THAT MAN
IS
YOU!
An Invitation to Share in
I
t’s often too easy to get wrapped up in the demands of work and home. In turn, it can be difficult to find the time to focus on faith and fellowship. And it can be particularly challenging for men to gather with those who are like-minded and have time to share the Catholic faith. Here at Our Lady of Lourdes, we have an opportunity for men to gather on Friday mornings, share their faith and socialize. That Man is You! — or TMIY — is an opportunity for fellowship, a video on a faith topic and small-group discussions. Our parish group uses this program through Paradisus Dei, a nonprofit organization that provides programming to help families and men discover the “superabundance of God.” Participants and Core Team members are thankful to be back to meeting in person after they moved to Zoom for a time during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Each Friday, about 25 men gather beginning at 6 a.m. to socialize.
Programming starts at 6:30 a.m. and wraps up by 7:30 a.m. This is the fourth year of TMIY. Core Team Member Domenic Coletti helped bring this program to Our Lady of Lourdes after several people mentioned it to him. Finally, Joan Rose Brown gave him the extra drive to get it started. “The impetus in starting this was the Holy Spirit,” Domenic says. “It was fortuitous that it kept getting brought up to me.” Once a Core Team was identified, the momentum was there to start this group. Domenic knows it can often be difficult for men to find other men who share the faith. As our world becomes more and more secularized, it becomes more challenging to make authentic friendships. People are busy and modern technology has changed the way we communicate. In the face of all of these challenges, a huge draw of this group is the fellowship aspect.
Men gather for a recent TMIY session.
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