I need some tips

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Little_Katie

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Hi, my name is Katie.

I live in Germany on an Air Force Base with my husband. Here on the base we attend mass at a Chapel. Chapels are very different from your usual parish communities, as we have to share the building with other religions and their communities. So the building itself lacks a lot of things one would be used to seeing as a Catholic (such as a tabernacle and the red candles etc).

The Protestant community here is very active and has many ministries to offer and ways to get involved. It breaks my heart that our Catholic community is very… well to be honest there isn’t much of one at all… it’s very dead. There are very few ministries, if any, to get involved with.

We have a group called “Catholic Men of the Chapel” which is a men’s group. I am not sure what they do.

We used to have a “Catholic Women of the Chapel” group but they currently do not have a president and that seems to have made the group stop all activity.

I am thinking of requesting to fill the position so I can try and breath a little bit of life back into the community.

But I am at a loss as to what kind of meetings or functions I would organize for a Catholic Women’s group. There are a lot of things we COULD do and I think that’s why I have a hard time thinking of what to specifically focus on.

Has anyone here ever been in charge of a Ladies Group for your Parish?? If so what kinds of things did you do at meetings and how often did you meet?

Any tips on what I could plan for a Ladies Group??

Also, I am only 20- do you think that this might turn some of the ladies away from joining? I must emphasize that you standardly don’t see anyone even close to my age in the parish. There’s a horrible generation gap… You see parents and their children, but almost never anyone between the ages of 18 and 30. It’s like all young single people decide to suddenly leave the church until they have their own kids… Don’t know if this is the case everywhere, but it certainly is here… So I am not sure how serious the other Ladies would take me for. But it’s been several months and NO ONE is offering to fill this position.

I attend several of the protestant functions for fellowship and it just isn’t the same. I really want to help our Catholic community grow as a community and not just a bunch of strangers who end up in the same room once a week for mass…
 
First, I hope that you and your husband are well, so far away from home. I am a Mary lover as you can tell from my name, and hope that every Catholic also understands all the blessings that come from being devoted to Mary as well as the gift of her appearance at Fatima to 70,000 people in 1917 to bless the world. At Fatima, Sister Lucy also said, “The Most Holy Virgin in these last times in which we live has given a new efficacy to the recitation of the Rosary to such an extent that there is no problem, no matter ho difficult is, whether temporal or above all, spiritual, in the personal life of each one of us, of our families, of the families of the world, or of the religious communities, or even of the life of peoples and nations that cannot be solved by the Rosary. There is no problem I tell you, no matter how difficult is is, that we cannot resolve by the prayer of the Holy Rosary. With the Holy Rosary we sill save ourselves, we will sanctify ourselves, we will console Our Lord and obtain the salvation of many souls.”

However, it is especially important for us as women to venerate Mary and to imitate her virtues: love, purity, faith, humility, obedience. How about leading the ladies in prayer, the rosary and perhaps the Divine Office, leading the ladies in imitation of the holy female saints such as Mary, St. Therese of Liseux and St. Monica if you need more than the Blessed Mother 😛 - personally I rely totally on her copying such great saints as: St. Padre Pio, St. Louis De Montfort, and St. Maximilian Maria in their total dependence -, and then sharing and support of each other?? I was in a small faith group once and I found the friendship within that group to be an invaluable source of strength. 🙂 😃 Books that I have found useful in my own prayer life: Secret of the Rosary (St. Louis de Montfort), True Devotion to Mary (St. Louis de Montfort), and Secret of a Soul (St. Theresa of Liseux), The Way of Perfection (St. Theresa of Avila)

Hail Mary full of grace the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus. Holy Mary mother of God pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen
 
Hi Katie!
***How about a bible study? ***
It can be as informal as just discussing daily/weekly readings and how they touch you or apply to your lives.
Other suggestions are :
Praying the Rosary…
***You can form/modify a BLOCK ROSARY GROUP ***http://www.blockrosary.com/
or just get together to pray it weekly.
***You can also make your own roasries and send them to troops: ***http://www.olrm.org/ inexpensive (Plastic beads/cord)
Or how about a CATHOLIC BOOK CLUB?
Reading and discussing books (read them together; assign so many chapters / week etc)
I see you have a baby coming soon (if I am reading your signature right).
Your group could include the little ones with various activities depending on ages, or just be a mother’s group.
***Don’t forget the coffee and goodies; each can take turns baking etc 😉 ***
Just some ideas that popped into my head reading your post…
***Be assured of my prayers for you, your baby, and hubby! 🙂 ***

