Although many of us are fortunate to be returning to a rather normal life, the coronavirus continues to affect the lives of many parishioners in our sister parish, St. Martin de Porres. We also have families in our own parish who could use some assistance as Christmas arrives; it’s just a little more than six weeks away! We have several parish initiatives that will allow you to give to those in need as you celebrate God’s great gift of his Son, Jesus. For those of you not familiar with them or who would benefit from a little refresher, allow me to explain each of these excellent programs: Adopt-a-Family, Christmas Food Basket and the Mercy Hospice Giving Tree.
Adopt-a-Family
For the past 29 years, a small group of parishioners have coordinated this program that makes Christmas happier for dozens of needy families at our sister parish, St. Martin de Porres – as well as in our own neighborhood – with gifts from generous parishioners who recognize that the spirit of Christmas includes giving to others as our God has given us his Son. We ordinarily have a sign-up weekend in mid-November when you are given the opportunity to adopt a family after the Sunday Masses. Due to the pandemic, however, this sign up was done virtually last year. This approach was so successful that we have decided to do it virtually again this year. Beginning next Saturday, 13 November, you will have the opportunity to sign up to adopt a family through a link you will find in our weekly Flocknote email or on our website or Facebook page. You will be able to select from a list of families and given their names, as well as the ages and sizes of the children so you can personalize your gifts. After purchasing the gifts, you are asked to wrap them or put them in gift bags with their names on each gift. Then, on Saturday, 4 December, we ask you to deliver them to school between 10:00am and 2:00pm; members of our parish Youth Group will be at hand to take your gifts from your cars to the cafeteria.
Christmas Food Basket
In addition to the Adopt-a-Family program, we offer everyone an opportunity to share the joy of Christmas with the needy, both at St. Martin de Porres and our own parish, through the Christmas Food Basket Program. Starting next week, you will find a shopping list of the items you may include in this food basket in our Parish Bulletin which will provide all the staples for a Christmas meal for an entire family. Through the ongoing generosity of a friend of our parish, boxes will be provided inside the main entrance of the parish center toward the end of November that you can use to pack your groceries. These boxes will also be collected at our school on Saturday, 4 December, between 10:00am and 2:00pm.
Mercy Hospice Giving Tree
You may already know that we provide casseroles to the Philadelphia Mercy Hospice, which cares for women and their children without permanent housing. Every Christmas, tags suggesting gifts for these women and children are placed on the two Mercy Hospice Giving Trees that you will find at the St. Theresa Shrine and in the baptistery starting in two weeks. You are asked to attach the red tag and place gifts in the boxes provided in the St. Therese Shrine by 12 December. Please contact Jane Dwyer (610-306-9171) or Jane Dooner (610-505-1436), the Mercy Hospice Coordinators, if you have any questions.
The women and children at Mercy Hospice have benefitted from your generosity for 39 years, ever since we started the casserole project in our parish. I want to take this opportunity to thank Jane Dwyer, Jane Dooner, Vicki Warner and Susan Wiener for enthusiastically stepping in to coordinate this important parish outreach (following the passing of Kay and Jerry Lafferty) not only at Christmas time but throughout the year; their dedication to this program is inspirational to us all!
I also want to thank Maria Carillo, our dedicated coordinator with for all of our St. Martine de Porres projects, as well as Dick Banister, Pat Carney, Howard and Missy Deck, Jeff and Kathy Moore, John and Gwen McConnell, Shannon Reilly, who have helped with these Christmas projects for so many years! So many of you have made it clear throughout the years that you are aware of the true spirit of Christmas and are eager to share God’s love as we celebrate this clearest sign of his love – his coming in our midst to save us! God came to show his loving concern for all people and to bring them into his loving family, and your generosity has helped many people – both here in our own parish