Weekly Bulletin April 19/20
(A PDF version of the bulletin as printed is available here)
Happy Easter to All!
From the Paulist Center Staff and the Paulist Fathers
Welcome, visitors!
Whether this is your 1st time or your 50th time worshipping with us on Easter, we’re glad you are here. We’ll have a blessing for all runners at the end of each Mass on Easter weekend.
Family Religious Education Program (FREP)
There are no religious education classes on Easter Sunday. All FREP classes will meet next Sunday, April 27.
Prayers for our First Communicants
Please pray for our children preparing to celebrate the sacrament of First Holy Communion on May 18 at the 10am Mass. All are welcome to the celebration and reception to follow!
Mass for Marathon Runners
Monday, April 21 @ 6 am
Join us for a special Mass and blessing to kick off this year’s Boston Marathon. Good luck, and run safely!
The office is closed for Patriots’ Day, April 21.
There will be no 12noon Mass that day.
Live-Streaming
Find all the livestreams and recordings on youtube.com/ThePaulistCenter
Holy Saturday, April 19, Easter Vigil *8:00 pm Link
Easter Sunday, April 20, Mass of the Resurrection *10:00 am Link 12:00 pm
At the time of each livestream, the appropriate Order of Worship will be available at paulistcenter.org/order-of-worship.
An Easter Message
from the Director of the Paulist Center
This year I made my annual retreat after the first Sunday of Lent. Every year I take advantage of a friend’s invitation to spend the week at his condo in Florida. I confess to using my retreat days when the weather is dreary in the Boston area.
Each year I find a book to bring. This year it was a book written by my friend and former spiritual director Franciscan Fr. Richard Rohr, The Tears of Things – Prophetic Wisdom for an Age of Outrage. The book demonstrates how all prophets share a pattern in their messages to the leaders and the ordinary Israelites. “Their initial rage and their accusatory words evolve into a profound pathos and lamentation about our shared human condition and the world’s suffering.” (from the book jacket)
It’s easy to see the need for the prophetic voice in our time to help us move through our righteous anger, discouragement, and despair in order to get to a place of peace. We need the prophetic voice to help us lament the situation in which we may find ourselves in this season of Lent.
But prophets do not leave us in a state of remorse, rather, they offer God’s word of hope and peace. Rohr calls the reader to move through the suffering of chaos and disorder and to remember the prophetic message of hope and consolation that helps us to enter a life filled with gratitude and awarenes of our blessings. I remember hearing the saying – the preaching of the gospel ought to comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.
I think that our faith community at the Paulist Center has been correctly preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ that way by our actions, more than our words. I remain committed to our Paulist Center’s corporate commitment to strive to be hopeful when the days are not so bright. This is what Easter people do! We live in the world in which we’ve been planted, and yet we open our hearts to the Grace of God that enables us to transcend our fears and doubts.
On Easter Wednesday (April 23) we will hear a passage from Luke – the story of the journey to Emmaus where two of the disciples of Jesus are “getting out of Dodge”. They are devastated by the recent events in Jerusalem including the ignominious death of Jesus, the one they believed was the Messiah. As they journey to safety, they are joined by a stranger who speaks a prophetic word of hope in their depressed state of mind.
The words he spoke to them must have boosted their spirits, for they begged this unknown traveler to stay with them for an evening meal. It was during the breaking of the bread, they came to recognize that it was Jesus who was with them on the way, offering them encouragement. This is our story. We are to put ourselves in the shoes (sandals?) of those disciples who felt a burning in their hearts BEFORE they recognized the presence of Christ with them.
We all live in the real world that can seem bleak at times. Like the two disciples on the way, we are to walk with one another and to keep our eyes and ears open to the presence of Christ, who often comes to us in disguise.
May God bless us as we continue the journey!
Rev. Broderick M. Walsh, CSP
Director
50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ISAAC HECKER AWARD FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE
Since 1974, the Paulist Center Community has presented the Isaac Hecker Award for Social Justice to an outstanding North American Catholic. Recipients of the award have included locally and nationally recognized women and men – lay people, sisters, priests, and bishops. Isaac Hecker, the founder of the Paulist Fathers, was particularly concerned with the growth and development of American Catholicism. Hecker and the early Paulists devoted themselves to mission preaching and communication of the Word of God. The award was named to honor Isaac Hecker.
Hecker Award 50th Anniversary Celebration – Future Events
- Sun, June 1 @ 11:15am: Short film on Isaac Hecker and American Catholicism. Meet & Greet with Paulist Fathers John Duffy, CSP and Patrick Johnson, CSP who moved into our Park Street location this past fall.
- Sat, June 7 @ 10am: How Hecker was influenced by Transcendalism. Paulist Center Members gather at Walden Pond for a film, lecture about transcendalism, and walk to Thoreau’s cabin. Bring a picnic lunch!
- Fall date & event TBA
Our 42nd Annual Paulist Center Auction!
Puttin’ on the Ritz: A Roaring 20s Extravaganza
Saturday, May 3 – 6:15pm
Put on Your Glad Rags — The ’20s Are Back and the Party’s About To Begin!”
We are just two weeks away from our annual Auction! If you haven’t already gotten your ticket you can visit www.paulistcenter.org/auction2025. The evening will be better with you!
We have some amazing items; here’s a sneak peek!
- Red Sox vs. Yankees Friday, June 13. Includes access to the Royal Rooters Club and a $100 gift card to Timeout Market
- A week in beautiful Sonoma, CA- Plan on escaping to an amazing condo for the week of October 3 – 10
- Two tickets to the Notre Dame vs. Boise State football game on October 4 plus a hotel stay from Thursday to Sunday in South Bend! Go Irish!
- Goal! Attend the 2026 FIFA World Cup on June 13, 2026. Two great tickets! Get them now because by next year they’ll be gone!
- And we’ll have many of our amazing dinners again!
If you are not able to join us you can still be part of the fun.
Go to our website beginning the week of April 28th to see all the items in our Auction. Then email auction@paulistcenter.org with the name and number of the item you wish to bid on and your highest bid amount. We will contact you the week following the auction if you won!
We hope to see you for a fabulous dinner, wonderful desserts, camaraderie and great bidding!
Flower Donations for the Easter Season
Honor your loved ones, living or deceased, by making a donation towards Easter flowers with which we’ll adorn the Chapel throughout the Easter Season. The suggested donation is $10. Thank you! Contributions can be made:
- at the Front Desk Mon – Fri from 10:30am – 4:30pm;
- by going to Donate Online, and choose “Flower Donation” and note who it is “in honor of”, or “in memory of”; or
- by using the envelopes in the pews.
Please write legibly when notating your loved ones’ names.
57th Annual Walk For Hunger – Sun, May 4
Please join the Wednesday Night Supper Club at the 57th Annual Walk for Hunger! The Walk started here at the Paulist Center in 1969. It is now a collaboration with Project Bread: 60% of what we raise comes back to sustain our operations each Wednesday and 40% goes towards advocacy. How can you help?
Please join us on May 4 for the Walk, create a fundraising page, or make a donation here: https://give.projectbread.org/team/643790. We appreciate your support!
Questions: Contact supperclubfood@gmail.com
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.
This weekend, April 19 – 20, we raise up Holy Land Shrines to support the sacred places and the educational, charitable, and peace-seeking ministries of the Church in the Holy Land.
Mass Intentions
Please stop by the reception area during the week, email Sal Whooley at sal@paulistcenter.org, or call 617-742-4460, if you would like to arrange for a Mass and/or purchase a Mass card:
- in memory of someone who has died,
- in honor of a special occasion,
- or for the special intentions of yourself or a loved one
Paulist Center Rosary Circle
All are welcome to the Paulist Center Rosary Circle which meets every Monday at 7:30pm via Zoom. 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 (may be anonymous). Go here for the form.
Low-Gluten Hosts
Low-gluten hosts are available upon request. Please see the presider in the Chapel or Sacristy fifteen minutes before Mass and indicate where you will be seated in the Chapel so the communion minister in that section will have the low-gluten host for you at communion.
Spiritual Direction
Spiritual Direction is an opportunity for one to reflect and share one’s life and prayer experience and be guided in one’s search for God. Spiritual Direction is available at the Center from Sister Kathleen Hagerty, CSJ, or Christopher O’Rourke.
Sister Kathleen can be reached at 617-755-9729.
Christopher can be reached at 617-817-3977.