***God bless you † ***
 
AveSantaMaria said:
First, I hope that you and your husband are well, so far away from home. I am a Mary lover as you can tell from my name, and hope that every Catholic also understands all the blessings that come from being devoted to Mary as well as the gift of her appearance at Fatima to 70,000 people in 1917 to bless the world. At Fatima, Sister Lucy also said, “The Most Holy Virgin in these last times in which we live has given a new efficacy to the recitation of the Rosary to such an extent that there is no problem, no matter ho difficult is, whether temporal or above all, spiritual, in the personal life of each one of us, of our families, of the families of the world, or of the religious communities, or even of the life of peoples and nations that cannot be solved by the Rosary. There is no problem I tell you, no matter how difficult is is, that we cannot resolve by the prayer of the Holy Rosary. With the Holy Rosary we sill save ourselves, we will sanctify ourselves, we will console Our Lord and obtain the salvation of many souls.”

However, it is especially important for us as women to venerate Mary and to imitate her virtues: love, purity, faith, humility, obedience. How about leading the ladies in prayer, the rosary and perhaps the Divine Office, leading the ladies in imitation of the holy female saints such as Mary, St. Therese of Liseux and St. Monica if you need more than the Blessed Mother 😛 - personally I rely totally on her copying such great saints as: St. Padre Pio, St. Louis De Montfort, and St. Maximilian Maria in their total dependence -, and then sharing and support of each other?? I was in a small faith group once and I found the friendship within that group to be an invaluable source of strength. 🙂 😃 Books that I have found useful in my own prayer life: Secret of the Rosary (St. Louis de Montfort), True Devotion to Mary (St. Louis de Montfort), and Secret of a Soul (St. Theresa of Liseux), The Way of Perfection (St. Theresa of Avila)

Hail Mary full of grace the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus. Holy Mary mother of God pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen
Click to expand...
I do like the idea on planning the rosary for some meetings, but I think I want to expand and do a lot of things. I like your idea about talking about various saints.
 
Gail_OCDS said:
Hi Katie!
***How about a bible study? ***
It can be as informal as just discussing daily/weekly readings and how they touch you or apply to your lives.
Other suggestions are :
Praying the Rosary…
***You can form/modify a BLOCK ROSARY GROUP ***http://www.blockrosary.com/
or just get together to pray it weekly.
***You can also make your own roasries and send them to troops: ***http://www.olrm.org/ inexpensive (Plastic beads/cord)
Or how about a CATHOLIC BOOK CLUB?
Reading and discussing books (read them together; assign so many chapters / week etc)
I see you have a baby coming soon (if I am reading your signature right).
Your group could include the little ones with various activities depending on ages, or just be a mother’s group.
***Don’t forget the coffee and goodies; each can take turns baking etc 😉 ***
Just some ideas that popped into my head reading your post…
***Be assured of my prayers for you, your baby, and hubby! 🙂 ***

***God bless you † ***
Click to expand...
Thanks for your tips!! I’ll probably try all of these things at one point or another if I am lucky enough to get the position.

I’m also thinking of possibly setting it up so that a different lady or two take turns being baby sitters for the rest of the group since we will probably have access to the nursery. I know myself as well as several others have babies/chidren that we can’t leave at home. So maybe it can kind of be a moms group too.
 
I am in two different groups that both say the Scriptural Rosary. One meets once a week, at my home. This has been going on for ten years. Before the prayers we mention our petitions. Then we start with the Scriptural Rosary, each taking a turn with a decade. After that someone leads with the Litany of the Blessed Virgin.

After that it is sharing time, and refreshments. Other members of the group can come up with ideas as you go along. Usually, women like to get together regularly for something like this.
 
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