Thank you to the whole St. John-St. Paul Collaborative Community for your amazing support of NPH and the pequeños who visited us last weekend! To date, we have raised over $11,000 and signed up 77 total new sponsorships!
This is the last weekend that the sponsorship tables will be set up, so be sure to sign up to sponsor a child today.
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Posted in Important Announcements, Special Collections
In two short weeks, the NPH Pequeño Tour will be coming to St. John and St. Paul Parishes! The group will be from the NPH home in Guatemala and we will be splitting their time between the two parishes. For each Mass over the weekend of October 7/8, there will either be a speaker from the NPH University Program, or the whole group will provide music and dancing!
This is a wonderful chance for you and your families to experience the mission of NPH and meet some of the children who have been served through NPH programs. Please look at the following schedule and plan accordingly. This is a holiday weekend and there is no Religious Education, but if you are in town, you and your family will not want to miss this, and we hope you will come and help us to provide a very warm welcome to our visitors. The musicians and dancers will be helping us with our liturgy at the following Masses:
St. John: Saturday, Oct 7 at the 5:00pm Vigil Mass and Sunday Oct 8, at the 5:00pm Mass
St. Paul: Sunday, Oct 8 at the 7:30am, 9:00am and 11:00am Masses
All other Masses will have a University Speaker.
We will also be kicking off an NPH sponsorship campaign next weekend. Our “30 Kids in 30 Days” campaign will strive to find thirty sponsorships at each of our parishes! So make sure you stop by a sponsorship table after Mass, starting next weekend, to see how you can make a real difference in the life of a pequeño! Thank you!
To learn more, here are some helpful links and videos for you to check out:
NPH Family: Celebrating 60 Years
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Posted in Important Announcements, SJSP Collaborative, SJSP Collaborative Programs and Events, Special Collections, Special Events
The St. John-St. Paul Collaborative is welcoming this group of students from the NPH home in Guatemala to be with us at Masses on the weekend of October 7-8, giving testimony, dancing, and helping to lead the music at some of the Masses. The students will be staying in Wellesley from October 3-10 with families from our parishes.
NPH USA supports Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos (NPH, Spanish for “Our Little Brothers and Sisters”), which works to transform the lives of orphaned, abandoned, and disadvantaged children in Latin America and the Caribbean. Currently, NPH is raising more than 3,200 children throughout nine homes in Bolivia, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Peru. An additional 2,300 students who live outside the homes receive scholarships, meals, and health care. NPH’s outreach services assist more than 100,000 people every year. Truly, this organization is changing lives for the better.
The organization was started in 1954 by a Catholic priest, Fr. William Wasson, in Cuernavaca Mexico. Fr. Wasson was called to the police station in Cuernavaca, where the police had arrested a young boy who had stolen from Fr. Wasson’s church collection plate. When Fr. Wasson met the young boy, he asked him why he stole, to which the boy replied that he was trying to get money to feed himself. Fr. Wasson decided not to press charges, but told the police he would take the boy back to the parish, where he would give him a home and everything he needed so that he wouldn’t have to steal anymore. By the end of the month, the police had given Fr. Wasson seven more children to take care of in the same way – children they had arrested or taken off the street where they had nothing.
Fr. Wasson gave these children a home, and more importantly, gave them hope for a better life. By the end of the year, Fr. Wasson had to buy property to take care of all the children he was given by the authorities. And NPH was officially born!
NPH’s mission is quite simple:
Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos™, inspired by Christian values, strives to create a loving and safe family environment for vulnerable children living in extreme conditions. Through comprehensive education, healthcare and spiritual formation we give the children the opportunity to develop their potential, shaping better futures for themselves, their families and their communities.
To learn more, here are some helpful links and videos for you to check out:
NPH Family: Celebrating 60 Years
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Posted in Important Announcements, SJSP Collaborative, SJSP Collaborative Programs and Events, Special Collections, Special Events
Last week, Cardinal Seán announced a special collection in support of Catholic Charities USA’s relief efforts in areas devastated by Hurricane Harvey. Based on recent forecasts, the Archdiocese has amended the collection to include Hurricane Harvey, Hurricane Irma, as well as other natural disasters that may affect the United States this year. The power and size of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma are of historic proportion. Their arrival on back-to-back weeks will stretch the capacity of relief efforts.
Give today using ParishPay – you do not need to be a regular user of ParishPay – anyone can make a one-time donation by credit card. Just click the ParishPay link below (or on our website), choose Start Giving, and select Special Collection for Hurricane Disaster Relief under Secondary Collections.
Give at Mass this weekend – donations may be placed in the regular offertory basket at all Masses this weekend. Please make checks out to St. John Parish and be sure to note “Hurricane Disaster Relief” in the memo. Cash donations should be placed in an envelope marked “Hurricane Disaster Relief”.
Donations may also be mailed to or dropped at either parish office through September 15.
Please note: any checks/envelopes previously noted “Hurricane Harvey” will be included in this collection – there is no need to change the designation.
Catholic Charities USA is the official agency of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to deal with national disaster relief. While not a first responder that will have vehicles and personnel wading through flood waters, it is an agency that will look after the immediate short-term and long term needs of shelter, food and other recovery needs of families and individuals no matter what their background or religious beliefs. Because Catholic Charities USA is rooted in the community through local dioceses and parishes, this enables the organization to assist people through the various stages of the recovery process over a long period of time.
