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THE WEEKLY MISSIVE
February 13, 2026
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Happy 100th Anniversary, Black History Month!
Dear Friends,
2026 marks a milestone of both progress and persistence in the United States, the 100th anniversary of federal recognition for Black Americans. What began as a singular week of learning and recognition called Negro History Week in 1926 has grown into an overall cultural observance of Black History throughout the month of February.
Our Racial Justice Group will share a poem from a Black artist each week this month. Last week, we highlighted Amanda Gorman's The Hill We Climb. This week, we celebrate Langston Hughes.
Langston Hughes [1901-1967] was a central figure in the Harlem Renaissance, the flowering of black intellectual, literary, and artistic life that took place in the 1920s in a number of American cities, particularly Harlem. A major poet, Hughes also wrote novels, short stories, essays, and plays. He sought to honestly portray the joys and hardships of working-class black lives, avoiding both sentimental idealization and negative stereotypes." As he wrote in his essay “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain,” “We younger Negro artists who create now intend to express our individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame. If white people are pleased, we are glad. If they are not, it doesn’t matter. We know we are beautiful. And ugly too.”
I, Too
By Langston Hughes
I, too, sing America.
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.
Tomorrow,
I’ll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody’ll dare
Say to me,
“Eat in the kitchen,”
Then.
Besides,
They’ll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed—
I, too, am America.
As a Catholic Christian faith community, we stand in solidarity with all who are harmed, hated, disrespected, or oppressed because of the color of their skin. We stand in solidarity with all our Black brothers and sisters subjected to social, economic, and criminal injustices. We stand in solidarity with movements working tirelessly to eradicate deep-rooted racism that has plagued our country since its founding. We must be willing to engage in honest and difficult conversations about race as a gateway to cultivate authentic compassion. All of us must continue to work to combat racism in our lives, our communities, and our country. Please email Tom Sharkey (sharkey.te@verizon.net) to learn how to be more involved with our Racial Justice Advocacy Group here at the Paulist Center.
Please see below for important information on Ash Wednesday and all the Lenten programs happening at the Center, our Worship Matters reflections, as well as our continued lectures on Catholic Social Teaching.
Susan, on behalf of the Paulist Center Staff
Alvaro, Barbara, Deb, Dorothy, Gus, Liz, Norm, Fr. Rick, Rob, Sal, Susan, and Timmy
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- Ash Wednesday
- Lenten Faith Sharing Groups
- No FREP - 2/15 and 2/22
- Next 1st Communion Gathering
- Worship Matters
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- Feb 22nd Catholic Social Teachings
- 100th Black History Month
- Realm
- Greener Lent
- Stewardship/Community Gift
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Ash Wednesday - February 18
Lent is just around the corner, starting with
Ash Wednesday on February 18.
Please join us:
8:00 AM – Mass with Distribution of Ashes (no music)
12:00 PM – Mass with Distribution of Ashes (with music)
*5:00 PM – Mass with Distribution of Ashes (with music,
live-streamed)
7:00 PM – Service of the Word with Distribution of Ashes
(lay presider and preacher, with music)
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*The 5:00pm Mass will be Live-streamed.
Here is the link.
Visit our YouTube Channel to join us online.
www.youtube.com/thepaulistcenter
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Lenten Faith Sharing Groups:
Sign up by this Mon, Feb 16
Please join us for this prayerful, community-building opportunity as we again convene small faith sharing groups for five sessions between Ash Wednesday and Palm Sunday.
We will use the Ignatian Solidarity Network’s Lenten series,
Stubborn Hope, which provides daily reflections to “nourish our faith to build a more just world.”
Groups will meet weekly at the Center, or via Zoom, as detailed below.
To register for a group, or for questions, email smallgroups@paulistcenter.org.
Saturdays (February 21 - March 21)
In Person 3:15 - 4:45 p.m.
Facilitator: Barbara Lapinskas
Young Adult Ministry: Sundays (February 22 - March 22)
In Person 7:00 – 8:30 p.m.
Facilitator: Gus Kellerman
Mondays (February 23 - March 23)
Via Zoom 7:00 - 8:30 p.m.
