Greetings in Christ, all!
We are getting really close here to our time of transition. We will be away while our parish is rebuilt for anywhere from 8-10 months, depending on how it all goes. I’m so very excited about it all and I can’t wait until we are moved in to our new spiritual home. So much of our current home will be here, but we’ll have the additional things we need to secure a Church for many years to come. We’ll have handicap accessible bathrooms and an altar area that is also handicap accessible.
We’ll have a new and integrated sound system and heating/cooling system. Our beautiful windows will still be here, but better protected from the elements. We’ll have more space and one main entrance farther off Saginaw which will making coming and going easier. All this and so much more…all because of your generous, sacrificial hearts.
In terms of the things we couldn’t afford, we’re set up to put them in later, including, but not limited to, moving the Organ Pipes into Church, a new parking lot and maintenance shed, a covered area over our doors to facilitate easier drop off, protected from the elements. We’ll be ready for these things to come in as soon as we raise the funds.
These next few months are going to be a blessed challenge for us, as we all have to adapt to the new realities of what I call “Living in Exile:” namely, not being able to worship in our Church. Our beautiful, busy Catholic Community here in Grand Blanc is a complicated machine and we’re all going to have to be patient and flexible with the inevitable trials and tribulations that will come. I pray we are kind and always assume the best in these days.
Something important to keep in mind is that things are rarely as easy as they seem. Setting up and tearing down the hall each weekend means that our schedule of events in that hall is going to create some interesting challenges. The most important thing to keep in mind is humility. It’s easy to look at something this complicated and say “I don’t know why they just don’t…”
Humility is when we consider the fact that almost three years of committee meetings, as well as countless hours of other types of meetings on this project, means that it’s quite possible there is a good reason why we see what we see.
Approaching it in humility means that we assume some level of competence and ask questions, rather than lob bombs. This will help a lot.
So…we’re almost there, praise God! The next year will offer us so many blessed challenges and I pray we rise to it with great joy recognizing that the story of Holy Family in Grand Blanc ends well: not because we are perfect or because our situation is perfect, but because Jesus is Lord and this Church exists for Him, not us.
Pray for our efforts. Pray for our attitudes. Pray that we respond, not react and that we speak about and to each other with tender affection and respect. Pray that God bless and protect those working on our Church. Pray that everything goes smoothly and that we move into our new home in record time. I’m so grateful to God for each and every one of you.
I love being your priest.
fjk
