Heritage GA

Step away into sacred beauty with a retreat | 2 hours east of ATL | Your inspired destination for rest, renewal, collaboration and connection

09/04/2026

We’ve been seeing a lot of new faces, and we wanted to take a moment to answer a question worth asking: what is Heritage?

It's a mission and a place, both at once. The place was established over 200 years ago.

In 1790, a group of English Catholic families left Maryland looking for farmland and the freedom to worship, and settled here in what was then Wilkes County. They built a church out of logs. French families fleeing Haiti joined them, then Irish families, and the settlement became Locust Grove, the first Catholic community in Georgia. By 1821 they'd chartered the state's first Catholic school on this same ground.

Then the boll weevil took the cotton economy, families left, and the parish emptied out. By 2001 the church had been reduced to station status. The bell still rang. Almost no one was left to hear it.

The mission started with Betsy Orr.

Betsy came into the Catholic Church as an adult, drawn in through silence and Scripture after years leading a Protestant Bible study. Not long after her conversion, her life took a hard turn, and the sacraments became the thing that carried her through. That conversion sparked the desire to carry the sacred history of this place forward. She bought the land and began to revitalize.

That was 2016. Since then, contractors, clergy, artists, and laypeople have restored the church to its 1883 form, laid out prayer gardens across the property, and built cottages and gathering spaces for guests.

Betsy describes it as a sacred place to seek, find, and renew faith. Catholic or not, we hope it's somewhere you can set down your schedule, quiet your mind, and find your way back to God.

Learn more about who we are at https://bit.ly/4icJnQC

09/02/2026

A group of our Ministry & Service Ambassadors just completed their year of service at Heritage.

They arrived not fully knowing what the year would ask of them. They left this week having welcomed hundreds of guests, cared for these historic grounds, and grown in their faith alongside people who were doing the same thing, right beside them.

We're deeply grateful for their year of service. If you've stayed at Heritage this past year, these MSAs were behind the care you received.

Now they go on to what's next and we're excited for every one of them, and we'll be praying for them from here.

Thank you. Welcome back anytime.

08/31/2026

Monsignor Lopez has spent a lifetime teaching us that faith is something we inherit, but also something we are called to carry forward.

A Heritage of Heroes preserves some of that legacy: Monsignor’s reflections on faith, the people who formed him, and what it means to give your life in service to something greater than yourself. Only 500 signed copies will be offered.

A gift of $1,000 or more includes a signed copy. Ten percent of every gift goes to persecuted Christians in the Middle East, a cause close to Monsignor Lopez’s heart. The rest goes toward restoring sacred spaces, forming the next generation through our Ministry and Service Ambassador program, and sustaining Heritage for years to come.

In this message, Michael Barry, Heritage’s Executive Director, reflects on Monsignor’s legacy and what this campaign has meant.

Watch Michael’s video below. And thank you, truly, for being part of this.

Learn more and receive your signed copy here: https://bit.ly/4zNlXY3

08/29/2026

Just two weeks out from The Power of Forgiveness Retreat, September 11–13 at Heritage.

Led by Dr. Allen Hunt, this weekend creates real space to work through the weight of unforgiveness, toward others or toward yourself. A limited number of spots remain.
If it's been on your mind, this is your reminder.

Register at heritagega.org/events

08/28/2026

Late summer is a good time to take the trip you've been putting off.

Heritage welcomes individual guests year-round. Just you and a quiet and sacred place that's ready when you are.

If you've been waiting for the right time, this is it.

Book your stay at https://bit.ly/4qKmsOE

08/26/2026

All month, we've shared pieces of A Heritage of Heroes: the saints, the sisters, the teachers and pioneers who shaped Monsignor Lopez's faith across a lifetime of service. This week, we want to tell you what it means to hold the whole of it in your hands.

This is a signed collection of Monsignor's reflections, drawn from more than fifty years as a priest and as Heritage's first chaplain.

When you receive a copy, you're doing two things at once. You're carrying his faith into your own life. And you're helping carry Heritage into its future: restoring the church, forming young adults through our ambassador program, and sustaining a mission that's been prayed over on this ground for more than two centuries.

Only a limited number are available. If these reflections have meant something to you this month, this is how you become part of the story they belong to.

Receive your signed copy at https://bit.ly/45LOCzc

08/24/2026

Save the date: this November, Heritage will once again gather for All Souls Day Mass at Locust Grove Cemetery.

Established in 1790, Locust Grove is the oldest Catholic cemetery in Georgia, the resting place of the families who founded the state's first Catholic community. Each year, on the first Saturday of November, we celebrate Mass among the headstones to honor the faithful who came before us. This year, Monsignor Lopez will celebrate.

It's a quiet, moving, and beautiful tradition, one of the ones we look forward to most.

Mark your calendar. More details coming soon.

https://bit.ly/4qwiGs2

08/21/2026

There's a certain kind of courage in giving a year of your life to something bigger than your own plans.

That's what our Ministry & Service Ambassadors do. Each of them is a Catholic young adult, ages 21–26, who has chosen to spend twelve months living and serving at Heritage. They handle hospitality, ministry, grounds, and marketing, but the heart of the year is formation. They welcome others into the faith while deepening their own, and they learn as much from this place and its people as they give to it.

This is what a hero of the faith can look like today, someone who receives it, lives it, and passes it on.

It's the same thread that runs through A Heritage of Heroes, the collection of reflections from Monsignor Richard Lopez, Heritage's first chaplain, on the saints and figures who shaped his own faith.

From the pioneers who first prayed on this ground to the young adults serving here now, the story of Heritage has always been carried forward by people willing to give.

Meet the program and this year's ambassadors at heritagega.org/msa-program

08/19/2026

For almost a hundred years, the Church of the Purification sat quiet. Its congregation gone, its future uncertain. By 2001, it had been reduced to a station under a neighboring parish.

In 2016, that changed. Restoration began, not to modernize the church, but to return it to what it once was. If you've seen the before-and-after, you know what we mean: it doesn't look renovated. It looks remembered.

The church is the heart of Heritage's story, and it's one we never tire of telling. But we want to be honest about something: this didn't happen by accident. It happened because people gave, of their time, their skill, and their support, so that a sacred space could live again. And the work of preserving it isn't finished.

When you give to Heritage, this is what your gift becomes. Not an abstraction. A bell that rings again. A window that holds the light. A place where people can pray, the way they have here for more than two centuries.

If you'd like to help carry this work forward, you can learn more through the link below. We're always glad to answer questions.

https://www.heritagega.org/support-us

08/17/2026

A Heritage of Heroes wasn't something Msgr. Lopez set out to write.

He simply loves to share what he's learned. His conversations are part of who he is, and everyone around him is better for it. So we put our heads together and gathered some of his best writing.

The result is a small collection of his reflections on faith, on the people who shaped him, on a life spent in service.

It's available now. Only 500 signed copies are being offered. And at his own request, 10% of every gift goes to persecuted Christians in the Middle East, a cause close to his heart.

A gift of $1,000 or more includes a signed copy, and it goes on to do real work: restoring sacred spaces, forming the next generation through our Ministry and Service Ambassador program, and sustaining Heritage for years to come.

Reserve your copy at https://bit.ly/4xP1EIc

Address

979 Locust Grove Rd SE
Crawfordville, GA
30631

Telephone

+17064178305

Website

https://www.heritagega.org/

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