Dear Lourdes Community,
In the midst of this international health crisis, the wide world has suddenly shrunk to our individual homes, and justified fears preoccupy us. We find ourselves this Fourth Sunday of Lent in need of spiritual sustenance and thank God we have the Liturgy of the Word, complete with a special Gospel reading and preaching in the PDF file below. Included here also are a few music selections to soothe your spirit.
Since it’s possible we’ll be hunkered down until Pentecost, if not beyond, I invite you to be in solidarity with the first community of disciples who huddled in the Upper Room. Those weeks of spiritual quarantine must have been filled with conflicting emotions, not to mention the disciples probably getting on each other’s last nerves. Someone must have gone out to bring back food, while others prayed. Then at last – fifty days later – the Spirit came down upon them and sent them forth to preach, teach, heal and prophesy.
My prayer is that Lourdes will have a New Pentecost when all this is but a cautionary memory. But until we are with each other again, we have a fiscal challenge as a church community. The church has bills that will show up, whether we can or can’t show up. Additionally, we’re committed to the very humane policy of the Archdiocese that “no employee experience a loss in pay due to an emergency closing”.
I appeal to you to please keep sharing your weekly offering so that we can pay our hardworking staff and we can meet financial obligations. Feel free to try online giving (here). Or you may send in your gifts via USPS, Our Lady of Lourdes, 25 Boulevard NE, Atlanta, GA 30312.
Gratefully yours in Christ,
Father Jeffery
Fourth Sunday of Lent Home Resources (PDF)
“Jehovah Sabaoth” – by Donald Lawrence | Soloist T’Arica Crawford and Our Lady of Lourdes Choir
“Amazing Grace” | Dukes of Dixieland with Moses Hogan’s New Orleans Gospel Choir
“Healing” Richard Smallwood with Vision live in Detroit