Union That Nothing Be Lost

“Union That Nothing Be Lost Sunday” is the 4th Sunday of Lent each year. The Union That Nothing Be Lost is the missionary association that was established by the Society of the Atonement in 1902.

Based upon the miracle of the five barley loaves and the two small fishes, it harkens back to Christ telling the disciples to “Gather up the fragments that remain that nothing be lost,” in John 6:12. Accordingly, each of the Twelve succeeded in filling his own basket, so that altogether there were twelve baskets of fragments that remained, after everyone had eaten their fill.

Rev. Paul Wattson, SA, Servant of God, received a word from the Lord about establishing this ministry and special time of prayer:

“It was on the Feast of St. Thomas the Apostle… that I woke up in my cell at five o’clock in the morning and there were in my mind the words, ‘Gather up the fragments that remain that nothing be lost.’ While putting on my habit to go down to chapel for the morning devotions, the entire conception of the Union with its rule of prayer and its rule of action was formulated in my mind, where it lay dormant for a period of seven years, and then, suddenly, in 1911, on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, the Union was born and became shortly thereafter an active agency.”

Fr. Paul realized that if U.S. Christians could gather up what would normally go to waste – food, money, clothing and other such resources – foreign missions would have everything they needed to spread the Gospel. Indeed, we have such abundance that entire cities could be fed if we merely gave the money we waste on convenience.

The Union helps train Christians in the mindset of “gathering the scraps” so every bit of God’s gifts to us can be used for His kingdom.

A great example of the spirit of the Union was found in the person of John Reid of Waterbury, Conn., who would become a Tertiary of the Society, and later known as Brother Philip. His initial gift was $50, but then he followed this with a gift of $5,000 to build St. John’s Atonement College atop Graymoor Mountain. The goal of the college was to educate young men in the seminary. He was the perfect observer of the rules of the Union and worked to model self-denial as Christ did. This video explains more about his life and the good work of the Union: