This year's Parish Mission had the theme "Listen, With The Ear Of Your Heart". Our Lady of the Lake hosted four wonderful speakers, who delivered inspirational presentations based on this theme.
Dr. John Zawacki graduated from Tufts University School of Medicine in 1968. He is Professor of Medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and a gastroenterologist at UMass Memorial. He has won numerous teaching awards and has been voted by his peers as being among the Best Doctors in America for the past twenty five years.
He and his wife, Lee, who is a nurse, will celebrate 50 years of marriage this June. They have three children and six grandchildren. They are longtime members of Saint Rose of Lima Parish in Northborough. For 25 years they were a presenting couple for World Wide Marriage Encounter and served in leadership positions with the movement. They helped create the Couple to Couple Ministry in the Diocese of Worcester and they both served on and chaired the Family Life Advisory Board for the Diocese for almost two decades.
In his parish, Doctor Zawacki is an Extraordinary Minister of the Eucharist, a faith sharing group leader, confirmation retreat witness, cantor and choir member. He is co-chair of the diocesan Parish Renewal and Evangelization ministry team.
Sister Nancy Sheridan is a Sister of the Assumption of the BVM. For eleven years she ministered as a collaborator with the Jesuits in retreat ministry at their Eastern Point Retreat House in Gloucester and in supervision and formation of spiritual directors at the Center for Religious Development in Cambridge. She is a team member of the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University, where she is involved in a national workshop/retreat ministry of “Preaching the Just Word.” She will be publishing a book soon with Father Raymond Kemp entitled: Just Tenderness, Tender Justice.
Sister Nancy has served as part of the leadership team of her religious order and has been responsible for the ongoing formation and leadership development of their associate members in the USA, northern Ontario and Japan.
She is a much sought after spiritual director and retreat director. She has spoken widely at conferences, workshops, and in parishes throughout New England, Canada, Ireland, and Japan.
Dr. Nicki Verploegen is Co-founder of TATENDA International, a nonprofit which provides retreats and motivational instruction for caregivers and pastoral agents worldwide. Originally from Montana, she has traveled on private pilgrimage throughout the US, Japan, Indonesia, Tanzania, and Liberia, exploring creative cultural approaches to contemplative spiritual living.
She has served as Director of Spiritual and Ministerial Development and as a visiting professor at Weston Jesuit School of Theology in Cambridge, MA. and as a visiting professor to several graduate schools of theology.
Presently, she teaches in the Diaconate Formation program and the Master’s for Ministry program for the Archdiocese of Boston. Her academic degrees include a Ph.D is formative spirituality from Duquesne University as well as degrees in Spiritual Theology, Elementary Education, Religious Education and Political Science.
Most recently, Dr. Verploegen conducted retreats in Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Kenya, and Bangladesh, and Jamaica with TATENDA International. She has been conducting retreats for over 25 years and giving spiritual direction since 1983. Among her publications is a book entitled, Planning and Implementing Retreats: A Parish Handbook.
Father Richard F. Reidy graduated from Holy Cross College and earned a doctorate from Boston College Law School in 1983. He was a member of the law firm of Mirick, O'Connell, DeMallie and Lougee from 1983 to 1990 before beginning studies for the priesthood. He received a bachelor’s degree in sacred theology and a master’s degree in spirituality while studying at the North American College in Rome.
After he was ordained in 1994, he served as associate pastor of St. Peter Parish, Worcester. Father Reidy was named rector of St. Paul Cathedral in 1995. At that time he was also Director of Ongoing Priestly Formation for the Diocese.
In 2008 he went for graduate studies in Canon Law at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. where he earned his licentiate in canon law. Upon his return he was appointed pastor of St. Ann Parish in North Oxford and defender of the bond for the Diocesan Tribunal in the Judicial Vicar's Office.
Since 2013, Father Reidy has been vicar general and moderator of the curia of the Diocese of Worcester.