Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church Newsletter — March 2022

MAR 2022

Our Lady of Lourdes CATHOLIC CHURCH

Meet the Middle School and High School Youth Ministries Building Community and Forming Disciples Through Service and Fun

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outh minister Alicia Clark is passionate about leading young people to Christ and is excited to grow not one, but two, youth groups here at Our Lady of Lourdes.

“These ministries are about lasting community, building up the domestic church, and the salvation of souls,” says Alicia, who has witnessed the power of building community among the youth and how it translates to growth in faith. “It’s great to see the kids grow together and strengthen their relationships within the context of Christ.”

The newly revamped middle school and high school youth ministries are now called Mustard Seed and Verso L’Alto, The newly revamped middle school and high school youth ministries are now called respectively. In addition to these youth groups, Our Lady of Mustard Seed and Verso L’Alto, respectively.

Lourdes also offers a youth ministry geared toward our Hispanic community called RESPETO. Named after Christ’s parable about the Kingdom of God, the Mustard Seed group welcomes middle school-aged kids to experience Christ in a fun and social setting. The group meets every Sunday from 6:15 to 7:30 p.m. in the Fallon Center.

The night typically starts with an icebreaker to energize and captivate the group, then the bulk of the continued on page 5

Entering into Lent How We Can Make the Most of This Solemn, Sacred Season

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ow might we make the most of this solemn, sacred season? There are three main aspects to Lent in which the Church asks us to engage — prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. We don’t need to take on many things in order to make this season worthwhile, but it is important to consider how we might deepen our faith lives during this time of year.

Perhaps we might be inspired to take each aspect of Lent to heart, and pick something we can do within each category, so to speak, in order to truly enter into this sacred season. Each one — prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, provides us an opportunity to grow spiritually and prepare for Easter.

Prayer Let us start with prayer. In order to grow our personal and communal prayer lives, we need not spend the entire day in the chapel. Rather, perhaps consider adding one new devotion to your prayer life.

For example, if you aren’t already spending time each day in prayer, maybe it’s time to start spending five minutes each morning with the Lord while enjoying your breakfast and coffee. If you usually start your day by opening your computer and phone to check messages and emails, start instead with a morning prayer or Scripture, offering your day up for the Lord and whatever may come. If you already have a regular prayer routine, perhaps you might consider adding a daily Divine Mercy chaplet at 3 p.m. during the hour of mercy, or a family Rosary after supper cleanup.

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Fasting While we often think of food when it comes to fasting, there are other ways we can fast during Lent. Fasting means abstaining from something in order to grow spiritually. This could mean giving up Facebook or cutting down on internet use. Perhaps you might consider fasting from watching your favorite TV series and instead watch daily Mass.

Another idea of fasting is giving up takeout or delivery and instead using that extra money to give to the poor.

Almsgiving Giving alms may be the less obvious of the three but is no less important for growing spiritually. Giving alms can mean a number of things. Perhaps this means giving a bit of extra money to charity during these 40 days. It might also mean visiting with a grieving friend, listening, and helping out those in need. You might also consider stepping out and helping in a new capacity, whether in a new ministry or volunteer effort.

Lent affords us a wonderful opportunity to renew our spiritual lives. While it may not always seem so easy, it is necessary to use this time to prepare our hearts and lives for Easter. We might be tempted to simply look ahead to the joy of Easter without considering the sacrifice of Lent, but in that way, we would be missing out on the chance to grow, learn, give, and pray. We cannot have the Resurrection without the Cross. Lent is a reminder not to be filled with sadness and dread over our sacrifices, but to take up practices that help us engage in our spiritual lives, purify ourselves with God’s help and rejoice when Easter comes around.

A LETTER FROM OUR PASTOR

THE JOY OF LENT Dear Parishioners,

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ave you ever thought about the joy in sacrifice that Lent provides? Most of us don’t delight in sacrifice; in fact, in our daily lives, we often do our best to avoid challenges and practices that push us outside of our comfort zones.

In Christianity, there is a beautiful irony between joy and sacrifice, and we are presented with a wonderful opportunity to embrace this uniquely during Lent. In one of his Lenten messages, Pope Francis shared, “Lent is a fitting time for self-denial; we would do well to ask ourselves what we can give up in order to help and enrich others by our own poverty.”

