Student Life

Service & Bersi

Eagerness to Love God

Since our founding, the hallmark of a Catholic Memorial education is both that our boys are prepared for life beyond CM with a strong academic foundation and that they are guided by an eagerness to love God and serve others in all that they do. 

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A Call to Service

Responding to Jesus’ call to love God and love neighbor and inspired by the educational mission of Blessed Edmund Rice and the Christian Brothers, the mission of the CM Service Program is to foster in our students an enthusiasm to share their God-given gifts and talents with their communities, and a passion to live their lives in service of others. 
 
The Blessed Edmund Rice Solidarity Initiative (BERSI) is a collection of travel-based educational service and immersion programs facilitated by Campus Ministry. 
 
Led by CM faculty and staff, each program offers students a profound opportunity to immerse themselves in a global community, build meaningful relationships with their fellow trip members and the people of their host community, while also reflecting on the role of faith and God in their life. 

Stand in Solidarity

Enlivened by the spirit of the Edmund Rice Christian Brothers, each trip will cultivate a reflective faith-sharing community amongst students, and include elements of education and advocacy for peace, social justice, global awareness, and stewardship. The program empowers our students to put their faith-in-action, and to develop the sense of compassion and responsibility that is essential to stand in solidarity with those marginalized by poverty and injustice. 
 
Each BERSI trip program has three mandatory components:
  • Two pre-trip reflection meetings to prepare for the trip.
  • The trip program itself.
  • Two post-trip meetings where students will create a group Advocacy project to share an aspect of their trip experience with the CM community 

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Service Requirements

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  • 0

    collective days
    of service for
    Middle School

  • 15

    hours of service requirements for
    9th Grade

  • 20

    hours of service requirements for
    10th Grade

  • 25

    hours of service requirements for
    11th Grade

  • 65

    hours of service requirements for
    12th Grade

Service in Action

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  • BERSI Boston

    BERSI Boston
    BERSI Boston is part retreat and part service project. During this overnight event, students fast in solidarity with the hungry, learn more about the realities of hunger and homelessness, and then make and deliver meals to various social organization in the greater Boston area.

  • Veteran Funeral Services

    Veteran Funeral Services

    As part of our obligation to be on call and ready to respond to those in need, CM holds funeral Masses for veterans who are homeless or without living friends and family.

    CM students serve as pallbearers and are taught that while they may not know someone, that does not mean that person is undeserving of love or a celebration of their life.

  • Breast Cancer Walk

    Breast Cancer Walk
    Since 2001, CM has participated in the American Cancer Society’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk. Each year, hundreds of students and faculty fundraise to support the charity’s efforts. CM has raised over $250,000 in support of cancer research, earning them the title of "National Leaders" in the fight against breast cancer.

    In 2022, Team CM raised over $9,500 for breast cancer research and services.

  • Thanksgiving Food Drive

    Thanksgiving Food Drive
    During November, Peer Ministers lead a campaign to gather donated canned items and packaged foods to create Thanksgiving food baskets for families in need in St. Patrick’s Parish. Students collected over 1,500 food items.

  • Mission Madness

    Mission Madness
    Each March, Campus Ministry hosts a March Madness-style tournament to raise money for the Christian Brothers Mission in Peru . Each week in March, homerooms go head to head to see who can raise the most money for the missions, with the victor going to the next round. The homeroom that wins the tournament wins a trophy and a prize.

  • Senior Service

    Senior Service
    Each senior completes the Senior Service Capstone Project, which includes 60 hours of service at a site of the student’s choice.

    Guided by their theology teachers, students research possible avenues of service, identify a site, and propose a service project as their capstone educational experience. Students are asked to focus their service projects on a community marginalized by poverty and injustice.

Seniors have conducted service projects at:

List of 28 items.

  • Arabic Evangelical Baptist Church

  • Blessing Barn

  • Boys and Girls Club Dorchester

  • Boys and Girls Club of Boston

  • Boys and Girls Club Watertown

  • Compass on the Bay

  • Cradles to Crayons

  • Dedham Food Pantry

  • Deutsches Altenheim

  • Emerson Hospital Volunteer Program

  • Father Bill's and Main Spring

  • Habitat for Humanity

  • Haley House

  • Hebrew Senior Life

  • Holliston Food Pantry

  • Holy Transfiguration Monastery

  • My Brother's Keeper

  • Newton-Wellesley Hospital

  • Room to Grow

  • Rose’s Bounty (West Roxbury Food Bank)

  • Shultz's Guest House

  • South Boston Neighborhood House

  • St. John Paul Catholic Academy

  • Stonehedge Rehabilitation and Skilled Care Center

  • The Child and Family Wellness Center

  • The Fisher House

  • VA Hospital

  • West End House

Become a Man of Action at Catholic Memorial

CM prepares students for the rigors of college and beyond. While here, boys embark on service-learning opportunities, leadership development, and character formation programs inspiring them to become confident, courageous young men motivated to do good in the world. 

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  • Catholic Memorial

    Catholic Memorial

    235 Baker Street
    West Roxbury, MA 02132
    P. (617) 469-8000
    F. (617) 977-5689

About Us

Catholic Memorial, the Christian Brothers School of Boston, prepares boys for college, manhood and a world full of unknown challenges, ambiguity and complex problems and the importance of relationships.

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