News from around Our Lady of Consolation Parish

Vote today for our choir

IMPORTANT !!! The members of our Perpetual Hope Gospel Choir are so happy to announce that we have been chosen to advance to Round 2 of the “How Sweet The Sound” – choir singing competition sponsored by Verizon. This is a fundraising opportunity that the choir has engaged. There will be serious competition among church choirs nationwide. There are a total of 3 competition rounds to the top. The top prize is $50,000. How can you help us achieve this goal? All of our family, church members, their friends, Facebook and other social network contacts can vote online for the Perpetual Hope Gospel Choir. Voting will begin on July 18^th through August 1^st. You must visit the web site: How Sweet the Sound to vote for the Perpetual Hope Gospel Choir. Your vote can help us advance to the live show! Remember the voting must be done online so please VOTE HERE. Contact Deborah Bond if you have any questions or for additional details at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Good bye and Welcome The Friars here at Consolation have been informed of the relocation of Brother Lombardo to the Friary at St. Thomas Aquinas here in Charlotte. This transfer will take place in early August. We will hate to see Brother's joyful spirit not around but we are happy that he will be able to touch another of our Capuchin parish communities. At the same time, we welcome Brother Doug Soik who will be joining us here at Consolation. Like Brother Lombardo, Brother Doug will also be in residence. He will be moving in the third week of July. The weekend of our August hospitality, August 14 & 15, we will welcome Brother Doug and wish Brother Lombardo well in his new assignment. Please plan on joining us.

Our newly formed Welcoming Committee has had a couple of meetings and has lots of great enthusiasm and great ideas. Anyone who would like to join us is welcome. Just call the parish office to sign up..

Our Parish Picnic was on June 27th and a great time was had by all. Over 250 people showed and food, wow, that seemed to keep multiplying but in the end, it all went. The winner of our "lottery tree" containing all the scratch-off tickets, over 200, was Marva Davenport. It was a great celebration of fellowship and the grounds were beautiful. Thanks to Wendy Cutting and her team on making it a great day.

An Adult Summer Enrichment program is taking place during the summer months. For a full schedule go to "Parish Life" and see topics and dates. (Schedule updated on July 15th)

Parish Files Update We recently entered into our system all the blue sheets that have been received. Unfortunately, there are a number of you who will be deleted from our records within the next couple of weeks. We hate to see you go but by your not turning in a new sheet, that tells us you no longer wish to be on our rolls. We hate to see many of you go, but we just don't have your information. Last chance. Remember, you need to be registered to be married here, be baptized, receive first Communion and Confirmation or to receive a letter so that you can act as a godparent or sponsor. You will also not be getting envelopes in the new year or the Catholic News and Herald. Sorry to see you go but we can only enter what we have. Fill out one of the blue sheets or download one here, fill it out and get it to us as soon as possible. Remember, you will not be registered until we get your form. We are still missing about 30 of you.

We had a wonderful turnout for our Pentecost International Day. Our parish is made up of people from many nations. Those who brought food for the celebration were from Togo, Congo, Nigeria, Liberia, Trinidad, Grenada, Haiti, Senegal, Puerto Rico, Panama, Ireland and of course the United States. What a wonderful spread of food and togetherness.

Our parish hosted its Inaugural Golf Tournament at The Tradition Golf Club on May 24th. Next years tournament is May 25, 2011. Mark your calendars today to be part of this great new tradition at OLC.

Faith Formation classes are over for the summer but if your child is planning to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation in the spring of 2011, you must contact Mr. Montae Monroe or Ms. Felicia Johnson to obtain the Confirmation Guide. This guide is available now and should be picked up by July 25th. The guide is a requirement for all candidates whether or not they attend Catholic school. There are questions in the Guide that are due in the fall of 2010 to determind the readiness of each candidate. You can contact Mr. Monroe at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or Felicia at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Young Adults Ministry Young Adults Ministry (YAM) is focused on developing faith, fellowship and community among the young adults of the parish. The meetings are open to all young adults in their 20's and 30's.

Bible Study Mondays at 7:00 pm in the Chapel; walk with Ed Hood through the pages of Scripture. They are taking a break right now and will return in September.

Minutes from Parish Council meetings can be read by going to Staff page and can be found under Parish Council or here.

Haiti, first hand. Chris Kouri, a parishioner here at Consolation, recently returned from Haiti. If you have a few minutes, read the paper from he and his friend. A real eye opener.

