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Our Lady of Lourdes Parish |
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| The Ozanam Group | |
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The Ozanam Group was formed from the old SVP (Saint Vincent De Paul) Society group in the parish. The group is named after Blessed Frederic Ozanam who was born in Milan in 1813 into a family of committed Christians. At the age of 11 he was sent to the Collègè Royal in Lyon to continue his studies where, due to the political situation at the time, he had to fight for his beliefs. Completing his studies, he was sent to study law at University in Paris where he spent much of his time with leaders of the neo-Catholic movement. He took up journalism and contributed to L’Univers, a French Roman Catholic newspaper. |
| Realising that it was
insufficient to write about the lack of help given to the poor and
destitute, together with a group of like minded students, he formed the
Conference of Charity which provided food, clothing and bread and meat
tokens to relieve poverty and the moral degradation that goes with it. In
1833 they adopted as their patron Saint Vincent de Paul who set the
precedent of practical charity by visiting the poor, sick and the
imprisoned. In the prayers he has handed down we ask God to grant that
“United in prayer and action we may be a visible sign of Christ” and
that we should “bring his love to those we visit sharing their burdens
and joys as true friends”. |
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The main work of the group in this parish is visiting elderly parishioners, the housebound, those who are ill, and providing transport to Mass. The group provides practical help as well as just a friendly chat with those who are housebound or alone. Visits are also made to parishioners in hospital, residential homes and nursing homes. We provide financial help to our twinned conference in Kerala, India, with whom we correspond periodically. We have also provided financial support for the national SVP camp in Mablethorpe, which provides a week's holiday for children who would not otherwise go away.
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find out more about the Ozanam Group , contact John Rimmer.
For more information about the Saint Vincent de Paul society nationally, visit the Society's website.
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