Catholic book and gift shops prepare for the season

   
BY BILL DOYLE
CFP CORRESPONDENT
 
Denise Boucher-Garofoli has every reason to feel at home at Boucher’s Good Books. The store has been around for 50 years and she has worked at it for each of them.
In addition, the store is located at 254 Lake Ave. in the house in which she grew up. Her father, Lou Boucher, bought the home when Boucher-Garofoli was 3 years old. She’s now 71.
Lou Boucher used to shop at Brodeur’s religious store on Franklin Street in downtown Worcester and the owner asked him if he wanted to buy the store. The salesman for WTAG and WSRS Radio and a father of seven wasn’t sure what to do, but after consulting with a good friend, the priest at St. Christopher Parish, he bought it in March of 1973.
After a year, Mr. Boucher moved the store next door to his home and after another year he moved it into the first floor of his home. Mrs. Boucher-Garofoli’s mother, Bernadette “Bunny” Boucher, did the bookkeeping and her siblings and children have helped out, but Mrs. Boucher-Garofoli now owns and manages the store.
“It’s just been part of me,” Mrs. Boucher-Garofoli said. “When people ask me if I want to retire, I say I wouldn’t know how to walk away from this because it’s part of my whole being.”
Books and wedding items are sold in her parents’ former bedroom. Hosts, Bibles, bulletins and certificates are sold in the room where her four brothers used to sleep on two bunk beds. Children’s books and Jesus sports figurines are sold out of her former bedroom. The sports figurines consist of Jesus teaching youngsters how to ride bicycles, how to swing golf clubs and baseball bats, and how to play football and basketball. They’re all titled, “Jesus is my coach.”
Mrs. Boucher-Garofoli recalls that one year a customer was excited to purchase a figurine of Jesus playing football with two children for his godson because the christening was scheduled to be on Super Bowl Sunday.
The store also sells golf, baseball, soccer, lacrosse and hockey medals with St. Sebastian, the patron saint of athletes.
She said running the store was difficult when her mother was ill and after her father died, but she’s glad she’s still doing it.
“It boils down to being a ministry and doing God’s work,” she said. “In the beginning, I probably didn’t think of it that way. I just thought I was working and helping my father out. But when I got older I realized God arranged this whole thing for us to be here on Lake Avenue and to have this store.”
Mrs. Boucher-Garofoli has learned that stocking items that people want to buy isn’t her only mission. Customers who purchase items after the deaths of loved ones or to help those with recovery from alcohol or drug abuse need a sympathetic ear.
“Sometimes I go home and tell my husband that I felt like a bartender today because I had to hear so many things,” Mrs. Boucher-Garofoli said, “but it’s all good because I’m here to listen. Sometimes people need to talk it out.”
She tells those customers that she’ll pray for them.
Religious items from deceased loved ones are dropped off on Boucher’s front porch and they’re available for others to take for free.
Boucher’s is open 9:30 a.m. – 4 p.m. on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 9:30-5 on Thursdays and Fridays, and 9:30-3 on Saturdays. Customers can also order items by calling 508-755-4516, but the store has no online shopping.
Business has been better this year compared to the previous couple when the pandemic kept more people home. She kept the store open during the height of the pandemic because she considered it to be a “spiritual necessity.” She even brought orders to cars in the parking lot.
Her husband, John Garofoli, helps out at times and their 12-year-old granddaughter, Nicolina Pasquale, assists in the store on Saturdays. Veronica Montiverdi works twice a week.
Mrs. Boucher-Garofoli’s sister, Michele Sargent, worked as a bookkeeper at the store for 35 years before she passed away in 2019.
Mrs. Boucher-Garofoli’s daughter Jonelle and son Matthew set up a display of Nativity scenes with Fontanini figurines for each Christmas.
Advent wreaths and candles are always big sellers this time of year, but Mrs. Boucher-Garodfoli said the store sells more angels and more gifts for memorials than in the past.
The store’s motto is “Visit Boucher’s - You’ll Feel Better.” Mrs. Boucher-Garofoli also feels better.
“This has made me more spiritual,” she said. “I’ve always believed in a deep faith in God, but I never expressed it much. It was always inside. Now I can freely talk about it. God had a plan just for us being here.”
   
 
St. Anne Shrine gift shop open every day
 
 
BY BILL DOYLE
CFP CORRESPONDENT
 
Pat Beu, manager of the St. Anne Shrine Gift Shop in Sturbridge for 12 years, said business is good in the spring around the time of first Communions and confirmations, and all year round for baptisms, and picks up at Christmastime.
“A lot of people like to get at least something religious for Christmas,” Mrs. Beu said, “to remind you what it’s all about, that it’s not just Santa Claus, it’s the birth of Christ. Even if it’s a small item, people like to come in and purchase something for the kids to be reminded of that.”
Mrs. Beu said that in early November St. Anne Shrine Gift Shop began selling Advent calendars and candles and even a few wreaths. Nativity figurines, especially Mary, Jesus and Joseph, are also big sellers. So are rosaries and St. Christopher or Sacred Heart visor clips for automobiles.
“Those are popular especially when the youngsters are getting their licenses,” she said. “Grandmas are in here buying the visor clips to protect them.”
Mrs. Beu said that people who have lost loved ones often purchase ornaments or crosses with cardinals on them.
“The cardinal for a lot of people is a symbol of a visitor from heaven,” she said. “People love to remember about their loved ones during the holiday season.”
She said children enjoy ornaments with Baby Jesus and such books as “24 Christmas Stories,” “The Wise Men Who Found Christmas,” and “First Christmas.” Books range from $1.99 to $17.99.
The profits from the gift shop support St. Anne-St. Patrick Parish in Sturbridge.
People can purchase items at St. Anne Shrine Gift Shop in person at 16 Church St., Sturbridge, or by calling the shop at 508-347-7461. Items cannot be purchased online.
“I’d like to see that for our future,” Mrs. Beu said. “We get calls from Texas and different parts of the United States and they’ll ask us to mail holy oil, holy water, a medal of St. Anne, and we’re always willing to do that.”
St. Anne Shrine Gift Shop is open from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. seven days a week and Mrs. Beu works six of those days.
“It’s wonderful,” she said. “You meet the nicest people. Sometimes we’re a listening ear for somebody who needs to talk. They come to walk the grounds and do the Stations [of the Cross] and they stop in the gift shop. Hopefully, we have what they want. If not, we will try to get it for them.”
The shop sells Bibles and books about such saints as Padre Pio, St. Francis and Mother Teresa. There are even books to help people struggling with depression and thoughts of suicide.
“People who aren’t even Catholic come,” she said, “and they need something for a friend who’s ill.”
Mrs. Beu said the gift shop registers the names of customers and their loved ones on the parish prayer line.
“I always tell them,” she said, “even if they can’t come in, just call us and we’ll get the person’s name out. We all need prayers at one time or another in our lives.”