2024 Spotlights
Campus Ministry:
Forming Students In His Presence
As a priest, it is my call to be in His presence. I am a shepherd to lead young souls and form missionary disciples.” – Fr. Urey P. Mark, Director & Chaplain, Lyke House Catholic Newman Center at the Atlanta University Center
Full of joy in the Lord, Father Urey Mark brings students into the presence of Christ as the Director and Chaplain of the Lyke House Catholic Newman Center. Serving the students of Clark Atlanta University, Spelman College, Morehouse College, and Georgia State University, the Lyke House is the presence of the Catholic Church on these four Atlanta college campuses.
Leaning on his deep personal devotion to the Eucharist, Fr. Mark brings students to encounter Christ through the celebration of the Mass, the Sacraments, community, and service so that they can in turn, go out and be Christ to others. Looking to former Archbishop of Atlanta James P. Lyke, the ministry’s namesake, and Servant of God Sr. Thea Bowman models who lived the values of missionary discipleship, the ministry draws students to a close personal relationship with Christ and equips them to go forth to spread the Good News to all those around them.
The Newman Center is the presence of the Church at the non-Catholic university. I show the pastoral care of the Church through accompaniment, empathy, and love to be the gateway for the next generation of stewards.” – Fr. Urey P. Mark, Lyke House Catholic Newman Center at the Atlanta University Center
Your support will develop faith formation and discipleship across the archdiocese as we continue to spiritually nourish our schools, campuses, and youth and family ministries.
Catholic Charities Atlanta
Serving the Vulnerable In His Presence
I want to help the people we serve see God in the love and care we provide. I want to be a faith-builder.” – Monifa Holman, Director, Family Stabilization Services at Catholic Charities Atlanta
Monifa Holman serves others with a joyful heart, praying that they see Christ in her just as she sees Christ reflected in them. As the Director of Family Stabilization Services at Catholic Charities Atlanta, Monifa oversees St. Joseph’s Place, an independent living community for low-income seniors. More than simply being affordable housing, St. Joseph’s Place is a blessed community that ensures its residents’ housing needs are met while being treated with dignity, compassion, and respect.
Living the Catholic Charities Atlanta mission to empower families to overcome barriers, St Joseph’s Place stands in the gap to serve seniors who may be without a support system, who may be on a fixed income, who may have nowhere else to go, and for whom this might be the last place they live before they go to eternal rest. Acting as the hands and feet of Christ, Monifa and St. Joseph’s Place meet people where they are to serve the most vulnerable among us in need of housing.
We are charged with loving our neighbors and caring for the vulnerable. I get to do that with my work at St Joseph’s Place. I get to set a standard of excellence of how we communicate God’s love in action.” – Monifa Holman, Catholic Charities Atlanta
“I love God. I love people. I always wanted to be a representative of God, to be his hands and feet. – Monifa Holman, Catholic Charities Atlanta
When you give to the Archbishop’s Annual Appeal you are showing utmost compassion for the most vulnerable in our community. We can uplift them through resources including skill development, education and employment, and security and well-being services.
Your support of the Archbishop’s Annual Appeal fans the flames of the revival as our archdiocese seeks for all to personally encounter Jesus Christ in the Eucharist.
Seminarian Formation
Living the Call In His Presence
It gives me so much Joy to be pursuing this vocation where I’ll be able to accompany people as they encounter Christ and journey with people in their joys and their difficulties.” – Jacob Butz, Archdiocese of Atlanta Seminarian
Five years into seminary studies, Jacob Butz continues to feel Christ’s invitation to be a companion, to experience life in His presence, and to let himself be called deeper into the heart of Christ. As an Archdiocese of Atlanta Seminarian currently serving St Lawrence parish in Lawrenceville during his year of pastoral studies and preparing to be ordained to the priesthood in just a couple of years, he looks forward to the beauty of parish life and being privileged to accompany people as they encounter Christ.
Nurtured through the presence of the Lord in the stillness at the Blessed Sacrament chapel at his home parish of St Michael’s in Woodstock and through the joy of experiencing adoration with young people as a summer missionary with Life Teen Camp Hidden Lake, Jacob sees a strong need for the message of God’s mercy, that there is always room at the table of the Lord and all are welcome.
Every morning, I start with the liturgy of the hours that includes Psalm 95. ‘Lord, Open my lips.’ It helps me to put on a posture of gratitude and praise, to say, ‘Lord I don’t get it, it’s challenging, but I’m going to come before you with thanksgiving and praise.’ It is my way of saying, ‘Lord, I trust you.’ – Jacob Butz, Archdiocese of Atlanta Seminarian
“Seminary has taught me how to pray and has honed my prayer life. It has given me the space to allow my heart to be touched by the Lord and instruction to learn how to pray and lead others in prayer. Prayer is the foundation.” – Jacob Butz, Archdiocese of Atlanta Seminarian
Our annual appeal proudly supports our clergy, brothers, sisters, and over thirty seminarians as they pursue their divine calling and shepherd their flocks in over 100 parishes and missions across the archdiocese.
Laudato Si’
Caring for Creation and Each Other In His Presence
If we believe that when two or more gather, He is among us, then my job is to bring together our parishioners to care for the earth and one another as Pope Francis has asked us to do in Laudato Si’.– Susan Varlamoff, Laudato Si’ Initiative, St. John Neumann Creation Care Team
When Susan Varlamoff kneels in the dirt, planting and watering St. John Neumann’s parish garden in Lilburn, she is in His presence. As a Catholic biologist, she has spent her life caring for God’s creation. When Pope Francis released the encyclical called Laudato Si’: On Care For Our Common Home, she was inspired to work with a colleague to develop a plan for parishes to combat climate change and create a culture of caring for creation and each other.
Since 2016, at her home parish of St. John Neumann, across the Archdiocese, and the world, people have implemented this Laudato Si’ parish action plan, giving those who are eager to make a difference, tangible ways to contribute toward an ecological conversion. At St John Neumann, where she leads the Creation Care Team, large steps have been made to reduce energy and water usage, but it is the small creative ways that people have responded, stepping forward with new solutions and ways to do things, that have caused a conversion of more simplicity and more compassion that will create change in the world.
When people come together in His name and prayerfully work for the common good, there is a spark of the divine.” – Susan Varlamoff, Laudato Si’ Initiative, St. John Neumann Creation Care Team
As we gather in His Name, to do the sacred work of caring for our common home, we feel God’s presence among us and our connectedness to each other and the earth.” – Susan Varlamoff, Laudato Si’ Initiative, St. John Neumann Creation Care Team
We are committed to caring for creation and our community not only through the Laudato Si initiative but also through ministries including the life, dignity, and justice and intercultural ministries, child and youth protection, the metropolitan tribunal, and more.