Facilitator: Mary Sullivan
Thursdays (February 26 - March 26)
Via Zoom 7:00 - 8:30 p.m.
Facilitator: Jonathan Yu-Phelps
Participants will sign up with ISN to receive brief daily written and audio reflections via email, featuring a wide range of contributors. (There is no charge for the series.)
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Visit Stubborn Hope or scan this QR code to learn more and to receive the reflections.
We hope you will join us!
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TUESDAYS IN LENT:
Prayer in Action –
Protecting Human Dignity
Spotlight: Immigration
All that we do in the service of justice is a form of prayer. Whether we march, accompany our neighbors, organize, attend training, write letters to our legislators, carry banners, speak out, or witness – all these activities are prayer in action, where we do this to make real God’s call for justice and mercy.
Come join us for six weeks of Lent with a Zoom Prayer in Action gathering on Tuesdays at 7:30 PM, starting February 24 through March 31. (Zoom link is forthcoming.)
These hour-long events will start with a short prayer and include opportunities to share and hear what others have been doing, receive
training in non-violent protest, meet and find partners for justice activities, and simply be in communion with others.
We are witnessing a period in history when we must speak out boldly and collectively in support of justice.
Let this be our form of prayer.
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Family Religious Education Program (FREP)
There are NO Religious Education Classes on Sunday, February 15 or
Sunday, February 22
due to the school vacation break.
Have a great break!
Classes resume March 1.
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First Communion Gathering - March 1
The next First Communion gathering will take place on Sun, March 1 in the auditorium from 11:15am to 12:30pm.
Please email Susan Rutkowski,
susan@paulistcenter.org, with any questions.
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The Creation Care Ministry invites You To -
Join us for a Greener Lent
Again, this year, the Creation Care ministry invites you to direct your traditional Lenten practices of Prayer, Fasting, and Almsgiving toward Care of Creation and the Poor, with Greener Lent, a
Laudato Si'-inspired Lenten program.
Last year more than 20 Paulist Center members joined almost 400 people nationwide committing to:
PRAY - for the poor most affected by the climate crisis,
FAST - choosing one of several options to sacrificially eat more sustainably, and
CONTRIBUTE - any amount (perhaps money saved by eating less beef) to the building of life-giving water wells in two dioceses in sub-Saharan Africa.
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Signing up takes only a few minutes; you provide your name, choose how you want to fast, and select Paulist Center as your parish.
Participants receive periodic reports on how much carbon footprint has been reduced.
Sign up and learn more at
greenerlent.org
(Note: Scroll down to sign up.)
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Prayer and Action
In Troubled Times:
Postponed until Feb 22
The February 8th session on Catholic Social Teachings has been postponed until
Sun, Feb 22 at 7pm.
Please join us then to hear about the encyclical, Economic Justice for All, a landmark pastoral letter by US Catholic Bishops applying Church teaching to the economy, emphasizing that moral principles - not just market forces - must guide economic life. It calls for protecting the poor, ensuring just wages, and upholding human dignity.
Raúl E. Zegarra, a community member and Assistant Professor of Roman Catholic Theological Studies at Harvard Divinity School, will lead the sessions.
Sun, Feb 22 at 7pm in the 3rd Fl Library. Pizza will be served.
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WORSHIP MATTERS
February 15, 2026, Issue #17
LITURGY AND JUSTICE:
Part Three: Taken, Blessed, Broken, Poured Out
Our final examination of the connection between Liturgy and Justice brings us to the Liturgy of the Eucharist. After hearing God’s Word and voicing our prayers for the needs of the world, we remember that our responses—“Thanks be to God,” “Amen,” “Hear our prayer”—do more than express our faith. They affirm our solidarity with all who suffer and prepare our hearts to approach the Eucharistic table.
In the Preparation Rite, we participate in the ancient tradition of bringing forward bread and wine to be transformed and shared, and of offering our gifts for those in need. From the early days of the Church, Christians brought not only bread and wine for the eucharistic meal but also provisions for the poor. This “collection” was tangible and personal: bread, wine, olive oil, and other goods—literally “the work of human hands”—were placed at the altar as an offering for the liturgy and for those in need.
