KENNESAW—St. Catherine of Siena Church will host a Lenten parish mission Feb. 26-28 with Father Jacques Philippe, whose writings on themes of prayer, interior freedom and peace of heart have become classics of modern Catholic spirituality.

The mission programs will be held at the church, located at 1618 Ben King Road in Kennesaw, from 7-8:30 p.m. each evening. Father Philippe will also be preaching at the weekend Masses prior to the Lenten mission.

Monday’s mission topic is “How to Develop a Personal Prayer Life.” On Tuesday, Father Philippe will speak about “How to Grow Through Trials and the Sufferings of Life” and on Wednesday, “Mercy and Forgiveness.”

Father Philippe was born in 1947 in Lorraine, France. After studying mathematics in college, he spent several years teaching and conducting scientific research.

In 1976, he met the then recently-founded Community of the Beatitudes and answered the Lord’s call through this vocation. He spent several years in Nazareth and Jerusalem immersing himself in the study of Hebrew and the Jewish roots of Christianity.

In 1981, he traveled to Rome to study theology and canon law and was ordained a priest in 1985, beginning his work as a spiritual director and in the formation of priests and seminarians of the community. In 1994, Father Philippe returned to France, where he assumed various responsibilities including the development of training in the community, and participation in its general council. He has preached retreats regularly in France and abroad and has consolidated his principal retreat themes into several books on spirituality.

The Community of the Beatitudes gathers faithful from all states of life—married or unmarried lay people, seminarians, priests, deacons, men and women consecrated in celibacy—who wish to conform as closely as possible to the model of the early Christian community through the common life, sharing of goods, voluntary poverty and an intense sacramental and liturgical life. The members of the community, which has a contemplative vocation based on Carmelite spirituality, are actively engaged in serving the poor and proclaiming the Gospel.

No reservations are required for the parish mission.