It was an honor to bring our team of 22 teens and chaperones from both parishes on our 2024 Boston Mission trip this past weekend!  I cannot begin to explain how proud I am of each of these teens. They demonstrated compassion for the poor and homeless, and witnessed living conditions that I am sure they have never seen or imagined. They listened to many stories of people who have fallen on hard times, who have often had their dignity stripped from them. The story of a rare-book seller whose sales slowed and he eventually lost his business and everything. He was homeless for 13 years and just recently in the past five months found housing. Paul who is homeless and has lived outside in the woods for over 12 years. The story of a 23 year old woman who is currently expecting her first child, who grew up living in a homeless shelter most of her life, and at 19 years old had to begin to support her family and raise a younger sibling. This women’s mother had walked that exact path at a very young age as a single mother, but both made the choice to keep their babies!

Our living accommodations were tight in the basement of a church in Medford, MA, no showers for 3+ days, and a long 30-minute walk just to the T stop. Commuting to some of our work locations took over an hour, meaning, teens had to be up by 6 am and on their way at a very early hour. Days were long as we split up to work at a men’s shelter and women’s shelter run by Boston Healthcare for the Homeless Program, at Rosie’s Place, the first women’s shelter in the US, the Friday Café, a community setting for the homeless and food insecure in Cambridge, and Solutions at Work. Your teens worked hard, tireless hours, preparing, cooking and serving meals, handing out clothing donations, wiping, sweeping and cleaning facilities, and just being present with those that needed to be “seen”. On Friday evening, we invited three guests to join us for dinner and share their stories of homelessness and hope. They handed out sandwiches, prayer shawls, crosses, and snacks at both Harvard Square and Porter Square, the location of the “Outdoor Church”. The day did not end when we returned from our worksites. We had to eat dinner and prepare for the next day, we held our small group reflections and large group discussions with prayers and intentions, some evenings we cooked for the next day, and more. On Saturday evening, some of the teens went to Reconciliation and we attended Mass at the Shrine of St. Anthony and the priest was originally from a parish in Hartford!

This is the first time we combined the teens from two parishes, and we had doubts about whether the teens would bond. But by the first evening, as chaperones were setting up the kitchen, the teens took the initiative to bond on their own, all sitting on the floor in a circle playing a game. Your teens are amazing young men and women. There are so many examples of how these teens reached out to help others, too many to name them all. But your teens sprang into action when they saw the pregnant woman trying to carry boxes at one location, and they jumped up to help her without needing to be asked. They witnessed the joy and kindness of shelter volunteers who work in some difficult places, some teens are already making future plans, asking if we can invite the director of one of our programs to dinner next year, another is inviting a sibling to join us next year! And by the last evening, although there was not much sleep with the time change, we stayed up making sandwiches, dancing and singing, playing games, and we knew that these were some very special teens!

Thank you all again for your generosity and support of our Youth Ministry Boston Mission Trip. Without you, we would not be able to provide our teens with this amazing experience and opportunity. Click on the link to see highlights of the trip:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ARwV7BObuIxpp3qo-_YNLVw0UE19xaXZ/view? usp=sharing

Many thanks and blessings, Manuela Hanshaw, Director of Youth Ministry