Saint Anthony’s Catholic Church in Hillsdale will be hosting Fathers of Mercy priest, Rev. Louis Guardiola, at a parish mission this week to share the Catholic faith and how to grow in it. The first lecture of the series will be Sunday night at 7 p.m., with lectures at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. throughout the week. The last lecture is on Thursday at 7 p.m.
The Fathers of Mercy is a Roman-Catholic group of priests that travels and preaches missions to different parishes. Guardiola will be coming to Hillsdale and speaking on Catholic beliefs and sacraments, including the Eucharist and confession.
St. Anthony’s chose to host the Fathers of Mercy based on a childhood experience of one of the church members, according to parish council member and event organizer Kelly Cole.
Cole said a parish mission is intended to be a quick and local renewal of spiritual life and reflection, a “retreat come to daily life.” Cole said St. Anthony’s has not hosted a mission in the past eight years she has attended.
“We wanted to do this to inspire our parishioners to grow in their faith and to take time to reflect on the treasure that is the Catholic faith, but we also are inviting anyone interested in learning more about Catholicism to attend any or all of the talks,” Cole said. “We hadn’t had a focused time of adult formation like this in some time, so we made it a goal for this year.”
The subjects of the talks came with the speaker, Cole said, and she said from listening to recordings of him, she finds his speaking to be “very accessible while also inspiring for all of those seeking to grow closer to Christ.”
Elizabeth Bianchi, sophomore and Parish council member, agreed, saying the event will be easy for anyone to understand.
“This particular event is for both Catholics and non-Catholics,” she said. “They are supposed to be accessible lectures, not too high-intellectual, but just scriptural readings, very plainly spoken but for a wide variety of audiences.”
