EAST PROVIDENCE – The Respect Life Office will host the fourth annual celebration of the Feast of the Annunciation on Monday, March 31 at 7 p.m. at St. Martha Church in East Providence. The celebration will begin with a Mass concelebrated by Monsignor Paul D. Theroux, Father Douglas J. Spina and Father Paul F. Reynolds.
Monsignor Theroux will be the main celebrant and homilist.
Following the Mass, the Respect Life Office will hold a coffee hour and baby shower in the parish hall. The baby shower will benefit Project Gabriel, which serves local women and families dealing with problem pregnancies.
Project Gabriel, which is headed by Carol Owens, the diocesan Respect Life coordinator, provides hundreds of women with support each year.
The baby shower is a chance to make donations of practical baby items that will be the basis of another year of Project Gabriel's work. Suggested gifts include gift certificates to grocery stores, diapers, clothing, blankets, and various baby toiletries.
Gift certificates are particularly helpful as they allow Owens to assist women who need to buy formula throughout the year.
Owens said the donations she receives at the annual baby shower allow her to not only provide help for the women who contact her office, but she also uses them to help support the other problem pregnancy centers across the state. Demand for her help has doubled since last year, she said. "I'm getting calls almost every day... even on weekends," Owens added.
Everyone in the diocese is invited to attend the Mass and the coffee hour and baby shower that will follow. Owens requests that those interested in attending call her at 421-7833 ex. 118, so that enough refreshments will be available. She also requests that those bringing a donation to the baby shower not wrap their gifts.