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Posted in Archdiocese of Boston, Important Announcements, Special Collections
Cardinal Seán has authorized a special collection this weekend, September 9-10, in all parishes in the Archdiocese of Boston, in support of the relief efforts to those areas devastated by Hurricane Harvey. There has been loss of life, property, and livelihoods. The funds collected will support the humanitarian and recovery efforts of Catholic Charities USA, the official domestic relief agency of the U.S. Catholic Church, and will provide pastoral and rebuilding support to dioceses in those areas impacted by Hurricane Harvey.
Donations to this special collection can be made now using ParishPay. You do not need to be a regular user of ParishPay – anyone can make a one-time donation by credit card using the Start Giving feature. Just click the ParishPay link below or on our website, choose Start Giving, and select Special Collection for Hurricane Harvey Humanitarian and Recovery Efforts under Secondary Collections.
Donations may also be placed in the regular offertory basket at all Masses on the weekend of September 9-10, or they can be mailed to or dropped at either parish office through September 15. Please make checks out to St. John Parish and be sure to note “Hurricane Harvey Collection” in the memo. Cash donations should be placed in an envelope marked “Hurricane Harvey Collection”.
Please also remember all of our brothers and sisters in the afflicted areas, as well the first responders working on the relief efforts, in your prayers. On behalf of the Cardinal, thank you for your attentiveness to this important collection and expression of our solidarity with those who are suffering.
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Posted in Archdiocese of Boston, Important Announcements, Special Collections
Boston Priests are there for us. They share the Good News of Jesus Christ, by doing Good Works as His devoted disciples. By their words and example they are catalysts for Christ in a community of Good Faith, where together we live in love and service to God and one another. Our only collection at all Christmas Masses will be to support The Clergy Health and Retirement Trust (The Trust), which was established by the Archbishop of Boston to provide a continuum of care for the health and well-being of all diocesan priests in good standing. This Trust is separate from all other diocesan finances to ensure that the funds are used solely for this purpose. Please take a moment to view the video below about one of our Boston priests, Msgr. John McDonough. On behalf of all of our priests, thank you in advance for your generosity.
“Because they serve the country, they should not be denied their faith.”
– Msgr. John McDonough. There for us.
Msgr. John McDonough: A Priest and a General from Clergy Health & Retirement Trust on Vimeo.
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Posted in Christmas, Important Announcements, RCAB Announcement, Special Collections
Would you like to make a donation towards Christmas Music or Christmas Flowers in memory of a loved one this holiday season? If so, you may make your donation by using an offertory envelope, the collection basket, Parish Pay, or by dropping your donation in the mail or at the Parish Office. Please be sure to include the name(s) of those you want remembered in this special way, and to print their name(s) clearly. The deadline to submit the name of a loved one is this Thursday, December 15 at noon.
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Posted in Important Announcements, Music, Special Collections
My name is Fr. John Amuda, SMA. I am a Nigerian. I was ordained on July 26, 2014 in Nigeria. I was posted to the Central African Republic for my first mission. Central African Republic, then, was experiencing a political/religious war which started in February, 2013 and ended in March 2016. Going to CAR, I was filled with fear and hope – fear of being killed by the rebels and hope of dying for Christ.
The war caused for many displaced, with the Church compound becoming a refugee camp. (My parish harbored about 24,000 refugees). After the coming of the Pope in November 2015, the country saw a bright light towards the end of the war. My works as a missionary in Central African Republic were: assistant pastor; teaching in the Catholic secondary school and heading an NGO named “Association of Mama Theresa”. This association is a collection of about 160 children, not more than 20 years old, who had been orphans or whose parents were murdered during the war with no means of feeding or schooling. More than 50% of these children are HIV/AIDS positive.
My work as the head of this association is to put the children in good schools, pay for their school materials, pay their hospital bills and feed them at least twice a week. This association started a long time ago, even before the coming of the war, to help children who are less privileged, not to be a victim of child abuse and to give them a sense of a bright future. However, the coming of the war and the aftermath worsened the situation, such that so many children are now left without either the father or the mother or both.
After two (2) years and I am grateful to work in St. Paul-St. John Collaborative in Wellesley. I ask you all to put me in your prayers as towards the end of August, when I shall return to Africa. Also, I ask you to pray for Central African Republic, as she strives for a true reconciliation. Pray for these children also and if you have anything to support them, we shall be much grateful. Thank you for supporting the mission. May the Almighty God bless your endeavors. Amen.
In early July, the St. John-St. Paul Collaborative welcomed Fr. John Amuda, SMA to our community for the summer. Fr. John spoke at Masses at St. John’s last weekend, and will speak at St. Paul’s this weekend, August 13-14. A special second collection supporting his non-governmental organization (NGO), “Association of Mama Teresa”, will take place at St. John’s the weekend of August 20-21 and at St. Paul’s the weekend of August 27-28.
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Posted in Important Announcements, Special Collections
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Posted in Important Announcements, Special Collections
Cardinal Sean authorized a special collection in support of relief efforts to those areas devastated by the powerful earthquake that struck Ecuador. St. John’s will have this special second collection May 21-22. The Catholic organizations that have been working in Ecuador in recent years include Pro Christo, founded here in the Archdiocese to provide medical and family support services, and Rostro de Cristo, founded by Fr. Jim Ronan of the Archdiocese, which have joined in the emergency response efforts, particularly with respect to medical care, and also other Catholic relief efforts. Parishioners are asked to address their checks to St. John Parish with Ecuador Collection 2016 in the memo.
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Posted in Special Collections
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