Weekly Bulletin
Bulletin for April 20/21, 2024
(A PDF version of the bulletin as printed is available here)
Intergenerational Event on Creation Care
This Sunday, April 21, is our 4th and final Intergenerational Event of the 2023-24 academic year. These events are part of our FREP curriculum for grades K-6 and Jr. High. All FREP classes will meet in the auditorium with their families after the 10am Mass. All are welcome! Sunday’s program will be hosted by the Creation Care Ministry. They will lead conversations based on two videos that are sure to engage and delight children and adults alike! The format will follow past intergenerational events in that after the introduction of the Creation Care Ministry, we will watch the first video together. Facilitators at each table will lead small group discussions on two follow-up questions. We will follow with another video and discussion creating an artifact to share with the overall group at the end.
Community-Wide Potluck Dinner
This Sunday, April 21 after the 6pm Mass, join us in the 3rd Fl Library for a Community-Wide Potluck Dinner. If you weren’t able to RSVP, no worries, bring a dish or stay after to clean up! See you then!
Looking for Married Couples
Fr. Rick is in the midst of contacting couples to invite them to join an in-person “Come and See” event on Thursday, April 18 from 7 – 8:30pm in the auditorium. We need more presenting couples to share their experiences of married life with the couples who attend our monthly Friday evening and Saturday morning, afternoon sessions. The more couples who participate in this important apostolate, the less often each couple will be needed to make a presentation.
The Paulist Center is one of a few institutions in the Archdiocese of Boston that is permitted to present “Transformed in Love”, the Archdiocese’s Marriage preparation program. We conduct sessions in person for up to 50 couples during the months of May through October and on-line (via Zoom) from November through April. If Fr. Rick contacts you, please respond generously by making yourselves available for this important overview of the program. Thank You!
Olympics in Paris, An Evening Soiree
Our big day is just one week away! If you haven’t bought your tickets, this is your chance! Tickets are going fast and we really want you celebrating with us. You can buy tickets after Mass this weekend, or online by visting our website. Or, stop by the office — Sal has tickets. Lend a keen eye to this week’s bulletin insert for some of the big ticket auction items.
In Absentia/Online Bidding:
Even if you are not able to attend, you can still bid via email. Online bidding opened Friday, and will close on Friday, April 26 at noon. Follow these easy steps:
- Visit tinyurl.com/OnlinePCAuction2024 to browse items.
- Send your bids to auction@paulistcenter.org by NOON on Friday, April 26.
- Include your name, email address and phone number.
- For each item you are bidding on, give us the item number, title of item, and your FINAL bid amount.
If you are the winner of any number of items during the evening of April 27, we will notify you the following week. You’ll need to provide payment information at that time.
Raffle Tickets:
We have fantastic prizes! Don’t miss out on a chance to win a $1,000 American Express gift card. You do not need to be present to win. Raffle tickets are available after Mass in the elevator lobby. Please email Maggie Keefe or Mairead Nolan with any questions at auction@paulistcenter.org. Merci!
Live-Streamed Mass Links
- Sunday, April 21, 10am 4th Sunday of Easter
- Sunday, April 28, 10am 5th Sunday of Easter
At the time of each livestream, the appropriate Order of Worship will be available at paulistcenter.org/order-of-worship.
Young Adults Ministry (18-39)
Happy Easter Season! Whether you’re a returning member, or someone new, we’re so excited to have you be a part of Young Adult Ministry. If you’re looking to build community, or would love to stop by and chat, please reach out to our Young Adult Minister, Gus Kellerman, by visiting tinyurl.com/PC1-on-1.
Monthly Bible Study: This Thursday, April 25, join other young adults for a Bible study from 6 – 7pm in Room 13 on the 6th Fl. Feel free to come by any time after 5:30pm to hang out. (We’ll have Trader Joe’s takis!) Email Gus at youngadults@paulistcenter.org in advance that you’re coming. Walk-ins are welcome!
News from the Paulist Fathers
All the ministries of the Paulist Fathers are interdependent. If you’d like to forge deeper connections within the wider Paulist community, please read on:
4th “Spirit of Hecker” Awards
At 8:30 pm EDT on Saturday, April 27, the Paulist Fathers will broadcast a program honoring exemplary leaders and volunteers from various Paulist ministries. Links will soon be available at paulist.org/HeckerAwards.
Come see Mary Skinner receive the Award!
Community member Mary Skinner is receiving the “Spirit of Hecker” Award for her lifetime of service to civil rights, ecuemnism, and education. Mary and her family will not be watching the broadcast, since they’ll be at the Auction with us! We’ll present her award during the festivities. Congratulations, Mary! Keep inspiring us!
Come to the Paulist Ordinations… and learn what’s involved in becoming a Paulist!
