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Legacy of Hope Capital Campaign: Updates
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Campaign Update
Thank you to all those who have already submitted their pledge amounts and have given so generously!
We encourage you to read more throughout these pages to understand the complete Legacy of Hope Campaign.
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Not everyone can make the same size gift, but everyone can make the same sacrifice. We ask that you reflect on the ways in which God has blessed you and in turn, please consider making a pledge.
PLEDGE HERE
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“You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden…Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.”
Matthew 5: 14, 15
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How will the funds raised by Saint Boniface be used?
By helping us achieve and exceed our goal, you will be participating in a very exciting and ambitious set of projects at Saint Boniface that will help move us forward for the next 20 years. We will use the funds for the following proposed projects:
- Repaving and improving the upper parking lot.
- Improving and relocating the Preschool playground next to the building.
- Creating new outdoor sacred spaces throughout the campus of Saint Boniface focusing on devotional, educational and reflective shrines. This would also include a redesign and new landscaping of the campus to beautify the area that coordinates with the new devotional spaces.
- Starting a parish mission for Uganda, Africa to support our faith around the world. Fr. Anthony is planning a relationship between our parish and the Uganda community to help those less fortunate. Watch video.
- Forming a student scholarship to assist our school children in furthering their education.
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Commitment made by
Fr. Anthony Mpagi
Fr. Anthony, our Pastor at the time of the campaign, is a true believer of this campaign and the projects that are being proposed at Saint Boniface. He has graciously committed his own pledge of $10,000 to lead us in our Legacy of Hope campaign at Saint Boniface.
PLEDGE HERE
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"Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire!"
-Saint Catherine of Siena
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Why are these items the proposed projects?
Fr. Anthony, the Pastoral Council and the Finance Committee have identified specific areas for the funds that will be received by Saint Boniface through the Legacy of Hope campaign.
These projects are grouped in a range of different categories:- capital expenditure improvements,
- doing good for those less fortunate
- the propagation of our faith.
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Improvements
1.) In the first category of capital expenditure improvements, our upper parking lot, as you have noticed is in disrepair. Throughout the years, we have filled the holes and have patched the breakage to help extend this parking lot's serviceable use. Unfortunately, we need to address this, not only for the practical function of the lot, but also for the improvement of the safety and beauty of our grounds.
At the same time that we are resurfacing this parking lot, it makes sense to improve and relocate the Preschool playground. This includes moving the playground from the present, distant location to an adjacent location near the Preschool building. A pleasing looking vinyl fence will be used to enclose the area and the playground surface will be changed from sand to play chips. These changes will improve the safety and add to the overall appeal of the Preschool.
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Charity is the theological virtue by which we love God above all things for his own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God.
-Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1822
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Charity
2.) In the second category of doing good for those less fortunate, we are looking to help other communities such as Uganda which is Fr. Anthony's homeland. The intention is to help the Ugandan villagers by providing access to clean water, better healthcare, better nutrition and means to improve their life.
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The first step in helping the disadvantaged is to acknowledge the sacred dignity and image of God found in each person. What is also required is a conscience formation from which flow the beliefs, attitudes, and actions that will help the poor...
Christian discipleship means, among other things, working to ensure that all people have access to what makes them fully human and fosters their human dignity: faith, education, health care, housing, employment, and leisure. Members of the Church are called to build up the resources of the Church herself and of civil society in making possible the sharing of God's blessings and social goods with others. This they do by their own generousity in the use of their time, talents, and treasures with others. Such generousity flows from hearts grateful to God for his generousity in creating and saving us.
-United States Catholic Catechism for Adults, 454-455 -
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Genuine sacred art draws man to adoration, to prayer, and to the love of God, Creator and Savior, the Holy One and Sanctifier.
-Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2502
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Sacred Art is True and Beautiful
The practice of goodness is accompanied by spontaneous spiritual joy and moral beauty. Likewise, truth carries with it the joy and splendor of spiritual beauty. Truth is beautiful in itself. Truth in words, the rational expression of the knowledge of created and uncreated reality, is necessary to man, who is endowed with intellect. But truth can also find other complementary forms of human expression, above all when it is a matter of evoking what is beyond words: the depths of the human heart, the exaltations of the soul, the mystery of God…
Created "in the image of God, man also expresses the truth of his relationship with God the Creator by the beauty of his artistic works. Indeed, art is a distinctively human form of expression; beyond the search for the necessities of life which is common to all living creatures, art is a freely given superabundance of the human being's inner riches. Arising from talent given by the Creator and from man's own effort, art is a form of practical wisdom, uniting knowledge and skill, to give form to the truth of reality in a language accessible to sight or hearing.
-Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2500-2501
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3.) In the third category of the propagation of our faith, Fr. Anthony's vision is the continuation of the truth and beauty that are reflected in our sanctuary and the interior of the Church by extending this truth and beauty to the exterior of the Church's grounds with the creation of holy "encounters" and sacred meditative spaces.
The creation of these new outdoor sacred spaces will focus on devotional, educational and reflective sacred art and holy shrines.
- Devotional and Reflective
- Educational
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Arising from talent given by the Creator and from man's own effort, art is a form of practical wisdom, uniting knowledge and skill, to give form to the truth of reality in a language accessible to sight or hearing. To the extent that it is inspired by truth and love of beings, art bears a certain likeness to God's activity in what he has created.
-United States Catholic Catechism for Adults
VIEW HERE the sacred art renderings that are proposed for the meditation gardens.
The drawings for the proposed sacred art are on full display in the bottom Hall of the Church.
READ ABOUT the Liturgical designer and artists who are helping us with the sacred art.
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Encounter #1: Altar and Crucifix
The altar is the central focal point in a church and a symbol of Christ. It is the place where the sacrifice of the cross is made present and truly reencountered. It is also the table of the Lord to which the People of God are called to celebrate Mass.
Our granite altar will be used to celebrate our outdoor Masses. It will be displayed prominently in the garden as a reminder that we gather together at the table to receive the body and blood of Christ through the Eucharist.
READ MORE about the Eucharist and the Real Presence of Christ
The Crucifix
The Christian crucifix draws the eyes, mind, and heart to the death of Jesus of Nazareth two thousand years ago. The crucifix is both an image of the infinite love of God for us and of the unconditional love required of us by God. Christ is sacrificed for the forgiveness of our sins and our salvation. The crucifix, then, does not represent the defeat of Christ; it represents the defeat of Satan. It is the ultimate sign of hope – and of victory.
VIEW HERE the proposed depiction of the Crucifix
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The Christian home is the place where children receive the first proclamation of the faith. For this reason, the family home is rightly called "the domestic church", a community of grace and prayer, a school of human virtues and of Christian charity.
-The Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1666
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Encounter #2: The Holy Family
In our own time, in a world often alien and even hostile to faith, believing families are of primary importance as centers of living, radiant faith...It is in the bosom of the family that parents are by "word and example"...the first heralds of the faith with regard to their children.
-The Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1656
We are proposing to have a life size sculpture of the Holy Family to remind all of us that we, as the Church, have a particular role and responsibility to bring the Light of Christ to others. Within the domestic Church, this means that parents are to cultivate a family life that is centered on Christ.
VIEW HERE the proposed sculpture of the Holy Family
READ MORE
about the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph
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One of the documents of the Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium (“Light of the Nations”), describes the family as the ‘domestic Church’ because it is the first place where young, baptized Christians learn about their faith. It states, “From the wedlock of Christians there comes the family, in which new citizens of human society are born, who by the grace of the Holy Spirit received in baptism are made children of God, thus perpetuating the people of God through the centuries” (Lumen Gentium, 11). You may have heard it said that families are the fundamental ‘building block’ of society; similarly, families provide a foundation for the continuation and strength of the Church among the lay faithful.
