How can we help...

Lent is about fasting, prayer and almsgiving.
Here are two possible areas where our JPIC values meet with worthy projects
that provide us opportunities to help those in need:

1. Franciscan Missions
2. Commissariat of the Holy Land

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Visit http://missionsfranciscains.blogspot.ca/ to read the latest edition of “Missions des Franciscains” and discover how you can donate.

The Franciscan First Order raises funds for the Missions on a project-by-project basis. Missionaries in various locations propose their intended projects and those provincially approved projects are then featured in the magazine “Missions des Franciscains”. Richard Chartier, ofs, Director of the Missions Office (Bureau des Missions) & Editor in Chief of the magazine is contactable to elaborate on current projects.

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Download the Commissariat poster here.
Download the Commissariat flyer here.

This year, the Papal Collection for the Holy Places will be held on Good Friday, March 25, 2016. Christians living in the Holy Land today are descendants of those who first believed and lived the Christian faith. Christians in the Holy Land face special challenges - many of which we hear about in the daily news.

Many now find themselves victims of war and persecution. Many have been forced to leave their homes. Yet, it is important that Christians continue to live, work and pray in the Holy land. The Catholic Church, and in particular the Franciscans, provides Christian formation and education, conducts parish ministry, offers housing and food for the poor and welcome pilgrims to the shrines in the Holy Land.

Since the time of St Paul, who urged his missionary Churches not to forget the needs of the Church in Jerusalem, Christians worldwide have understood the responsibility to support the people and the land where Jesus walked and lived. The Pontifical Good Friday Collection offers all Catholics an opportunity to express their solidarity with Christians in the Holy Land.

Gilles Bourdeau, OFM 
Commissary of the Holy Land in Canada