Outreach Ministries

Our parish hosts American Red Cross blood drives quarterly on Saturdays in the West Room. The next parish blood drives:

Saturday, October 30, 2021
7:45 AM – 1:15 PM

Saturday, January 22, 2022
7:45 AM – 1:15 PM

Saturday, April 30, 2022
7:45 AM – 1:15 PM

Please consider giving the gift of life during our semi-annual blood drives with the American Red Cross! You can click here to schedule your live-saving donation online or call 1-800-RED-CROSS.

To save you time, we strongly recommend using RapidPass. It offers a way to complete your pre-reading and donation questions online ahead of time — reducing your waiting time at the blood drive by as much as 15 minutes.

Volunteers: If you are unable to donate blood for any reason, would you consider donating your time and volunteer at the blood drive for a few hours? Thank you to everyone who has donated blood or volunteered at our past parish blood drives!

• One donation can save or sustain up to 3 lives!

• Every two seconds, someone in the U.S. needs blood.

• Most of us will need blood in our lifetime.

• The number one reason donors say they give blood is because they "want to help others".

The Red Cross has tips on what do to before, during, and after your blood donation.

Jeff Ment
410-833-8515
jment@shgparish.org

Links:
American Red Cross
Find a local blood drive

Jesus healed the sick, comforted the sorrowing, and raised the dead. The Church is called to continue Jesus' work of healing, prayer, and comforting! At Sacred Heart, trained Pastoral Visitors bring Communion to the sick and homebound, usually on a weekly basis. Teams of Pastoral Visitors conduct communion services and take communion to those confined to their rooms at Cherrywood Future Care Nursing Home, and Mass is celebrated there on the second Wednesday of each month.

Pastoral Visitors also bring communion to residents at several assisted living facilities as well as to several apartment homes for the elderly. Staff members make monthly visits to those homebound parishioners who have requested them — and, where possible, to hospitalized parishioners. When requested, our priests visit the homebound and nursing homes for Reconciliation and the Anointing of the Sick.

The Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick, always available upon request, is celebrated at least twice annually at a designated weekend Mass.

At various times throughout the year, students at Sacred Heart School and the Religious Education Program prepare and send handmade get-well and greeting cards with personalized messages to the residents of Cherrywood and the homebound. Christmas and Easter greetings, signed by parish staff, are sent to these parishioners, as well as get-well cards for the hospitalized.

The names of ill parishioners who are in need of prayer are listed in the parish bulletin each week. Please join us in praying for God's healing for them.

To request that a name be added to our sick list, please contact the the Parish Office.

410-833-1696

If you, or someone you know, desires:

• Anointing of the Sick
• A Communion visit
• A hospital visit

Please contact the Parish Office and provide the information we will need to make contact.

Our sister parish, St. Ann's Church, is located at 528 E. 22nd Street in Baltimore. The fascinating history of St. Ann's, from their parish website:
 

St. Ann's Roman Catholic Church on Greenmount and 22nd Street was erected through the generosity of Captain William Kennedy, commander of one of the most famous Baltimore clipper ships, The Wanderer. Caught in a raging storm off the coast of Vera Cruz in 1833, Captain Kennedy vowed that if he and his crew returned safely to port, he would build a church as a testament of his gratitude to God. The anchor held. Upon returning to Baltimore, Captain Kennedy gave up his life at sea and gave up his brig. He did, however, keep his anchor and chain. True to his promise, in 1872 Captain Kennedy and his wife, Mary Ann Jenkins, secured property and funds for the church which was to be named for Saint Ann, the patron saint of sailors. The cornerstone was laid in 1873 — the same year that Captain Kennedy and Mrs. Kennedy died. Although neither of them lived to see the church completed, they are both buried under the main aisle of St. Ann's Church.

The history continues:

The church was completed in 1874, and later expanded seating capacity and a school (now closed) and convent were added. In 1925 the original anchor was restored and placed in a stone cradle beside the cornerstone where it remains today. The historic, cultural, and architectural significance of this church is well documented in the church archives, and St. Ann's continues to be a neighborhood landmark. St. Ann's is a good neighbor to the poor and disenfranchised and continues to reaffirm its mission to the East Baltimore community.

Sacred Heart's outreach to St. Ann's includes two large food collections, gifts at Christmas, various projects as needed, and Poor Box collections on the first Sunday of each month. Sacred Heart School adopts families at St. Ann's at Christmas.

Center for Pregnancy Concerns was founded in 1980 for the purpose of providing women facing an unplanned pregnancy with a place to explore their options in a non-threatening, comfortable environment. We offer a variety of services, all of which are entirely free. Our mission is to protect the physical, emotional, and spiritual lives of women and their unborn children. Current director is Gina Ruppert, a Sacred Heart parishioner.

CPC at St. Ann's is open on Tuesday — Thursday from 9:00 AM — 4:00 PM. You can schedule an appointment at www.cpcforhelp.org or call 410-391-6699.

Our mission: to protect the physical, emotional, and spiritual lives of women and their unborn children

Services include: a helpline, pregnancy testing, material assistance, referrals, education, post-abortion counseling, sonograms, and abstinence programs

Current center needs are: diapers, wipes, baby lotion, shampoo, sleepers 0-9 mos, and clothing size 2t-3t

Rogelio d'Almeida
Pastoral Associate
410-235-8169
www.stannsofbaltimore.org

(To view more great photos, click here!)