ARTICLES

Roanoke Valley Parish Mission set March 21–25 for renewal

By Sandy Grecco
of The Catholic Virginian

The annual Roanoke Valleywide Parish Mission, to be held Sunday to Thursday, March 21–25, will be led this year by a team of a religious sister and two priests from the Thomas More Center for Preaching and Prayer.

Titled “Ephphetha! Open our Eyes — Help Us to See God’s Face,” the program will focus on a positive image of God and challenge the faithful to a more mature response to God’s word.

The mission will begin with team members speaking at Mass at each of the Roanoke Valley Catholic churches on Saturday and Sunday, March 20 and 21.

Mission sessions will kick off Sunday at 7 p.m. at St. Andrew’s in Roanoke and then will be held Monday through Thursday.

Daily sessions will be at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Salem with Mass each morning at 9 and sessions from 10 to noon. Evening sessions will be from 7 to 9 at Our Lady of Nazareth. The Thursday night gathering will be the Sacrament of Reconciliation, also beginning at 7 p.m.

Members of all the valley parishes and neighbors are encouraged to participate in this week of spiritual renewal of the Catholic faith community members. The priests have served widely, including Australia (where one of the Thomas More Centers is located) and the South Pacific. Father Champlin, who has been preaching for 40 years also has served in the U.S. and Africa; Father Punch, who joined the Dominican order in 1966, also served in Asia.

Sister Bukrey, a native of Wisconsin, was in education and joined the center’s preaching team in 1988.

The Thomas More Center was founded in 1979 “to revitalize Catholic parishes through effective proclamation of The Word of God.” Its ministry is particularly directed at parish mission and spiritual renewal programs.

The center’s literature explains that as many Catholics are uncertain about the role their faith plays in modern society, its program of “Spirituality for the New Millennium” offers parishes a time for updating and revitalization in the faith, based on teachings of the Church and a contemporary interpretation of Scripture.

Call OLPH, 540-387-0491, or OLN, 540-774-0066, by March 17 if babysitting is needed.

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