While giving up sweets in favor of healthy snacks for Lent is a common and noble endeavor, the goal of Lent should not only be a spiritual excuse to lose weight! In choosing acts of self-denial, we are saying “no” to things in order to get into the practice of saying “no” when inclined towards sin, ultimately deepening our faith and our relationship with the Lord.

Victory can be found when we deny ourselves and pick up our crosses and hardships in order to grow closer to Christ!

Therein lies the joy. When we grow closer to God by denying our will, we say “yes” to a life of abundance with Him. Our God is a benevolent God; He will not hold back His grace from

those who honor Him and choose challenging things to grow and give Him glory. Christ even tells us Himself, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Without question, Lent is a time for conscious penitence and spiritual preparation for Easter.

And it is important to remember that God loves us whether we make Lenten changes or not. At the same time, Lent provides us an opportunity to make God a greater part of our life, and to take our faith to new levels. Stewardship is a God-centered way of life — a spiritual way of living that, above all, acknowledges God’s presence in all we do.

Lent is a time for every one of us to do more than simply deny ourselves; we need to welcome God into our lives in greater ways so that when we get to Holy Week and Easter, we have an even greater appreciation for the sacrifice the Lord made for us. Talk about pure joy!

May you and your loved ones enjoy a holy and joyous Lenten journey.

In Christ,

Fr. Patrick Keane Pastor

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MEALS ON

Addressing an Important Need with Great Love

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hen we serve those in need, we serve our Lord.

We hear this very clearly in the Gospel of Matthew — “Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me” (Matthew 25:40).

Food is a basic need for everyone. For the sick, financially in need, or homebound, preparing a healthy meal can be a challenge. At Our Lady of Lourdes, we have a group that helps address this fundamental need through Meals on Wheels. On the second Wednesday of each month, a two-person volunteer team picks up about 10 hot meals and delivers them across Raleigh. A two-person team makes it easier because one person can drive and the other can navigate. The deliveries are listed in order for efficiency.

Tom Mitchell has coordinated this ministry at Our Lady of Lourdes for about 10 years.

“After I retired, the first thing I did was go volunteer with the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, then to the hospital and Meals on Wheels,” Tom says.

“These were always places where I wanted to help.”

Tom would like to add more teams to the Meals on Wheels volunteer list. People can volunteer, but not do deliveries every month. The deliveries begin at 10:30 a.m. and are usually done by noon. Some of the volunteers work full-time but have flexible jobs.

“This is very easy,” Tom says. “You pick up the hot meals and a list of addresses, drop the meal off, say ‘hello,’ and go to the next person.”

Tom loves volunteering with Meals on Wheels because it is simple and rewarding. He works to see the face of Christ in each person to whom he delivers.

Tom and Ann Mitchell often deliver meals together through Meals on Wheels.

He makes sure to tell everyone, “Have a blessed day!”

“It’s wonderful to get out and see people,” Tom says. “This may be the only contact they have in a day. After a while, you get to know them. It’s heartwarming.”

Tom has also been involved on the Our Lady of Lourdes Parish Council and Building Committee.

He also serves as an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion. Having been a member at Our Lady of Lourdes for more than 40 years with his wife, Ann, this parish is home to him — it’s important for him to be involved.

“I’ve made lifelong friends here,” he says. “It’s important to Ann and me that we do our part.”

“It’s wonderful to get out and see people. This may be the only contact they have in a day. After a while, you get to know them. It’s heartwarming.” - Tom Mitchell If you would like to learn more about volunteering with Meals on Wheels, please call Tom Mitchell at 919-673-9094.

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Meet the Middle School and High School Youth Ministries continued from front cover time is focused on community-building activities that are carefully crafted to teach the faith in a fun and enriching way.

“In the fall we learned about the virtues and highlighted the many liturgical feast days,” Alicia says.

“This spring, I plan to focus the lessons on the sacraments.”

During one of the Mustard Seed nights last fall, Alicia taught the middle schoolers how to pray with the Miraculous Medal.

“When I gave each kid a medal to keep as their own, it was amazing to see them get so excited about sacramentals,” Alicia says.

