Latest Posts

menu

Post Library

5/28/2021

Overcoming Racism

May 28, 2021

Special Notice: We are “publishing” our bulletin online every other week, but available each week through my Missive. Here is our second, which covers last AND this week.

With the one-year anniversary of George Floyd’s killing, it may be time to say, again, our prayer to overcome racism (this from the United States Bishops’ document on racism, 2018):

Prayer to Overcome Racism
Mary, friend and mother to all,
through your Son, God has found a way
to unite himself to every human being,
called to be one people,
sisters and brothers to each other.
We ask for your help in calling on your Son,
seeking forgiveness for the times when
we have failed to love and respect one another.
We ask for your help in obtaining from your Son
the grace we need to overcome the evil of racism
and to build a just society.
We ask for your help in following your Son,
so that prejudice and animosity
will no longer infect our minds or hearts,
but will be replaced with a love that respects
the dignity of each person.
Mother of the Church,
the Spirit of your Son, Jesus,
warms our hearts:
Pray for us.
Amen.
Fr. Bryan Massingale has been chosen as the 2020 recipient of the Isaac Hecker Award for Social Justice! He will be here at the Paulist Center to accept the award on November 13th @ the 5 pm liturgy. We will also live-stream the event for the broader audience. Fr. Bryan was chosen as the 2020 recipient for building a more just and peaceful world through his powerful work for racial justice and inclusion and his witness and call for justice and inclusion of LGBTQ+ people. For more than four decades, he has addressed these twin bases of discrimination in his writing, speaking and actions. His reputation as a theologian and advocate for a truly inclusive Church is undisputed and has prompted some to call him a modern prophet. This year’s intense focus on justice in America has made Fr. Bryan into a recognized voice and face of the call for racial and LGBTQ+ justice and inclusion in the whole of society. Please mark the date and join us in extending a warm Paulist Center welcome to Fr. Bryan in November!
Openings…
While we are already worshiping on a weekly basis, the good news is that we will be opening the 6pm Sunday Liturgy on Sunday, June 6th.
The Paulist Center will open its weekday Mass schedule on Monday, June 7th. We will have five masses, total, for the weekdays:
  • Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 7:55am;
  • Tuesday and Thursday, 12:05pm.
At the same time, Staff and Pastoral Council are planning for celebrating our return, as a community, to our beautiful chapel for safe, in-person worship. This will probably take place after Labor Day. We hope to acknowledge many dimensions of what these last fourteen pandemic months have meant: the grieving, the loss, the mourning, what we have learned, how our faith has grown stronger, and how, commit-ted, we intend to gather. Soon we will be sending out a survey to take a pulse of our community.
Attentive to the Holy Spirit and nourished by vibrant liturgy, we [of the Paulist Center] are a Catholic community that welcomes all, fosters healing and reconciliation, and acts for justice.
Worshiping In-Person at the Paulist Center Chapel…
For the next three weeks – at least – we will continue to wear masks for in-person worship. We do this out of an abundance of caution. This caution stems from the fact that there is a major difference between the Paulist Center Chapel and most other Churches: no windows.  We depend entirely on our air conditioning system to circulate the air. So we hope that by extending the mask wearing for a few more weeks, we will be exercising restraint proper to our unique situation. Thank you for your cooperation and understanding.
Note Carefully: If you are experiencing ANY symptom that would indicate that you are ill (not just for Covid), please stay home. Also, please carefully read the Procedures and watch the video (both links below). Of special note:
  • The doors open 10 minutes before the service;
Procedures Around Receiving Communion:

1) For Trinity Sunday, May 30th, Live-Streamed Liturgy/Mass from the Chapel, at 10am (available as recording at same link after 11:15am):

Here’s the YouTube Link:https://youtu.be/YkdMKAHFIL8
Here’s the Order of Worship

To use the Order of Worship, you may wish to

1.   Print it out to have in hand as you tune in; or
2.   Use a second “tab” in your browser for the Order, to alternate with viewing the Mass; or
3.   Bring it up on a second device (e.g., smart phone, iPad) while following the Liturgy on the Desktop.

2) Paulist Center Families’ Liturgy of the Word, 10am, Sunday:
See Fr. Mike’s Email Missive for the link details.

3) Paulist Center Rosary Circle. 7:30pm every Monday.
Here’s the Zoom Link: https://us04web.zoom.us/j/487503158?pwd=aVFZb3BWNFBiQzZMSXdhbmo3NUozUT09
Meeting ID: 487 503 158; Passcode: 021078  All are Welcome!

4) We have suspended the Wednesday Evening Prayer services that have alternated with the LGBTQ Ministry-Led Prayer Service. However, the LGBTQ Prayer service will continue on a monthly basis during the summer. Next LGBTQ Prayer Service will be Wednesday, June 9th. Watch for the link.

Ways of Giving:

Our “Community Gift” is the Paulist Center’s tradition of giving away 5% of our weekend offerings, averaged out over the whole year, to a group outside of ourselves. This week we lift up The Jesuit Volunteer Corps. The Jesuit Volunteer Corps engages passionate young people in vital service within poor communities, fostering the growth of leaders committed to faith in action. Thank you so much for your generosity!

We are so very grateful for your support during this time of uncertainly and financial peril. Here are two ways to give:

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

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I conclude now with the Prophet Micah 6:8:

Our Faithful God has told you, O mortal, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?

And let us pray for/with one another.
Michael
Michael McGarry, C.S.P.
Director, the Paulist Center

Along with Patty, Chuck, Susan, Peter, Dorothy, John, Barbara, Rob, Alvaro, and Sal. Please feel free to call upon your Pastoral Ministers if you wish.

I will be sending out something every Thursday or Friday as the COVID-19 restrictions continue.