Scheduled Meetings: Weekend Masses
Ministers of Hospitality greet people entering the church, distribute
song sheets and information from the Pastor. We also distribute
bulletins at the conclusion of Mass.
Heartland Blood Drives are held annually in the fall to help supply
blood for our community. Please consider donating this fall. Please
contact the Rectory for dates and times.
The Knights of Columbus is the world's largest Catholic family
fraternal service organization with 1.6 million members. It provides
members and their families with volunteer opportunities in service to
the Catholic Church, their communities, families and young people.
Our Lady of the Ridge School participates in a food co-op called
MARKET DAY. This co-op has been in operation since 1973 and has
grown to include thousands of schools just like ours. Each month,
as a participating MARKET DAY school, restaurant quality food
products from companies such as Tropicana, Tyson, Smuckers,
Campbell's, Rich Sea Pak, Kraft and Eli's will be available for
purchase. O.L.O.R. Parent Club sponsors MARKET DAY and will earn at
least 10% of the wholesale value of the food we buy.
During the months of November, February and April we will have the
opportunity to earn extra profit on pies (November), pizza (February)
and cookie dough (April).
O.L.O.R. Parent Club uses MARKET DAY profits to help subsidize tuition
and provide extras for our students and staff. We are also able to earn
extra profits by purchasing PLUS items. These items are indicated by a
little red apple on the order form. Parent Club has set aside these
PLUS profits for the past several years for special projects.
The order form is sent home each month with your student, or is
available in the rectory or in church gathering space. Please take
a few minutes to review it and place an order. Completed order forms
can be returned to school with a student, at the rectory or in the
gathering space in church. We are confident that MARKET DAY will
benefit you as consumers, but will also benefit the many programs
the O.L.O.R. Parent Club supports.
Please give MARKET DAY a try! We look forward to seeing you at our
sales (11 per year).
Our Lady of the Ridge Men's Club provides an opportunity for all
children of the parish to participate in sports activities. The
majority of the expenses for these activities are obtained through
fund raising. The group is comprised completely of volunteers. The
organization meets every three weeks at the Parish Center. Meetings
during spring and summer start at 8:30; fall and winter meetings start
at 8:00. Sports programs currently offered are volleyball, basketball,
football, and boxing. General registration for all sports is held in
May of each year and eligibility to participate in Men's Club programs
is open to all students of Our Lady of the Ridge School and all
students enrolled in the Our Lady of the Ridge's Experience Religion
program. Men who pledge to endorse the purpose of the Our Lady of the
Ridge Men's Club and pledge active cooperation with the club shall be
eligible for membership. In the event there is no eligible male for
membership, a female may be an active member. Our Lady of the Ridge
Men's Club Executive board consists of the President, Vice President,
Treasurer, Secretary, Athletic Director, and Spiritual Leader. The
General Board also includes all Trustees. All coaches are recommended
by the Athletic Director and subject to approval by the board. Please
contact members of the board with any questions.
Ministry of Mothers Sharing is a program for mothers of all ages. The
6 week series helps to build each woman's self image, their confidence,
and deepens their spirituality by participating in prayer, faith
sharing and small group discussion. A follow-up to the 6 week session
is a monthly Mom's Time Out held on the last Thursday of every month.
If you would like more information, please leave your name and phone
number at the Rectory.
Senior citizens of Chicago Ridge can take advantage of the bus, free
of charge, to pick them up and bring them to our 9:30AM Sunday Mass.
If you are interested, please call Kay at the Village of Chicago Ridge
at 425-7700 to sign up.
Theology on Tap is a 4 week speaker series for young adults in their
20's and 30's, married or single. Our parish is one of many parishes
that hosts this archdiocese wide program that runs in July. Each
week a different guest speaker will address a topic that is tailored
to the people in this age bracket. This informal gathering of young
adults begins at 7:30 and generally runs until 9:00. Admission is
free. At the end of the 4 week series, participants from all of the
hosting parishes are invited to attend Mass at Holy Name Cathedral with
Francis Cardinal George presiding. The Mass attendance is about 900
strong. After Mass, the Cardinal hosts a lawn party at his residence with
great food and music. Watch for details in the bulletin. If you have
any questions, leave your name and phone number at the rectory.
Every third Saturday of the month from October through May,
(excluding December), Our Lady of the Ridge presents Thunderroad
Coffeehouse. Our coffeehouse consists of some fine parish and local
talent, as well as a featured performer who is generally considered
professional. For example we have featured blues bands, Irish
comedians, poets, folk circuit artists, and studio musicians.
All ages are welcome to come as our coffeehouse is strictly
non-alcoholic. We do ask for quiet in our showroom as to give all our
performers respect, so keep this in mind if you bring children. We ask
a general upkeep donation of $3.00 to $5.00 dollars depending on our
featured performer. We conduct our coffeehouse in the parish hall and
we start at around 7:30 P.M. If you have any questions about attending
or performing, call Rich Zarnowski through the rectory.
Scheduled Meetings: Weekend Masses
The Usher's Ministry perform service in assisting people to their
seats, collecting offertory and directing the flow of people during
Communion.
V.O.I.C.E (Value Opportunities in Catholic Education) is a fundraising
program that helps the parish, school and individual families
interested in Catholic education.
Here is how it works. Instead of going to the store and spending your
cash, we ask that you purchase gift certificates from the V.O.I.C.E.
program and use these certificates to make your purchases. The
wonderful thing about shopping this way is that it doesn't cost you
anything extra.
We have a tremendous assortment of certificates available, including
grocery stores, gasoline certificates, department stores and home
improvements. We even have movie theater certificates, video store
and other specialty shop certificates. You can even pay down your
Carsons, Penneys or Kohls charge card bills using their respective
certificates.
The V.O.I.C.E. program purchases these gift certificates at a small
discount. Each time you purchase a certificate at face value, the
difference becomes profit to the program. We then split the profit in
the form of tuition credit, reducing the tuition of a child
participating in catholic education. The rest of the profit is applied
to the school budget, reducing the parish subsidy to the school.
As a parishioner, you can help by participating in the program. The
entire profit goes to the school budget or you may designate that a
portion go to a specific child participating in catholic education at
Our Lady of the Ridge.
The child you designate to receive tuition reduction credit must be
signed up and registered with the V.O.I.C.E. program before they can
receive credit. If you would like to designate that your
participation help a specific child, simply put their ID number on the
order form.
If you are a parishioner and have a child in CCD (ER) or in the parish
school, you should sign up and participate. If you have a child in a
Chicago area Catholic high school and belong to Our Lady of the Ridge
parish you should participate. Even if you have a 2 year old or older
child and plan on sending your child to the parish school in the
future, you should participate.
We make it extremely easy to participate. Just stop at the V.O.I.C.E
cart before or after Mass on Sunday to get more details.
Really! You can get something for nothing!
Our Lady of the Ridge parish offers all of its Catholic education
students the opportunity to earn tuition credit by purchasing gift
certificates and using them instead of cash when shopping.
The program is simple to use. Here is how it works:
Remember, it costs YOU nothing extra to shop this way!
The Welcoming and Evangelization Committee has two main functions.
First is to welcome new registered parishioners to our parish.
We do this on the second Sunday of the month after the 11:30 a.m.
Mass. At the conclusion of Mass we have light refreshments in honor
of our new parishioners. Welcoming Sunday is held 6 times a year
in the months of January, March, May, July, September and November.
Our second function is to assist other organization in hospitality.
We meet three times a year to discuss how things are going. We
are always looking for more volunteers so if you are interested,
please contact the rectory or stop by one of the tables on the second
Sunday of the month.