The high school group, Verso L’Alto, is also taking faith and community to the next level. The phrase, “verso l’alto” means “to the heights” in Italian and was coined by Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati — a young and adventurous man who was known for his devotion to Christ, his embodiment of the beatitudes, and his passion for the outdoors.

Following Blessed Pier’s audacious spirit, the high school group is often found on excursions and retreats. Recently the group went bowling and discussed different doctrines of the faith that the teens had questions about.

Currently, Verso L’Alto is meeting once a month and there are hopes to move toward weekly meetings.

Coming up, the high schoolers have several incredible retreat opportunities, where they can encounter Jesus and experience the joy and peace that only He can provide. Partnering with Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral and St. Luke’s Parish, the Spring Retreat will be held March 18-21. There will also be a summer retreat and a fantastic opportunity for the teens to go to the Steubenville Youth Conference in Atlanta from July 8-10.

In addition to the weekly youth nights and excursions, both youth groups participate in a variety of service projects that make lasting impacts on the

The Hispanic Youth Group, RESPETO, which meets on Fridays from 6:30 to 9 p.m. at the school cafeteria, is a year-round program of 30 sessions.

local community and beyond.

“Operation Gratitude was a great success,” says Alicia, as she reflects on the service work that her youth group kids did in the fall. “For weeks the students wrote letters and made bracelets and scarves for soldiers and first responders.”

Those items were then donated in hopes of bringing joy to those on the front lines.

“Service is a big part of our youth group ministries. It is amazing to see how some kids really get involved.” Alicia says.

With our vibrant Hispanic population, RESPETO is also a thriving youth ministry in our parish. RESPETO, which is the Spanish word for respect, is a year-long program designed to foster Latino youth leadership formation.

The RESPETO youth group currently includes more than 50 members and meets on Fridays from 6:30 to 9 p.m. in the school cafeteria. It is a year-round program of 30 sessions and includes parenting sessions (parents and youth) every first Friday of the month.

The three youth ministries — Mustard Seed, Verso L’Alto, and RESPETO — are transforming the lives of those involved. Joining these groups is easy.

“Just show up,” Alicia says.

The groups use the “Remind: School Communication” app to communicate and plan upcoming events. To stay up to date with what is going on with these ministries, simply download the app on your phone for free and look up “@ollmsy” for information about the Mustard Seed group and “@ollhsyg” for the Verso L’Alto group.

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The Story of the

Annunciation of the Lord

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he Feast of the Annunciation, now recognized as a solemnity, is one of the most important in the Church calendar. First, it celebrates the actual Incarnation of Our Savior — the Word made flesh in the womb of His mother, Mary. Second, it is a principal Marian feast. Two other feasts honoring Our Lord’s mother, the Assumption (Aug. 15), and the Immaculate Conception (Dec. 8), are celebrated as Holy Days of Obligation in the United States. New Year’s Day, Jan. 1, is observed as a Solemnity of Mary.

The feast of the Annunciation was first celebrated around the fifth century. It is the reason why we celebrate Christmas on December 25. Christmas comes exactly nine months after the Archangel Gabriel invited the Virgin Mary to be the Mother of God, an event we commemorate on March 25.

The biblical account of the Annunciation is in the first chapter of the Gospel of St. Luke, which describes the news given to Mary that she was to become the mother of the Incarnation of God, records the “angelic salutation” of Gabriel to Mary, ‘Hail, thou who art highly favored. The Lord is with thee” (this is the origin of the repeated “Hail Mary” prayer of the Rosary) and Mary’s response to God’s will, “Let it be done to me according to thy word.”

Her exultant hymn, the Magnificat, found in Luke 1:46-55, has been part of the Church’s Liturgy of the Hours, at Vespers (evening prayer), and has been repeated nightly in churches, convents, and monasteries for many centuries.

On this special day, we reflect upon the incarnation of Jesus Christ in the womb of the Virgin Mary as the antecedent to the explosion of joy, caroling, gift-giving, eating, drinking, love, and family unity that surrounds the birth of the Savior. With the incarnation, God has become one of us. From all eternity God had decided that the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity should become human. Now, as Luke 1:26-38 tells us, the decision is being realized. The God-Man embraces all humanity, indeed all creation, to bring it to God in one great act of love. Because human beings have rejected God, Jesus will accept a life of suffering and an agonizing death: “No one has

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greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” ( John 15:13).

