The Light is On For You is a 6 week celebration of the Sacrament of Reconciliation throughout all the parishes and chapels of the Archdiocese of Boston. It will take place on Wednesday evenings in Lent from 6:30-8:00p.m.

The dates are: February 24, March 3, 10, 17, 24 and 31.

For more information please visit: TheLightIsOnForYou.org

Serrans helped greet guests, distribute altar server certificates, and even scoop ice cream. The ice cream was sticky and required some extra muscle, but it was well worth it to help reward the altar servers of the Archdiocese of Boston!

Photos of the ice cream social can be seen in the slideshow below.

You can see photos of this event and other Serra Club events at our Flickr site: www.flickr.com/serraboston

Thanks to the Archdiocese of Boston Vocations Office for organizing this event!

Photos of the cake can be seen in the slideshow below:

Happy birthday Fr. Dan, and thank you for your continued service to the Archdiocese of Boston!

On Friday, there was a Mass at St. John’s Seminary and a dinner to charter a new Serra Club for Boston.

We are hoping that promotion of priestly vocations and vocation recruitment will be a very important part of the Year for Priests.

Serra Club takes its name from Blessed Junipero Serra, a Franciscan priest who founded a number of California missions in the 18th century.

I have always had a special spot in my heart for them. My dad joined Serra in 1960 and was a very active member his whole life.

The first president of the Boston club is Loretta Gallagher, who worked very closely with our Director of Vocations, Father Dan Hennessey on establishing the new chapter.

Read the full post at: Cardinal Seán’s Blog: Serra Club comes to Boston

The Liturgy of the Hours supplement offers the following prayer on this feast day:

God most high,
your servant Junipero Serra
brought the gospel of Christ
to the peoples of Mexico and California
and firmly established the Church among them.
By his intercession,
and through the example of his evangelical zeal,
inspire us to be faithful witnesses of Jesus Christ,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.

Happy Feast Day to Serrans worldwide!

• Fr. Seán M. Maher from St. John’s Seminary in Brighton
• Fr. Huy H. Nguyen from St. John’s Seminary in Brighton
• Fr. Frank D. Camp from Blessed John XXIII National Seminary
• Fr. David W. Gunter from Blessed John XXIII National Seminary
• Fr. Israel J. Rodriguez from the Redemptoris Mater Archdiocesan House of Formation
• Fr. Shawn P. Carey from the St. Patrick Seminary in Menlo Park, Calif.

God bless these new priests as they begin their new life as ordained priests!

Thanks also to Fr. Dan Hennessey and Fr. Michael Harrington of the Vocations office for helping to bring these new priests into the archdiocese:

Fr. Mike Harrington of the Vocations Boston office

Fr. Dan Hennessey of the Vocations Boston

For the Pilot’s coverage of the ordination, please click on the link below:

The Boston Pilot: Six new priests for Boston

Here are photos from the Mass:

Thanks to CatholicTV for their hospitality!

All Serrans and others who want to promote vocations are asked to attend, so that Fr. Hennessey can celebrate Mass with a full chapel.  Attendees will also have the added bonus of seeing firsthand the beautiful studio where the excellent Catholic TV broadcasts originate!

Note that all attendees need to be at the studio by 9:00 AM sharp to attend the live Mass.

The address of the Catholic TV studio is:

CatholicTV
34 Chestnut St.
Watertown, MA 02472
Google Maps directions

Hope you can join us at this live event!

Loretta was given the award for her work to found the Boston-based chapter of Serra International, her efforts to coordinate and promote the Monthly Prayer Request for Priests apostolate, and her life as a lay Carmelite.

Cardinal Sean O'Malley congratulates Loretta Gallagher on the award.

Loretta was introduced to the stage by Vocations Director and Serra Club chaplain Fr. Dan Hennessey.  As Chris Harding noted in his recap of the conference:

Fr. Daniel Hennessey, who heads the Archdiocese of Boston’s vocations office, beamed as he presented the “Laywoman of the Year” award to colleague and friend, Loretta Gallagher, whom he called a “spiritual mother to so many priests and seminarians in the archdiocese.”

As shown in the photo below, Fr. Dan also promoted our “Pray for Priests” magnets in his introduction.

Fr. Dan Hennessey (Vocations Director for the Archdiocese of Boston, and chaplain of the Serra Club of Boston) showcases the "Pray for Priests" car magnets.

Loretta accepted the award on behalf of all those who promote vocations, and encouraged those in the audience to support priests by attending this year’s ordination, write letters to newly ordained priests, and other efforts.

To see a video of her acceptance speech (with Fr. Dan’s introduction), please click on the “play” button in the video below.

The Archdiocese of Boston web site posted photos of the event, which can be viewed below.  (All photos © George Martell 2009.)

Loretta Gallagher accepts the award on behalf of all those who promote a culture of vocations.

Cardinal Sean, Scot Landry, and Mary Jo Kriz watch the acceptance speech.

During both the Men’s and Women’s conference, several members from the Serra Club of Boston helped run the Vocations Boston table in the exhibitors’ hall.  The vocations table can be seen in the following photos:

Loretta Gallagher and Fr. Dan Hennessey stand in front of the vocations table in the exhibitors' hall at the Boston Catholic Women's Conference.

Several members from the Serra Club of Boston helped run the vocations table at the Boston Catholic Women's Conference 2009. Pictured here (from left to right): Francis Jesch, Fr. Dan Hennessey, Loretta Gallagher, and Mary Jesch.

Several publications and web sites covered the conference and provided photos and video.  For more information, please visit the following links:

• Boston Pilot: Prayer, song and talks inspire at Catholic Conferences
• BostonCatholic.org: Boston Catholic Women’s conference photo slideshow
• Boston Catholic Women’s Conference recap

Congratulations to Loretta on her devotion to the Catholic lifestyle, and for living out the Serran mission to promote vocations to the priesthood and religious life!

We extend an invitation to all those who wish to support our mission of promoting vocations.  Please see the invitation below for details!

To register for this event, please download the form below, print it out, and mail it back to Serra Boston, c/o the Gallaghers, 36 Virginia Lane, Newburyport, MA 01950.  Checks should be made out to Serra Boston.

Registration Form for Serra Boston Chartering Celebration (408 kb PDF)

We look forward to seeing you there!