Interfaith Hospitality Network

Our parish is part of the Interfaith Hospitality Network, rotating with other churches and synagogues, for a week at a time, to create a homelike setting for displaced families. Parish volunteers set up and take down separate cubicles for each family, with a common living room area, in the parish center. Acting as hosts, they provide company and Christian fellowship for the guests, dinner each night of the week and transportation as needed. Parishioners volunteer on a regular basis, or whenever they are able. All are welcome to participate in this ministry.

 

St. Vincent de Paul Society

The Saint Vincent de Paul Society collects food and clothing for the poor and needy of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.  They have been instrumental in helping our sister parish, Our Mother of Sorrows, set up their own Saint Vincent de Paul Society and provide ongoing assistance and counsel for it.  Also, they provide and serve a roast beef dinner on Martin Luther King Day and a summer barbeque for the men at St. John’s Hospice in Philadelphia.

 

School Ministry at Our Mother of Sorrows

 

This outreach provides a Junior Great Books program, an Enhanced Math Program and a Testing Skill program for the students of our sister parish, Our Mother of Sorrows.  Also, there is an annual school supplies collection and fundraiser for the “wish list” for this school in West Philadelphia.

 

H.O.P.E. Ministry

Helping Other Parishioners in Emergency is the ministry of taking care of our parishioners in times of need. This includes taking trips to the doctor, therapy sessions, banking or food shopping within the suburbs.

 

Manna Program

 

The Archdiocese maintains food pantries throughout the six counties, and each year in May we are asked to contribute nonperishable foods to fill those cupboards for the summer months. Large carryall bags are provided at the church doors and are also sent home with the school children. Parishioners are encouraged to return the bags to the rear of the church, on a given Sunday, with their food contributions. Volunteers from Delaware County Food Pantry come to collect the bags in their vans.

 

Operation Rice Bowl

 

During Lent our parish participates in the Catholic Relief Services (CRS) Operation Rice Bowl. Its goal is to alleviate hunger in the world. Each family, before Lent, is encouraged to take a small cardboard “rice bowl" which includes a donation envelope and a Lenten calendar which explains the needs that can be served by the family’s sacrifices. Parents and children keep the "bowl" in a prominent place in the dining room and are reminded by it to put in offerings that involve self-denial for love of God and of the hungering peoples throughout the world. At the end of Lent those offerings are brought to church or school, the totals counted, and checks sent to the CRS.

 

Meals to Feed the Poor

 

Our parish supplies our sister parish, Our Mother of Sorrows, with frozen dinners.  Our parishioners fill individual aluminum trays with meat or fish, a starch and vegetable and sometimes bread and dessert.  The trays are covered, labeled and put into plastic bags, frozen and transported to the school kitchen or church freezers.  Approximately 400 meals are supplied to the homebound each week.

 

                           Respect Life Committee

 

This Pro-life group is concerned with the preservation of life from conception to natural death.  This committee sponsors the annual bus trip to Washington, D.C., on the anniversary of the 1972 Supreme Court decision to legalize abortion in the U.S.; Respect Life Sunday; the sale of roses for life; the Bake sale; and organizes letter writing campaigns when special votes are needed for pro-life legislation.

SERVICE TO OTHERS

VOLUNTEER FORM

CLICK HERE