Mary has an important role to play in God’s plan. From all eternity, God destined her to be the mother of Jesus and closely related to Him in the creation and redemption of the world. We could say that God’s decrees of creation and redemption are joined in the decree of Incarnation. Because Mary is God’s instrument in the Incarnation, she has a role to play with Jesus in creation and redemption. It is a God-given role. It is God’s grace from beginning to end. Mary becomes the eminent figure she is only

by God’s grace. She is the empty space where God could act. Everything she is she owes to the Trinity.

Together with Jesus, the privileged and graced Mary is the link between heaven and earth. She is the human being who best, after Jesus, exemplifies the possibilities of human existence. She received into her lowliness the infinite love of God. She shows how an ordinary human being can reflect God in the ordinary circumstances of life. She exemplifies what the Church and every member of the Church is meant to become. She is the ultimate product of the creative and redemptive power of God. She manifests what the Incarnation is meant to accomplish for all of us.

The Women’s Ministry

A Valuable Opportunity to Connect and Build the Faith with One Another

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n his 1995 Letter to Women, St. John Paul II wrote, “Thank you, every woman, for the simple fact of being a woman! Through the insight which is so much a part of your womanhood, you enrich the world’s understanding and help to make human relations more honest and authentic” (2).

With this in mind, we recognize that the church is filled with women of all ages and stages of life. They are mothers, sisters, daughters, and friends. They are homemakers, professionals, and everything in between. Women are always doing the tasks that are in front of them and that is why it is crucial that they also nurture their spiritual life. In an effort to support and build up these women that St. John Paul II speaks of, we must create a community of support for them.

At Our Lady of Lourdes, the Women’s Ministry is seeking to do just that.

“I believe that where you have a strong women’s ministry, you have a strong parish,” says

Janine Sedore, coordinator for the Women’s Ministry. “Women lead their families. When you have a well-catechized mother, you have well-catechized children. They encourage their husbands to be more involved as well.”

As Janine points out, as women form these Catholic connections with each other, they can in turn rely on one another.

“In our groups, we have women of all ages,” she says. “This helps us by being able to draw on that wisdom and experience. We bolster each other’s faith. We hold each other accountable. It is very important to have other women on this journey with you. We need to feel that connection.”

Currently, the ministry hosts a Thursday Theologians group that meets after morning Mass in the Fallon Center. Attendees read the upcoming Sunday readings and discuss them to prepare for celebrating the Mass.

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In our groups, we have women of all ages. This helps us by being able to draw on that wisdom and experience. We bolster each other’s faith.

” Janine Sedore 07

2718 Overbrook Drive | Raleigh, North Carolina 27608 919-861-4600 | ourladyoflourdescc.org

The Women’s Ministry

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This ministry offers studies and events that are both academic and social in an effort to build that important community for the women of the parish. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, much of the ministry’s offerings have been limited.

“We are really planning a big launch of programs for the fall of 2022,” Janine says.

“My goal is to have studies offered for all levels of learners. There is often very little offered for the beginner and little offered for the well-informed. So we hope to have studies for women who are at every stage.”

The ministry also hopes to draw in the

moms of our school.

“They are an important part of our parish and we would like to see more of them involved in the women’s ministry,” Janine says. “We have had childcare offered for some events in the past. We have provided it, but the moms have had to pay for it. We are working on figuring out how best to make this work because it is important to us to have young women within the ministry as well.”

All women of the parish are invited to join in the Women’s Ministry, regardless of age, vocation, or job!

If you would like to more about the current offerings of the Women’s Ministry, please email Janine Sedore at Jmshides2@aol.com or contact the parish office at 919-861-4600.

Mass Times

SATURDAY VIGIL, 5:00 PM | SUNDAY, 9:00 AM, 11:30 AM, 1:30 PM Spanish, 5:00 PM MONDAY, 8:00 AM | TUE — FRI, 8:30 AM | THURSDAY, 6:30 PM Spanish Confession Times: WEDNESDAY, 12:00 PM | SATURDAY, 3:00 PM