Each year, in preparing for Lent, we reach out as a community to one particular place of suffering, amid so many in the world, through our Collaborative Lenten Gift. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus reminds us not only that we must love our neighbors – without boundaries – but that our love must be manifest in action. This year, our Collaborative Lenten Gift will help us manifest our love into action by supporting the St. John-St. Paul POWIR Ministry Fund.
We had planned to do this with our 2020 Lenten Gift, but as you well know, 2020 had other plans. The campaign was put on hold due to the cessation of Masses and all of the uncertainty surrounding the Covid19 pandemic, but a number of generous parishioners made their gifts before the shutdown, for which we are very grateful. Their gifts enabled us to respond immediately when we received word in mid-March that a family of seven would be arriving in just a few days from a refugee camp in Rawanda! The Collaborative Service Commission voted to build upon the example of these generous parishioners by giving everyone the opportunity to support the POWIR Ministry Fund by rededicating this year’s Gift to that same significant cause.
Throughout Lent, in the bulletin, via email, and on the website, we will share the POWIR story with you as we prepare for our collaborative-wide Special Collection. While the collection will be taken up in both churches on the weekend of March 20-21, we are expanding the opportunity to give to include the whole Lenten season. You may do so anytime by an online donation or by sending a check to your parish office. Please mention in the memo section that the check is for the 2021 Lenten Gift. Thank you very much.
Our gift will allow each of us to share in easing the suffering
and to answer Lent’s clarion call to love extravagantly.
TELLING THE STORY
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Our Lenten Gift collection for the
St. John-St. Paul POWIR Ministry will be taken up at all Masses in both parishes this weekend, March 20-21. Please place your donations in the 2021 Lenten Gift receptacles in the entryways of the churches. Donations may also be made online anytime
on our website, and checks may be mailed to or dropped at either parish office.
(When giving by check, please note “2021 Lenten Gift” in the memo.) In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus reminds us not only that we must love our neighbors – without boundaries – but that our ...
During the first three weeks of Lent, we have presented information about refugee resettlement and the work of the SJSP Collaborative to support refugee resettlement in partnership with Catholic Charities of the Boston Archdiocese. Our work is ongoing. Despite the challenges of coping during a world-wide pandemic, POWIR volunteers have responded at every possible opportunity to meet the needs of our most recent family, the Rwamuhindas, as well as that of the Congolese and Honduran families who came before. We remain committed to ensuring a full and independent integration for the Rwamuhindas. For your role in making this complete commitment ...
Last week, we introduced the St. John-St. Paul POWIR Ministry Fund as the recipient of our 2021 Lenten Gift. The POWIR (Parishes Organized to Welcome Immigrants and Refugees) program is an initiative we began in the fall of 2019, with the help of Catholic Charities, to support refugee families. This week, we want to share the story of the Rwamuhinda family, the first family that we have supported from their initial arrival in this country. Almost exactly one year ago, we were overjoyed to learn that we would soon be welcoming the Rwamuhinda family from a refugee camp in Rwanda, ...
Last year, in 2020, our plan was to use our Lenten Gift to establish a
St. John-St. Paul POWIR Ministry Fund to support our ongoing immigrant and refugee resettlement work in partnership with Catholic Charities Boston. POWIR (
Parishes Organized to Welcome Immigrants and Refugees) programs have helped thousands of refugee clients find places to live, make friends, learn English, find work, receive pro bono legal counsel and medical services, and achieve social integration. Unfortunately, the campaign had to be put on hold due to the cessation of Masses and all of the uncertainty surrounding the Covid19 pandemic, but a number ...
