St. Vincent de Paul Church

Sign up for our weekly e-newsletter! Weekly issues feature news about St. Vincent, communications from staff, events at the parish, a reflection or prayer from Fr. Ray, and the readings for the upcoming Sunday.

In our most recent issue, you can read our Jesuit Volunteer Codie Perry’s perspective on the words of Pope Francis and  a reflection from Dennis Moore on the Book of Exodus.  If you wish to receive This Week @ St. Vincent, use this subscription link to sign up. You can see all the past issues of the newsletter here.

Each month, St. V produces a monthly issue (pictured) that features at least one longer article as well as general information about the parish. Weekly a one-page insert focuses on news and information for the current week.

Deadline for Submissions: Weekly issue is Wednesdays by 10 PM; monthly bulletin is the third Sunday of the month.

Recent Weekly Issues:

• St V This Week 6/25/2017
• St V This Week 6/18/2017
• St V This Week 6/11/2017
• St V This Week 6/4/2017
• St V This Week 5/28/2017
• St V This Week 5/21/2017
• St. V This Week 5/14/2017
• St. V This Week 5/7/2017
• St. V This Week 4/30/2017
• St. V This Week 4/23/2017
• St V This Week 4/16/2017
• St. V This Week 4/2/2017
• St. V This Week 3/26/2017
• St. V This Week 3/19/2017
• St. This Week 3/12/2017
• St. V This Week 3/5/2017

Previous Bulletins

Through this program by Interfaith Partners for the Chesapeake (IPC), St. V will join with other congregations in the Jones Falls Watershed to help protect our waterways and delve more deeply into our work of caring for creation. In this two-year partnership, we will plan and take part in various environmentally and spiritually focused activities.

As one of the 15 congregations invited to join, St. V will participate in a visioning session with IPC. We will commit to a covenant to care for watershed, create a “green ministry,” implement at least one environmental physical project and three educational, spiritual or other actions related to conserving our planet.

Joining comes with a grant, which we will use to help launch a green ministry here at St. V. To be on an email list for the forming green ministry, email Laureen Brunelli at Laureen@stvchurch.org.

Sunday was, as our Pastoral Associate Colleen McCahill put it, a “beautiful and bittersweet” day as we honored our pastor of 43 years on the eve of his retirement. We celebrated more than just one man; we celebrated ourselves as a community. And, of course, we celebrated in the way we know best, through the Eucharist, together in Christ.

As Fr. Dick said in his final homily as pastor, being a community of Word, Sacrament and Service means being “a place where people call out each other’s talents, care for each other’s sorrows, rejoice in each other’s joys.”

This occasion was just one small example of what this community can do. With less than two weeks notice, we put on a fabulous event for more than 450 people. People pulled together and in pitched in a seamless sort of way—sharing in the work, sharing in the joy and sharing in the sorrow.

—Laureen Brunelli, Director of Evangelization

More on Fr. Dick’s Retirement:

• Remarks of Archbishop Lori and Bishop Madden
• Letter from Senator Barbara Mikulski
• Catholic Review Article
• Baltimore Sun Article (with Photo Gallery)
• More Photos

Homeless Jesus by Timothy Schmalz

As part of his letter to the congregation on the the retirement of our pastor, Archbishop Lori announced that a bronze statue known as “Homeless Jesus,” given to the Archdiocese by an anonymous donor, will be installed on the grounds of St. Vincent. The artist Timothy Schmalz says, this work is “a visual representation of Matthew 25. The sculpture suggests that Christ is with the most marginalized in our society.”

The original sculpture was installed in Toronto in 2013, and now casts of it have been placed around the world including one in Rome in front of the Papal Offices of Charities. However, not all cities have welcomed such a visible reminder of our society’s most vulnerable members.

We at St. Vincent, however, are delighted that the Archbishop chose our parish as the home of this statue in Baltimore. While we have not finalized plans for its placement, we anticipate placing it on the corner of Fayette and Front Streets, outside the fence of our park so that it can be seen by people passing by in cars.

Installation is tentatively scheduled for the fall. Currently the Archdiocese is displaying a resin replica of the statue in the Basilica. That replica will be displayed in parishes throughout the Archdiocese in the coming months. When the Archdiocese returns it to the artist, work will begin on the bronze version to be placed here.

• Baltimore Archdiocese Honors Fr. Richard Lawrence with ‘Homeless Jesus’ Sculpture  — Baltimore Fishbowl
• ‘Homeless Jesus’ statue on display in Baltimore Archdiocese during Lent — Catholic Review
• Homeless Jesus finds its place in Baltimore — Baltimore Sun
• ‘Homeless Jesus’ sculpture banned from central London — Mashable