday Vigil 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!
“Spirit of Hecker” Award Presented To Mary Skinner!
This weekend, Paulist Center Community member Mary Skinner receives a “Spirit of Hecker” Award from the Boston Paulists. It is being presented to her at the Auction on Saturday evening, April 27, and she is featured in the Paulists’ national broadcast that same night at https://paulist.org/HeckerAwards/.
Mary is a salt-of-the-earth Christian Catholic, a life-long advocate of social justice, an ecumenist, and at heart, a teacher. Mary and the family she raised participated in many civil rights and anti-war protests. She spent a summer at a Catholic Worker House and was a founder and board member of the Interfaith Hospitality Network. She earned a PhD in History from Syracuse University and a Masters degree in Church History, Spiritual Direction, and Feminist Theology from the Weston School of Theology. She organized conferences as an Oblate at Mt. Saviour Benedictine Monastery. She has taught classes at a variety of colleges and universities, in addition to being a Campus Minister at Corning Community College and teaching impoverished students in Kenya.
For the past ten years, Mary has been active in the Paulist Center’s Immigration Advocacy Group, Racial Justice Advocacy Group, Wednesday Night Supper Club, and Walk for Hunger. Earlier this year, Mary spoke at one of our intergenerational programs about her experiences in the civil rights movement, including her attendance at Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. We are honored to recognize Mary Skinner for her lifelong work in education, inter-religious dialogue, and justice!
Please Remember in Your Prayers …
Please pray for Community member Jerry Young, husband of Paulist Associate Beverly Young, who entered eternal life last Sunday morning. Arrangements are being finalized, but the funeral and a reception are likely to be here at the Center on Saturday, May 4 at 11am. Please keep Jerry, Bev and their family in your prayers.
“I AM” – Called to be a Christian
Fr. Rick Walsh, C.S.P.
Associate Director
In this past Sunday’s homily, I made the point that in John’s gospel, Jesus shared dramatic statements in reference to himself. Utilizing the well-known phrase of God’s self-identification to Moses, “I am,” Jesus, on seven occasions, declared, “I am the bread of life,” “I am the light of the world,” “I am the sheepgate,” “I am the Good Shepherd,” “I am the Resurrection and the Life,” “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life,” “I am the Vine and you are the branches.”
It is the seventh (a special number in the Bible) “I am” saying that we find Jesus inviting us to live through Him, with Him, and in Him; “Abide in me as I abide in you!”
If we can live in Christ as branches on the Christ vine, then perhaps we could also live in Him by incorporating the other “I am” identities. Indeed, are we not capable of incorporating the other mystical identities of Christ through our participation in the sacraments? Is this not a good way to understand what it means to be a Christian?
We may not be THE Bread of Life nor THE light of the world, just as we are not THE Vine. We do, however, participate in the Vine’s life, as branches. We also are each called to be light for the world, food for the spiritually hungry, protector of the weak and vulnerable, and so on.
In my homily I shared that in the course of the passion of Jesus, as recorded by the author of John’s gospel, the unnamed “beloved disciple” took on the qualities of the good shepherd. He fearlessly stayed with Jesus, the Lamb of God who was to be slain.
Peter, on the other hand, behaved more like the hired shepherd Jesus had warned about, who runs away to avoid the present danger. I went on to share that it was not until Jesus spoke privately with Peter after His resurrection and forgave him, that Peter was able to behave more like the Good Shepherd. This was because he, like the beloved disciple, knew that he was loved by Christ Jesus.
In the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, we heard Peter’s speech directed at those same leaders he once feared. Peter was finally acting as a good shepherd!
This knowledge of being loved by Christ, by God, is given to each one of us through the Holy Spirit. Of course, we have to really know this truth in our hearts. If we do not cultivate our relationship with the Lord, how will we be able to accept the responsibility to live on in His love as branches on the vine? How will we help lead others to discover the Way, the Truth, and the Life?
I wonder what we would be capable of if we took the time to ponder the “love God has bestowed on us in Christ, in letting us be called children of God.” I suspect our world would be a better place.
The following message is from Fr. Chuck Cunniff, who served as Associate Director until July 2022, when he was diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer:
On Monday, April 22, I had a Zoom meeting with my oncologist. With her advice, I have made the decision to stop treatments and to transition to Palliative/Hospice Care here at the residence. This is a lot for me and for you to absorb. Trust in God is getting me through. I hope it will be the same for you. There was no mention of a timeline. A hospice nurse was here late Tuesday afternoon and got the process started…paperwork, ordering materials, etc. Definitely a whirlwind! Thanks for your support and prayers — past, current, and future!
We encourage anyone who wants to express support for Chuck to bring hand-written notes to 5 Park Street as soon as possible. He does not currently have the energy to read email or receive phone calls.
Parent Preparation for Infant/Child Baptism
The Paulist Center offers a preparation session on Saturdays, from 10am – 12pm. The next two (2) dates are May 11 and June 8, in the 3rd Fl Library and in the Chapel. Expecting parents are invited to attend before their child is born/adopted. To register, please contact Fr. Rick at rick@paulistcenter.org.
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 April 27 and 28 we raise up 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.
Upcoming Holy Day
Join us in celebrating the Ascension of the Lord on Thursday, May 9. We’ll have a spoken Mass at 7:55 am and Masses with music at 12:05 pm & 7 pm. The 7 pm Mass will also be live streamed.
Mark Your Calendars! Community Meeting on May 11!
The Pastoral Council and Pastoral Staff invites everyone to join us for a very important community meeting the afternoon of Saturday, May 11. More details will follow in the upcoming weeks.
Emergency Food Pantry
The Paulist Center teams up with the Greater Boston Food Bank to collect food for a nominal fee. Three volunteer shoppers make weekly visits. The food pantry is on the first floor, two doors down from the reception area. There, four volunteer on Tuesdays from 1:00 – 2:30pm, distribute food that three different volunteers have previously shelved and bagged. We give out bags of groceries that feed over 500 people a month.
Please contact Raoul Vincent at karlenevincent@gmail.com for more information.
It’s That Time of Year!
Like the HVAC controls in many old buidings in downtown Boston, the controls at 5 Park Street are difficult to switch between heat and air conditioning. For the next several weeks, plan to dress in layers when you’re in the Paulist Center as the internal temperatures will vary from day to day and from floor to floor, dependent on God’s decisions regarding the outside temperature!
Can You Help Assist Our Immigrant Neighbors?
With over 3,000 immigrant families living in shelters in the Commonwealth, there is a great need for volunteers to help. In partnership with the International Institute of New England (IINE), our Immigration Advocacy Group (IAG) are looking for volunteer ESOL tutors, job-seeking coaches, and more. Most of the work is via Zoom, and commitment levels are flexible. Learn about this and other opportunities to help immigrants at tinyurl.com/April2024IAG or contact paulistcenterimmigration@gmail.com.
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