LEWISTON — All three of Lewiston’s Catholic churches plan to join for a three-day, four-night event aimed at encouraging people to pray in their homes.
“Too many people don’t incorporate their faith into their daily lives,” Monsignor Marc Caron said. “Faith tends to be compartmentalized. For many, religious life is, maybe, what I do on Sunday morning, but it may not have an impact every day.”
The retreat, or parish mission, is sort of a Catholic equivalent of a protestant church’s tent revival, said Caron, who leads Lewiston’s Prince of Peace Parish.
A similar event last year drew about 400 people per night, Caron said. This year, dozens of people are lending a hand. But most local Catholics haven’t made the parish mission a priority.
“In the old days, they were very big efforts,” said Caron, a Lewiston native who attended Holy Cross Church as a boy. “Often, they were multiple weeks, because one week would be just for men of the parish, and another week would be for women.”
This year’s event will begin with speakers at Masses during the weekend of Nov. 2 and 3. It will continue Sunday through Wednesday with 6:30 p.m. services at Holy Family Church on Sabattus Street.
There will also be weekday services, beginning at 9:30 a.m. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at Holy Cross Church on Lisbon Street.
The aim is to lead Catholics to a path.
“They don’t know how to integrate prayer and the faith life into the home,” Caron said. There will also be discussions aimed at addressing sources of pain in the home, from divorce to chemical addiction and abuse.
“We have no illusions that three or four days solves all of that,” he said. “But it is to give people an opportunity and an opening to begin a spiritual process that will hopefully lead them and their family.”
It’s the kind of initiative that follows recent comments by Maine Bishop Richard Malone, who implored local families to do a better job of making the church a more prominent part of their lives.
“We’ve got to get more vigorous,” Malone said in August at the closure of St. Louis Church in Auburn. “We’ve got to become more effective at changing the secular culture around us. We’ve got to become more confident that God will give us the grace that guides us to go about His work with hearts full of hope.”
Participating churches are the Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul on Ash Street, Holy Cross and Holy Family.
For more information, call the parish office at 777-1200, or email pop@portlanddiocese.org
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