Lumen Gentium goes on to explain that this domestic Church has a particular role and responsibility in leading souls to heaven: “In it parents should, by their word and example, be the first preachers of the faith to their children; they should encourage them in the vocation which is proper to each of them, fostering with special care vocation to a sacred state” (Ibid).
Through this letter, the Council Fathers intended to emphasize that Christ is the Light of the Nations, and that, as the Church, we each have a responsibility to bring the Light of Christ to others. Within the domestic Church, this means that parents are to cultivate a family life that is centered on Christ.
The Catholic Church recognizes that grace builds upon nature. Family is one of the most basic, yet important gifts that God has given us. Through a firm marital commitment between men and women, and through their own active participation in the faith and their pledge to raise their children with a love for Christ and his Church, the domestic Church is one of first places that young Catholics experience the light of the faith in their own lives.
-Caitlin Bootsma - published, Aleteia on 02/25/13
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Encounter #3: Our Lady of Guadalupe (proposed)
The angel said to [Mary], "The holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God."
Luke 1:35
The Blessed Virgin Mary is honored as the Mother of God because she conceived and gave birth to Christ, who is the incarnation of God the Son, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity.
To honor Mary, we will have a Marian devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Our Lady of Guadalupe is the title of the Blessed Virgin Mary given for the five Marian apparitions that took place in 1531 and a venerated image on a cloak enshrined within the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City.
This is being proposed for this devotion because Our Lady of Guadalupe is the patroness of the Americas, the Basilica is the most-visited Catholic shrine in the world, and the Basilica is considered the second most important sanctuary of Catholics next to the Vatican City.
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In regard to Christ, the Blessed Virgin Mary supplied his humanity and is thus the Mother of Jesus. But Christ has both a human nature and a divine nature. Nevertheless, she gave birth to the one Person who is Jesus Christ, the Son of God made man. She is rightly called the Mother of God even though she herself is not the source of his divinity. (Cf. CCC 496)
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This doctrine is taught implicitly in Scripture, especially in those passages where the Blessed Virgin Mary is called the"Mother of Jesus", or the"Mother of Christ"—perhaps most strikingly when Saint Elizabeth greets her with the following words: "Why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" (Luke 1:43, emphasis added). Her identity as the Mother of God is intimately linked to Christ's own identity as fully man and fully God, the Son of God. (Cf. CCC 509)
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campaign goals of LEGACY OF HOPE
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Diocese of Worcester: Campaign Goal
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SELECT HERE to get the complete details at the Diocese of Worcester, Legacy of Hope website.
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Honor the Lord with your wealth, with first fruits of all your produce; Then will your barns be filled with plenty, with new wine your vats will overflow.
Proverbs 3:9-10
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The Legacy of Hope Capital Campaign will provide the solid foundation upon which our Church will continue to build and enhance the future for Catholics across the Diocese of Worcester. Financial resources are essential to enable our parishes to continue supporting the journey of faith, spirituality, and ministry of our expanding Catholic community.
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Your Gift
To make your gift by use of credit card, debit card or electronic check, please complete the payment information at the Diocese of Worcester, Legacy of Hope website page.
Your gift can be donated throughout the next 4 year period. It does not need to be given at one time, but we are asking for your non-binding pledge amount that you wish to give over the next 4 years.
PLEDGE HERE
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SELECT HERE
a Word from Fr. Anthony regarding Legacy of Hope
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What does it take to be a steward of Christ?
STEWARDSHIP and a call for discipleship.
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Campaign Prayer
God our Father, you are the source of all goodness and of every blessing.
We give you thanks and praise for the gift of our Catholic faith that is deeply rooted in your abundanet love for us.
We ask your blessing upon our efforts to help secure the future of the Church in the Diocese of Worcester. May your people respond with the faith and generosity to our Legacy of Hope Capital Campaign and may the sacrifices we make together today bear fruit in lives of faith, hope and love for generstions to come.
We ask all this through Christ our LORD. AMEN!
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