November 21st Brother Lombardo professed his final vows as a Capuchin Franciscan Friar here at Consolation. Pictures have been posted in the gallery.

Web site help: I am looking for a couple of people who would be willing to work with me and our parish web site. I am hoping to find someone to help put info on to the site and help with general maintenance. If you know about web sites, and in particular the program we use, please give a call and let me know. Thanks in advance. Fr. Martin

Good Shepherd, Come Feed Us

6th Eucharistic Congress

Diocese of Charlotte presents the 6th Eucharistic Congress
Where: Charlotte Convention Center
When: September 10 & 11, 2010
Click here for details
Registration now open.

Welcome to Fr. Martin's Blog!

Written by Martin Schratz | 05 August 2009

July 18, 2010
Saturday evening I joined the altar servers and attended my first Charlotte Knights baseball game. We had a great evening, even though we lost to Durham 2-1. There were about 16 of us in total including a friend of mine Luis who was on a short leave from the Army. He is stationed in Afghanistan and will be returning on Thursday. Like me it was his first game.

Sunday was another great celebration of faith. Focusing on hospitality our Gospel relayed the story of Martha and Mary. Each of us in our daily lives need to find time for prayer and work, Martha and Mary. It is always good to remember that in entertaining guests, we are entertaining the Lord, like Sarah and Abraham in the first reading from Genesis. The scriptures are so full of life it we just take the time with them.
Friday we welcomed a new secretary to the parish, Laura Brooks.
We have another hot week here in Charlotte, nearing 100 by Friday.
Not sure the reason, perhaps summer vacation, but God has blessed this the past couple of weeks with a full chapel for daily Mass. It is great when people take time and give it to the Lord, and what better way to start the day then with the gift of the Eucharist.
As you see in the above parish news, our choir is in competiton. Please take a moment to open the link and vote for us. It would be so wonderful to win that $50,000.
Enjoy the week and God bless you.

July 13, 2010
Hope that you are all well and enjoying these hot days of summer.
Life around the parish has been a bit quiet with summer vacations. As you probably read above, we were sorry to hear that Brother Lombardo will be leaving us. I am sure he will enjoy his new pastoral experience at St. Thomas. On Sunday evening Brother Doug moved in the last of his belongings (not too much). He had a baptism by water on Monday, his first full day here with another heavy rain of 3" in less then an hour and got to see just how quick the first floor of the friary fills with water. Not a pleasant experience.
I was surprised on Sunday afternoon as a group from the parish (mostly the 8:30 morning Mass group) surprised me with an early birthday party (I'm an August baby) and belated Father's Day celebration. A wonderful time was had and lots of great food. The themes were NASCAR (who would have guessed) and the corporeal works of mercy. Little did any expect that I would preach about that on Sunday. Another one of those many "godincidences".
Have a wonderful week and continue to enjoy your summer. God bless you.

July 4, 2010
Happy Independence Day everyone. God bless America!
Today was a beautiful day starting with a wonderful Mass. We really celebrated today. To add to the joy of the day, I went to see little Jackson Martin in the hospital. He has surgery Wednesday to remove any remaining tumors on his lungs. When I get there he was about ready to head home. God is good. Now he anxiously awaits a liver transplant. You can read his Caringbridge page listed on my June 15th entry. Here is a great picture of Jackson.
Yesterday was very special as well. Two friends, Doug and Phyllis Murphy were received into full communion in the Catholic Church yesterday. What makes this so very unique is that Doug is a Presbyterian minister. He will be coming out with a CD and his powerful witness talk. It was a simple, yet beautiful celebration of faith.
Friday we had a Going Home Celebration for 26 year old Morris "Clint" Whitaker. Clint died suddenly last Saturday evening. His Dad, Rocky, is one of our lead male choir voices here at church. It was a true celebration of faith witnessed by a full church and even an overflow into the chapel. May God grant him eternal rest.
Monday is a holiday and I think I can use the quiet time. No, I take that back. I know I can use the quiet time. I'll be getting together with the friars over at St. Thomas a some point for dinner. Most of the fire work displays are tonight. I can hear them all around me as I type.
God bless you all and thanks for reading this blog.