As Justin Martyr wrote in his First Apology (c. 153 AD):
“Those who are well off, and willing, give as each chooses. What is gathered is given to the one who presides to assist orphans and widows, those deprived by illness or any cause, prisoners, immigrants—in a word, all who are in need.”
Each weekend at the Paulist Center, along with the offering of bread and wine, we present a basket of food from our pantry, which distributes items to our neighbors on Tuesdays and collect funds to support fifty-two organizations aligned with our mission of justice, advocacy and care for the poor. This action alone reveals the intrinsic link between worship and witness.
In the Eucharistic Prayer and Communion Rite, we remember and we participate in Christ’s command to “Do this in memory of me.” In doing so, week after week, we affirm our willingness to truly become what we receive: a people taken, blessed, broken, and poured out for the life of the world. Nourished and transformed, we commit to living and spreading Christ’s radical and indiscriminate love as we prepare to depart.
The celebration concludes with the Dismissal Rite which includes a final blessing and the command: Ite, missa est—“Go, the Mass has ended.” The emphasis falls on that single word: Go. With our final “Thanks be to God,” we are sent. This final command commissions us to go forth, with joy, with hope and with the understanding that what we just celebrated shapes how we live—our desires, attitudes, and actions in a world longing for healing and hope. As the theologian Don Saliers reminds us, “Participation in the symbolic action requires more than participation in the phenomena of worship; it requires participation as a living community engaged in the struggle to show in life what is implied in the gathering.”1
¹ Don Saliers, Liturgy and the Moral Self (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1998), 224.
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Come Celebrate with Us!
We hope to see you at Mass in person, but if you can't make it through the big red doors,
we welcome you to join us online:
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New membership and
donation software
coming this spring
The Paulist Center is converting our membership directory and donation processing systems to a new online church management software, Realm Connect.
This new system will give us better ways to keep members’ contact information up to date, allow staff to easily access contact information, streamline our donation processing, and offer clarity for members to see their entire giving history.
More information will come this spring but you can visit https://www.acstechnologies.com/realm to get a preview.
Many thanks to ad hoc committee members Amy Logan, Barbara Miller, Julie Sloan, Rob Smyser and Dave Whalen for working with the staff to review options and plan for this transition!
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BVOCAL is planning a “Hold On” singing resistance action in Boston in solidarity with Minneapolis and calling on the MA legislature to pass protections for MA immigrants being terrorized by ICE. (save-the-date Mar 3rd or 4th, 4-5pm inside a public building in downtown Boston - pending confirmation)
BVOCAL is going to learn a choral arrangement of Hold On at its next rehearsal on Tuesday, February 24, 7-9pm at Friends Meeting House, 5 Longfellow Park, Cambridge (ample free parking available in the U-shaped driveway).
The BVOCAL planning committee is reaching out to church choirs/singers, community choruses and activist groups who may have members that would like to participate. Please email Sonia Caus Gleason at Sonia@soniacausgleason.org know if you are interested.
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Ongoing Opportunities/Needs & Notes
The most comprehensive listing of what's going on at the
Paulist Center is in the bulletin. Check it out!
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Encouragement to sustain our vibrant liturgies and our mission of healing, reconciliation, & justice through your financial investment in the Paulist Center. We prefer that you donate electronically through our website, but you can also use Apple Pay or Google Pay to donate via DonorBox if you do not require an annual tax donation statement. More info in the bulletin.
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The Community Gift the weekend of February 14 - 15 is Black and Native American Missions which help diocesan communities in need across the country by providing grants to build churches and schools, and to preach the Gospel.
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How can the Paulist Center Community accompany you on your faith journey?
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Mass Cards - Please stop by the Front Office during the week, email Sal Whooley at sal@paulistcenter.org, or call 617-742-4460, if you would like to arrange for a Mass and/or purchase a Mass card:
- in memory of someone who has died,
- in honor of a special occasion,
- or for the special intentions of yourself or a loved one.
| | | | Attentive to the Holy Spirit and nourished by vibrant liturgy, we are a Catholic community that welcomes all, fosters healing and reconciliation, and acts for justice. | | Follow us on social media, and please share our posts with others! | | | | |
