Society of St. Vincent de Paul
Brockton District News
June 2000

Holy Family to host June Meeting

The next District meeting will be held at Holy Family Church in Rockland on Sunday, June 25, the feast of Corpus Christi. Mass will be at 9:00 am with breakfast and the business meeting following in the school hall directly behind the Church. Holy Family Conference has generously offered to supply breakfast. Sandra Wixted of Catholic Charities in Brockton will be our guest speaker. Please let your conference president know as soon as possible that you will be attending, so that we can get an accurate count to the folks at Holy Family.

September District Meeting

We have also arranged the September quarterly meeting, which will be on September 17. Holy Ghost Church in Whitman will be our host, and Mass will be presided over by our new Regional Bishop, Most Rev. Richard Malone. Mass will be at 7:30 am and will be followed by breakfast at the Knights of Columbus Hall.

Ozanam School of Charity

The fourth annual archdiocesan Ozanam School of Charity will be held at Regis College on November 4. If you didn't have a chance to go to the School last October at Regis, you don't know what you're missing. There were several excellent workshops led by fellow Vincentians from throughout the Archdiocese, as well as a dynamic keynote speaker from the college. Mark your calendars now, and we will forward more information to you as it becomes available.

Second Annual 7 Mile Challenge & 2 Mile Fun Run/Walk

On Saturday, August 26 the Society will be sponsoring a Race & Fun Run/Walk at Bradley-Palmer State Park in Topsfield. Entrants collect pledge money from sponsors and then send in the pledges with the registration fee.

Complete details are available from :

Moe Pratt
Society of St. Vincent de Paul
P.O. Box 180359
Boston, MA 02118

Information and registration are also available online at:

The Vincentian Charism

As I write this, the Church celebrates the feast of the Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth. It brings to mind the truly unique feature of our apostolate as Vincentians--visiting the poor. When challenged to show what Catholic lay people did to live their faith, Frederick Ozanam and his companions decided "Let us go to the poor!" One hundred sixty-seven years later, we are doing the same thing, visiting the poor and needy in their homes.

It's crucial that we keep in mind the importance of home visits--they are at the heart of what we do as Vincentians, they are the way we come to truly know the poor who ask us for aid. That first conference of charity in Paris didn't always have money to bring to the poor they visited, but they did have their time to share. We need to do the same.

Newsletter Tidbits

Bulk Mail Permit
As you can see from the imprint on this newsletter, we have acquired a bulk mailing permit, which greatly reduces the cost of mailings to district members.

In order to send bulk mail, we have to send out at least 200 pieces of mail. We have close to that many members in the district, but while I'm updating the membership database, I will be sending out a few duplicate mailings, or mailings to both husband and wife. While this may seem wasteful, it actually saves us money.

Articles
If you have an event coming up in your conference that you want to let other Vincentians know about, let me know and we'll include it in the newsletter.

Perhaps you have a fund raiser coming up, or are planning a move of your food pantry, and need some extra hands? Who better to ask than your fellow Vincentians?