Daughters of St. Paul Lenten campaign to support ministry of Salesian Sisters

The Daughters of St. Paul are partnering with the Salesian Sisters of Don Bosco for their third annual Lenten Sponsorship Campaign.

This year’s campaign invites the faithful to take part in almsgiving by sponsoring a book in support of the work done by the Salesian Sisters. Their work includes serving women discerning or beginning religious life as well as numerous schools, religious education programs, and faith-based camps.

The 2026 Lenten Book Sponsorship Campaign features a range of Catholic books that speak to the heart of faith formation, prayer, and discipleship. The chosen books include “Forgiven: A Guide to Confession & The Examen Prayer,” “Essential Eucharistic Adoration Prayers,” “Brilliant! 28 Catholic Scientists, Mathematicians, and Supersmart People,” “Jesus in Space: A True Story That’s Out Of This World,” and “Beholding Beauty: Mary and the Song of Songs.”

Each book on the curated list has been chosen by the Salesian Sisters to support their work with other sisters, students, families, and communities throughout the United States.

Sister Orianne Pietra Rene Dyck, FSP, told EWTN News that the sisters — who evangelize through means of communication — first came up with the idea during the Year of the Word of God in 2020 when thinking about the need for individuals to have access to the word of God through printed books.

“We were realizing there’s a whole plethora of people who can’t necessarily access those books because of the situation they happen to be in in their lives or they don’t know that they exist,” she shared. “So, we really wanted to make sure that the people who needed our books the most could get them even if they couldn’t afford them.”

“We ourselves live a vow of poverty. We can’t afford to buy them out of our own pocket, but we know so many generous people in the areas where we have book centers who have already started to do this on their own. They would get books to give to people that they knew needed them and couldn’t afford them and they were really our inspiration behind this whole Lenten campaign,” she said.

During the past two Lenten campaigns, the Daughters of St. Paul were able to provide slightly over 1,000 books to support the ministry of the Sisters of Life for children and mothers, and to inner-city children through Vagabond Ministries.

Dyck explained that as people purchase books, they are set aside in a warehouse and then shipped to those benefiting from the books after Lent.

“In this case, because the Salesian sisters have several ministries, two [books] are going to elementary school kids, two [books] are going to the teens that they work with in youth groups, and one [book] is for their sisters in formation,” she said.

The religious sister highlighted two reasons why almsgiving during Lent is important: “It reminds us of how much we have, even when we don’t feel like we have a lot, but it also reminds us of the blessing that is in giving.”

“We have received without boundaries from the Lord. He’s just given us everything,” she said. “So for us to be able to mark for ourselves an opportunity to give in a real substantial way to others is not only a reflection of how Christ has gifted to us, but it’s also a moment where we can really take time to remember that when we serve others, we’re serving Christ in those other people. We are loving Christ in those people.”

Dyck added: “And I think it really calls us back to that fundamental understanding of the early Church — we are one body. We are one family in Christ. And to be able to really almsgive is really a marker of that witness, of the fact that we are all united in Christ.”

Her main hope for the Lenten campaign “is that anyone who might not otherwise have access to a resource that could truly genuinely be a ground for them in a deeper encounter with the living Lord, that it will serve as that ground for them.”