June 29, 2010
Sunday we had our parish picnic and it was a great success. Well over 200 people showed up despite the fact that it was about 96 degrees. We all had a good time with lots of food and socializing. Marva Davenport was our "lottery tree" drawing. That was a tree with over 200 scratch off tickets on it. She still hasn't come up with a winning tally. Soon I'm sure. Saturday we celebrated in a big way the 50th wedding anniversary of Catherine and Vincent Gomez. It was a beautiful celebration in the Family Life Center. Wow, who would have thought it was a gym. They did an awesome job with transforming it

June 23, 2010
I took Brother Lombardo to the airport today to begin his trip to St. Bonaventure University in NY where he will continue his studies in Franciscanism. I am glad my days of formal studies are over. Still always more to learn, but informally and on my own time.
This evening I went St. Thomas Aquinas where I was stationed to join in their celebration of the "Year of the Priest" which has formally come to a close. Bishop Curlin was the celebrant for the Mass and Fr. Remo and Fr. Stan concelebrated along with me. All former priests assigned there were invited back. Bishop Curlin, as always, gave a wonderful homily on the life of a priest and the need for prayer. He just has a gift for words. After we all went over to the parish hall for a reception. A few hundred people showed up and it was good to see so many people from my days there. While there were a number of gifts, the big one was a home made afghan made by the prayer shawl ministry. It is just beautiful. It isn't exactly the time of year to use it. It was 97 today. With the afghan comes many prayers to wrap us in. Beautiful evening to celebrate priesthood. For me, for those who have lost track, it is 27 years. I put my 25th jubilee slide show from Tampa on the staff page in the event you didn't see it back then. Lisa did an awesome job with it. God bless you all.

June 20, 2010

Happy Father’s Day! I am sure you men are grateful for the gift of life God has given you in your child(ren). What a blessing it is to work with God in the continuing creation of God.

Saturday morning I was honored to be the main celebrant and homilist as five Secular Franciscans made their profession in Franciscan family. Close to 100 people attended the Mass and reception at St. Thomas Aquinas here in Charlotte. It was a beautiful celebration for the Franciscan family to have members of the First, Second and Third Orders present. As Capuchins Franciscans, we are part of the First Order founded by St. Francis of Assisi. We were honored to have about six Poor Clare Nuns with us who are members of the Second Order (http://stjosephmonastery.com/). And of course there were many Third Order members present, today called Secular Franciscans. After the Profession Mass all were invited to lunch in the parish hall. Congratulations to Rob Buchanan,sfo, Gabe Conway, sfo, Valerie Gebhardt, sfo, Angela Kaufman, sfo and Amber Luckey, sfo. May God be with you on your journey.

We are continuing to battle the heat here in Charlotte. It was in the 90’s all week and Monday it is to be 99 degrees. As long as the air conditioning is on, not a problem, but we don’t have it in the daily Mass chapel or choir room. We are on a waiting list to get it fixed.

Each Monday and Tuesday morning I say Mass for the Missionaries of Charity (Mother Teresa’s Sisters) and on Thursday I have a conference with them as well as confessions and Eucharistic Adoration. I am their chaplain here in Charlotte. What a beautiful simple life they lead. We have two of the Sisters ministering here in our parish of Consolation.

May God our Father bless you all in a special way today. And as one man shouted out at Mass this morning, Happy Father’s Day God and for being a very special Father to us all.

June 15, 2010 What a glorious day!

The past few days I have been reflecting on the gift of the priesthood. On June 19th our Holy Father will bring the Year of the Priest to a close. For me it has been a wonderful year. Last week I celebrated my 27th anniversary as a priest and I am still in awe of God choosing me to his ministry. I must say I do enjoy it. Being the only priest in a parish can get overwhelming. I listened last weekend as our Holy Father addressed 15,000 priests gathered in Rome to bring this year to a close, I was encouraged when he told us, those there and we watching on TV, don't feel that you have to do everything. You are human and have your limits. It is impossible to be everything for everyone and you cannot be present for every activity and meeting in the parish. Know your limits. And we need to take time for ourselves as well or we will burn out and then be good for no one. Guess we need to learn to slow down.

Friday night I attended a fund raiser for Jackson Martin (after me) Laskowski. Jackson is 3 years old and battling cancer of the liver and the lungs and is in need of a liver transplant. It was a time for family and friends to gather and celebrate. A beautiful night with 180 people present and lots of money raised for the many bills coming in. http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/jacksonlaskowski/journal Please keep him and his family in your prayers.

I just today learned how to set up a blog. Not sure how often I'll get to it but I have a bit of free time this evening to try and figure it out. Still learning. God bless and please be patient. I'll enter blogs when I can.

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