The Paulists invite everyone to the presbyteral ordination of Deacons Christopher Lawton, M.D. and Danilo Macalinao, Ph.D. in New York City on Saturday, May 18. Both Chris and Dan, like all current Paulist seminarians, have impressive academic and professional backgrounds. Learn more about them all at beapaulist.org/formation.
Two Communications from the Paulists
The Paulists’ weekly electronic newsletter, “Things to Know,” may be landing in your spam folder. Check for it there, or sign up to receive it at paulist.org. “The Voice” is a quarterly print publication. If you don’t receive the spring edition — featuring Fr. John Geaney’s 60th ordination anniversary — in the next few days, view it at paulist.org/Voice.
Walk For Hunger – Sunday May 5, 2024!
Please join the Wednesday Night Supper Club at the 56th annual Walk for Hunger! The Walk started here at the Paulist Center in 1969. It is now a collaboration with Project Bread and 60% of what we raise comes back to sustain our operations each Wednesday and 40% goes towards advocacy to eliminate food insecurity.
How can you help? Create a fundraising page or make a donation here: give.projectbread.org/team/562353. We appreciate your support! And, of course, join us at the Walk on Sunday, May 5. We will meet at 8:30am in front of the Paulist Center the day of the walk. We should have plenty of time to do our three laps and then join in on the 10am Mass! Questions: contact supperclubfood@gmail.com or susan@paulistcenter.org.
There’s No Place Like Home
Gus Kellerman
Young Adult Minister
After a busy Holy Week and a joyful Easter celebration, I traveled home to Indiana for five days. I had really been missing home, and I looked forward to spending time with my family. I had planned on doing a lot of things and going to a lot of familiar places, but not everything went as expected.
I have been struggling with my faith for a while, at least for the last two years of college, maybe even since the height of the pandemic? There have been stretches of time when I’ve attended Mass each week and prayed between Sundays, and there have been stretches when I didn’t even think about church. In those times, if I found myself in a pew on Sunday, I’d sit with my eyes glazed over, failing to open myself in any way to the Word of God. I would speed through each prayer, feeling anxious and distracted, wanting to get it over with quickly. Why, in these stretches, have I kept up these practices? I’ve been searching for something. I’ve been searching for some reassurance that God still loves me. In these times, I have often felt discouraged, frustrated, and faithless.
One night in Indiana, as I sat down in my car after a day at my parents’ store, I realized I had left my keys behind. Silly me! As I went in to retrieve them, I passed my dad on his way in. He was in a hurry and wasn’t able to make it to perpetual adoration. In a rush, he asked me to go instead. I agreed, of course, but I hadn’t been to adoration in a long time. So I drove to the church – the parish of my childhood. I was the only one there. It was quiet. I didn’t know what to think. What would I do? How would I pass this hour to keep the Eucharist from going unattended? As I entered the church, it was dark. It smelled so familiar. In some strange way, it smelled like my childhood. I entered the chapel, picked up a Bible, sat down, and wondered what I was doing there. This place felt strangely like home. My spiritual home. I hadn’t been there in so long, not during school breaks, not during quarantine, not since childhood. Yet, it felt so familiar. It felt like I never left. I felt a little clumsy, for lack of a better term.
As I was sitting alone I did the only thing I could think to do. I started to pray. I asked God what to do. I asked God why I hadn’t felt God’s presence in so long. I started to feel guilty. I don’t know how much time passed. Then I looked at the monstrance. I started to shiver. I felt like I had been struck suddenly. I felt the compulsion to open the Bible. I opened to the Gospel of Luke, and the first story I read was in Luke 15, The Parable of the Lost Son. I felt so overwhelmed that I couldn’t stop myself from crying. It felt surreal, but I felt like, for the first time in a long time, God loved me. It felt impossible. I didn’t plan on going to adoration that night, but God knew that what I had been searching for – for so long in other places – was to return home, to my spiritual home.
For the first time in a while, I feel like God is actually listening. Believing is not always easy, but what we often need in times of spiritual strife is to revisit the physical and spiritual homes of our faith. We need to give ourselves the chance to rediscover those places and things that first allowed us to feel connected to God.
Please Pray For …
Fr. Chuck very much appreciates your continued prayers as he continues along his cancer journey.
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 20 and 21 we raise up Habitat for Humanity Greater Boston, an organization dedicated to building simple low-cost homes by forming partnerships with low-income families in need of decent and affordable housing.
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.
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.
Around the Community
James Keenan, S.J., Boston College, Vice Provost for Global Engagement and Professor of Theological Ethics. “Changes in the Church: The Effects of the Synod on Parish Life.” Tuesday, April 23, 7:30 pm, Sacred Heart Parish Center, Follen Road at Massachusetts Ave, Lexington, MA.
Women interested in learning more about religious life are welcome to an online gathering at 7pm, Wednesday, April 24. For more information and the Zoom link, contact Sr. Marian Batho, CSJ at marian.batho@csjboston.org.
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