Greetings in Christ, all! I’m back from my retreat and vacation and dove right into the battle. It’s been wonderful. My first scheduled event on my return was hearing confessions and I was so overjoyed that this was what I started my return to. I’m so terribly grateful that I get to be a priest with a parish filled with so many people who want to enjoy this most amazing sacrament…bless you all!
Don’t forget, if you are looking for a once-a-month practice of confession, we have three, and sometimes four, priests on the first Saturday of every month. Don’t let the long line throw you; almost every person who came in told me the line was really moving well.
I want to share something with you all that I didn’t realize all of you didn’t know…does that make sense? When the quarantine started here in Michigan, I moved my Bible Studies online through Facebook. So many wonderful people showed up as everyday I did an hour or two walking folks through Scripture. This evolved into a sort of Primer on Catholicism and then evolved further into what I do now: Quantum Catechesis. At noon on Wednesday of every week, I do a live show of some topics relating to Catholicism and oftentimes history as well. At noon on Thursday of every week, I have a guest whom I interview about the faith. Sometimes, I do another show like Wednesday here if we don’t have a guest. At noon on Friday, I do an hour of question and answer. All of this is something you can watch live or you can listen to/watch later at your convenience.
At this point, we regularly pass the 10,000 download mark every week of people downloading the shows and I invite you if you are interested to do the same. Just search for “Joe In Black Ministries” on your podcast provider and you should see us there. All my homilies and classes are there. If you subscribe, you’ll get them every day. You can also search for “Joe In Black Ministries” on YouTube and catch them all that way.
We’ve been getting some revenue from these shows (not a ton) and simply directing it to our school, beyond the money we need for equipment or whatnot to keep the show going. Please consider checking these out. As a priest, I recognize that priestly ministry is changing. There are so few priests and so much need out there that this has turned out to be a great way of teaching and sharing the faith without asking everyone in the parish to be in one place at a time. Anyone can listen any time they are free. So, I didn’t realize that so many of you didn’t know about this and I wanted to be sure to tell you about it.
I love you all with all my heart. Thank you for letting me be your priest.
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