Hope as an anchor.

Of everything in the binder, the 2017 program is the one that stops you. A plum card, a gold anchor, and eight words: we have this hope as an anchor for the soul. Hebrews 6:19. Plum and gold, nine years before anyone wrote a brand guide.

Inside is an ordinary parish program and a complete record of an afternoon. Processional, City of God. Greeting, homily and final blessing by Springfield Bishop Mitchell T. Rozanski. Deacon James Conroy read the Gospel, Matthew 18 on forgiveness, and led the Prayers of the Faithful. Susan Pettazzoni read from Sirach; Kimberly Clemons read from Romans. You Are Mine at the presentation, You Are Near at communion, We Are the Light of the World on the way out.

The back page prints the sentence the organization used to explain what a Pink Mass is for: we gather together in prayer to remember those who have struggled with a diagnosis of cancer, their family members and friends, those who treat and minister to them and those who have been called home to God after battling the disease.

Beside it, ringed by sixteen coloured ribbons, one for breast, ovarian, cervical, pancreatic, colon, leukemia, lymphoma, uterine, brain, prostate, lung, melanoma, kidney, sarcoma, childhood and all cancers, is a poem titled Cancer is limited. It cannot cripple love. It cannot shatter hope. It cannot corrode faith. It cannot silence courage. It cannot invade the soul.

The acknowledgments thank the staff and parishioners of St. Michael’s Cathedral Parish, the bishop, Deacon Conroy, Catholic Communications Corporation, SynergyPraise, Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish in Granby, the Dion Family, and the Spirit Among Us Catholic Book Shop. A volunteer-run organization is a list of names, and this is the list.