2023_10_16 - TASTE Program

Dear Ladies and Friends of TASTE,

ESSENTIAL INFORMATION
- TASTE continues this Thursday with a talk by Joni Seith. Invite a friend!
- This week is our Brown Bag Lunch. Please bring your lunch so we can have more time to talk together.
- The video, reflection questions, and other material from last week's talk can be found HERE.
- Sign-up for our Pray for Priests Spiritual Adoption Program HERE
- For our latest information, follow us now on FACEBOOK

PRAY FOR PRIESTS — One of our three TASTE missions is to encourage priests in their ministry. Our "Pray for Priests Program" enables this by assigning a specific priest and/or Servant of the Lord Sister to each woman to spiritually adopt and pray for during the year. To sign-up to pray for a Priest and/or Sister, click on this LINK. The date of our formal ceremony where we take a picture of all women holding their prayer card will be October 26, 2023.

LAST WEEK — Last week we welcomed back Fr. Virginus Osuagwu as he gave his 4th talk entitled "Be Transformed by the Eucharist." Father inspired us to: 1) get to know the Word of God, 2) listen, learn, and apply this knowledge, 3) prepare ourselves with a proper disposition to receive, and 4) pray and have a relationship with God — all so that we may truly encounter Jesus in the Eucharist, and be transformed by Him. Father made great use of scripture from both the Old and New Testament. ... MORE

NEW TALK — This week, we welcome Joni Seith as she gives a talk entitled "Redemptive Suffering."

THIS WEEK'S DISCUSSION — We will discuss Fr. Virginus Osuagwu's talk entitled "Be Transformed by the Eucharist." The video, reflection questions and other related material can be found HERE. The Zoom small group meets on the following Tuesday morning. Details on how to join can be found in a link at the bottom of this message.

PRAY FOR PEACE — The Latin Catholic patriarch of Jerusalem (Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa) has called for a day of prayer and fasting on Tuesday, Oct. 17, for peace and reconciliation in the Holy Land. Additionally, this same Cardinal offered to exchange himself for hostage children held by Hamas! Please join Catholics around the world who have pledged to fast for peace in solidarity.

WOMEN'S CONFERENCE — TASTE Speaker Fr. Virginus Osuagwu is hosting "The Woman Project International Conference" at Church of the Resurrection the evenings of Oct. 19, 20, and the morning of Oct. 21. Three TASTE Speakers will be featured: Fr. Virginus, Mary Lenaburg, and Sam Fatziner. For dates, times, and other details, please see the attached flyer. The Eventbrite link to register is HERE

PRAYER REQUESTS — Please continue to pray for our TASTE program, our speakers, and the logistics of offering childcare this coming year. This week, please pray for: 1) Cynthia Bandong, one of our TASTE sisters, who was recently diagnosed with breast cancer for the 2nd time. Please pray for God's grace and strength to sustain her during her cancer treatments, 2) Fr. Larry Swink as he has left his two parishes in southern Maryland and returned to Washington, DC for medical reasons, 3) Susan Conroy as she continues to have medical issues, 4) Kate Christianson for eradication of her cancer and overall health improvement, 5) God's complete physical and spiritual healing for Helen Griffith's brother-in-law Rod, 6) Kara Helfenbein's daughter Ellie Carter for healing from complications of a bone marrow treatment for AML, 7) Michele Cardamone's mother (Dorothy Cardamone) who is suffering from congestive heart failure, and 8) peace and comfort to the families of each of the people mentioned above. New prayer requests can be sent to Joy Parker at joyparker73@gmail.com.

Blessings,

Joy, Michele, Karen, and Helen

Jesus, I trust in You!

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CARRY-OVERS - The below information is carried over from the last email.

NEW THEME — In the spirit of continuing our theme on the Eucharist, our 2023/2024 theme will be "Abide in My Eucharistic Heart." Additionally, each year we attach a scripture verse or Saint quote to our theme. This year, our quote is from St. Teresa of Calcutta: "When you look at the Crucifix, you understand how much Jesus loved you then. When you look at the Sacred Host, you understand how much Jesus loves you now. It was selected to highlight: 1) Jesus' Real Presence in the Eucharist, 2) His unfathomable love for us, (His Bride, the Church), and 3) how it increases our unity with Him and the Body of Christ.

THEME INFLUENCES — In preparation for selecting our new theme and quote, the following inputs were amongst those that helped to guide us. First, Fr. Mike Schmitz’ Corpus Christi homily was centered on that theme (VIDEO). Second, an article entitled "Msgr. James Shea on Evangelizing in a Post-Christian Society, Belief in the Invisible World, and Utopias" addressed our theme and our role in evangelization (ARTICLE). Third, Fr. Mattia from St. Mary of the Mills presented 4 talks on the Eucharist. TALK1 TALK2 TALK3 TALK4

FACEBOOK — We just re-launched our FACEBOOK presence and intend to keep it up-to-date with useful information about our TASTE Program as well as other interesting Catholic information and events. Follow us on FACEBOOK.

SPEAKER LINE-UP — As usual, our speaker line-up looks amazing with quite a diverse set of priests, deacons, religious sisters, educators, and authors. If you would like to read about our upcoming speakers, click HERE. If you would like to learn about the titles of our upcoming talks, click HERE.

INVITE A FRIEND - It is We encourage you to invite a friend regardless of where they are on their faith journey. If they are interested, please also encourage them to register. Attached is a POSTCARD that you can text, email, or print as an invitation to others.

REGISTRATION — Many of you have registered already, so thank you. If you have not yet, please help us plan for this upcoming semester by registering using this LINK. Even if you attended last year, please register for this upcoming 2023-2024 year. If you can't remember whether you have registered or if you need to edit any of your responses, see your email receipt with subject line: TASTE REGISTRATION -- 2023-2024. If you have deleted or lost your email receipt, simply respond to this email and Joy can help you.

CHILD CARE — We are so excited to have the Sisters of the Servants of the Lord back with us providing TASTE for Tots, our Virtus certified child care program. Given that this will allow young mothers to come to TASTE who may not have been able to attend in the past couple of years, please help us share the word. This is a beautiful opportunity for moms to have a mini-retreat each week! Please also spread the word that moms may bring their non-walking infants to the Chapel with them for small group discussions and our talks. We love babies and children!

PARKING — For the 2023-2024 season, parking will be available at the St Mary of the Mills School/Church parking lot, Keesler Center parking lot, Phelps Center parking lot, and street parking.

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