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"Troy is hopping," declared Vici Armsby, pastoral associate for faith formation at Our Lady of Victory parish in Troy.

OLV's parishioners discovered that during Lent: Under the leadership of Mrs. Armsby, a group of them met on Thursday evenings at various restaurants around the city to read and talk about the book "Rediscover Jesus" by well-known Catholic author Matthew Kelly.

The Lenten program was called "Rediscover Jesus/Rediscover Troy."

OLV was also offering groups that met at the parish, but Mrs. Armsby wanted to try something different in addition to that: talking about faith while supporting local small businesses.

"Why don't we do something out of the box and actually meet in restaurants?" she said. Single parishioners, couples and widowers took her up on the idea, forming a group ranging in age from 25 to 65.

Being from so many backgrounds, Mrs. Armsby noted, group members learned to appreciate each other's opinions; meeting outside the parish allowed people to feel more free in what they shared.

"There were tears shed; there were lots of laughs," the pastoral associate said.

Every week, the group would gather at a new restaurant in Troy: Rare Form Brewing Company, Lucas Confectionery, Slidin' Dirty or the Park Pub Restaurant, to name a few. Usually, Mrs. Armsby said, the restaurant was new to the majority of the group.

The effort proved to be a great success. After finishing "Rediscovering Jesus," the group read "Beautiful Mercy," a collection of quotations by Pope Francis, Matthew Kelly and other people of faith. The turnout for that session was just as good as the first.

Although the group is taking a break at the moment, Mrs. Armsby hopes it will reconvene this fall.

(For more information, call Our Lady of Victory parish, 518-273-7602.)[[In-content Ad]]

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