Photo: left Antonio Perito, right Elvia Toombs Director of Tri-State Family Pregnancy Center

Milford, PA — The St. Patrick’s Respect Life Committee held a successful “Pierogis for Life” fundraiser, selling over 450 pierogis and raising $527 for the Tri-State Family & Pregnancy Center (TSF&PC). The event was met with overwhelming support from the community, whose contributions will directly assist TSF&PC in providing essential resources and compassionate support to families in need.

The Tri-State Family & Pregnancy Center, a local pregnancy resource center, plays a vital role in supporting children, mothers, and families across the tri-state area. TSF&PC provides a variety of material services, including diapers, wipes, baby formula, clothing, and furniture to families facing financial hardships. The center also offers peer counseling and referral services to other supportive organizations and agencies, helping to ensure families receive holistic, continuous care through all stages of pregnancy and early parenthood.

“We are incredibly grateful for the community’s generosity and enthusiasm for this event,” said a representative of the Respect Life Committee. “The funds raised will allow the Tri-State Family & Pregnancy Center to continue its crucial work of supporting mothers, children, and families with dignity and respect.”

The St. Patrick’s Respect Life Committee would like to thank everyone who supported this fundraiser by purchasing pierogis, volunteering, and spreading the word. Your support has made a meaningful impact on the lives of families within our community.

For more information on the Tri-State Family & Pregnancy Center and its services, or to learn how to get involved with the St. Patrick’s Respect Life Committee, please contact the parish office.

About the St. Patrick’s Respect Life Committee
The St. Patrick’s Respect Life Committee is dedicated to promoting the sanctity of life through prayer, advocacy, and community outreach. Through events like “Pierogis for Life,” the committee raises awareness and support for local organizations that serve mothers, children, and families in need.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – God wants everyone to be a saint, and the clearest path to achieving that goal is loving service to others, Pope Francis said.

Celebrating the feast of All Saints, the pope led the midday recitation of the Angelus prayer Nov. 1 with thousands of visitors in St. Peter’s Square. Hundreds of them had just finished the annual Race of the Saints, a 10-km run that begins and ends at the square.

Pope Francis waves to visitors gathered in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican for the recitation of the Angelus on the feast of All Saints, Nov. 1, 2024. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

The runners remind everyone that “the Christian life is a race, but not the way the world races, no! It is the race of a heart that loves,” the pope said, adding thanks to the runners for supporting a Salesian Missions’ project in Ukraine.

God calls everyone to holiness, the pope said, and he gives all the baptized what they need to become saints, “but he does not impose it.”

God gives everyone the freedom to follow the example of Jesus, to discern and accept God’s plan, to treat others the way God would and to place themselves at “the service of others with an ever more universal charity, open and addressed to all,” Pope Francis said.

The Eight Beatitudes, listed in the feast day’s Gospel reading — Matthew 5:1-12 — are a clear roadmap to sainthood, the pope said, and the path followed by Blessed Carlo Acutis, St. Maximilian Kolbe, St. Teresa of Kolkata and St. Oscar Romero.

Everyone can list many saints, he said, both those formally canonized and those “I like to call the ‘saints next door,’ the everyday, hidden ones who carry on their daily Christian lives,” the pope said. “Brothers and sisters, how much hidden holiness there is in the church!”

“So many brothers and sisters” have lived lives “shaped by the Beatitudes: poor, meek, merciful, hungry and thirsty for justice, peacemakers,” he said. “They are ‘God-filled’ people, unable to remain indifferent to their neighbor’s needs; they are witnesses of luminous paths, which is possible for us as well.”

The feast of All Saints is a good time to reflect, Pope Francis said. “Do I ask God, in prayer, for the gift of a holy life? Do I let myself be guided by the good impulses that his Spirit inspires in me? And do I commit myself personally to practicing the Beatitudes of the Gospel?”

The pope also encouraged people to visit, if possible, the graves of their loved ones Nov. 2, the feast of All Souls. And he told them the Mass “is the greatest and most effective prayer for the souls of the deceased.”

As always, the pope asked people in the square to pray for peace in Ukraine, Israel and Palestine, for the victims of a terrorist attack on a military base in Chad Oct. 28, and for the victims of recent flooding in Spain, particularly in and around Valencia.