Welcome to our church

“Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Community” has a very special welcome sign at their church. This is what welcome is about....

We extend a special welcome to those who are single, married, divorced, gay, filthy rich, dirt poor, yo no habla Ingles. We extend a special welcome to those who are crying new-borns, skinny as a rail or could afford to lose a few pounds.

We welcome you if you can sing like Andrea Bocelli or like our pastor who can’t carry a note in a bucket. You’re welcome here if you’re “just browsing,” just woke up or just got out of jail. We don’t care if you’re more Catholic than the Pope, or haven’t been in church since little Joey’s Baptism.

We extend a special welcome to those who are over 60 but not grown up yet, and to teenagers who are growing up too fast. We welcome soccer moms, NASCAR dads, starving artists, tree-huggers, latte-sippers, vegetarians, junk-food eaters. We welcome those who are in recovery or still addicted. We welcome you if you’re having problems or you’re down in the dumps or if you don’t like “organized religion,” we’ve been there too.

If you blew all your offering money at the dog track, you’re welcome here. We offer a special welcome to those who think the earth is flat, work too hard, don’t work, can’t spell, or because grandma is in town and wanted to go to church.

We welcome those who are inked, pierced or both. We offer a special welcome to those who could use a prayer right now, had religion shoved down your throat as a kid or got lost in traffic and wound up here by mistake. We welcome tourists, seekers and doubters, bleeding hearts … and you!

thought for the day

The "job" of the church is not to convert the world, but to love and serve the world as Jesus did. This would also indicate that our "job" is not primarily to "get new members," but to love and care for people in our communities.  ( Anon.)

Meister Eckhart.

A pear seed grows into a pear tree, and a hazelnut seed grows into a hazelnut tree and a seed of God grows into God.  God does not ask anything else of you but to let yourself go and  let God be God in you.  
Meister Eckhart (c.1260 – c. 1327)

What is the church?

Meanings of the word church from book: A A New Pocket Dictionary (A dictionary of thoughts and meanings according to everyone but Webster)  by Lindy Black

1.Not a rapport with the status quo. - Harvey Cox; 

 

2. A hospital for sinners, not a sanctuary for saints, 

3. The church is YOU; - Lindy Black

4. A chosen race, a royal priesthood, a dedicated nation, - 1Pet.2:9  

 

5. Church is a work of faith (not a plan for success ) - Tom Vanderstadt);    

 

6. The body of Christ Christian theology  

7. The Church is an organism that grows best in an alien society. - Stacey Woods  

8. A community of walking wounded.  

9 What you have left when the building burns down and the preacher leaves town. 

 

10. Haven in a heartless world.   -  Coffin  

11. Not  a moral exterminator. 

12. The great lost and found. 

13 The Church is for the perfecting of the members not a rest home for the perfect.  - Elder Neal A. Maxwell (1926–2004), 

14.  The conscience of the state…  - Martin Luther King Jr. 

 

15. Provides opportunities for people to touch the infinite center of all things and to grow into all they are destined to be.  -  Spong