Over the next six weeks we will be publishing a series of updates from Fr Joe. The full and complete update can be found in a printed booklet and available in the gathering space of the church.
Greetings in Christ, all! I’ve been wanting for some time to create a fairly significant update for you all. Things have changed so very radically in the last year and couple months that I think we all feel a little behind. Beyond that, we have experienced a significant influx of new parishioners and have, because of Virus restrictions, lacked the means to catch everyone up.
It is my sincerest hope that you all read these updates and share them with others, especially people who might not be in a position to get these articles. That would help so much.
So what I’ll do is back up a year or so and set the stage for how our parish responded to the Quarantine and how that has changed things in and for our Church. Once Quarantine hit, we sprang into action. One of my favorite memories of this time was the last night before the Quarantine hit: cars lined up around the block to receive God’s Mercy and Exorcised Salt and Water. I don’t know if you realize this, but we “made” almost 200 gallons and gave most of it away that night. I don’t think any of us understood just what the situation would evolve into, heck, this was the “15 Days to Flatten the Curve” stage of the Quarantine.
The craziest part of this all is that we had begun live streaming Masses three weeks before any of this happened. We were testing out an idea for taking care of our elderly parishioners through live streamed Masses and then suddenly, the Virus popped up and it moved from experiment to live reality. God is so good to us: He proved to be ten steps ahead.
Once the Quarantine dragged on, I began hearing from so many of you who were lonely, scared, lost…I felt the Lord tell me that I needed to encourage people prayerfully. So, we set up an online ministry: a short reflection each morning to remind us that Jesus is with us and a daily “show” starting at noon where anyone who was lonely or scared could tune in and find company and growth in the faith.
We simply were not ready for how beautifully and massively this would turn out to be.
Almost immediately, we began receiving beautiful letters from people all over the country and even the world. We were getting thousands of viewers for the show and thousands of people praying Mass with us. It was and is amazing. With those letters, we also received gifts. Donations and help. It was absolutely astounding, because we never asked, but people literally began sending money to help us from all over the world.
This led us to create Joe In Black Ministries, a nonprofit organization created to raise money for our building and grounds, as well as our kids’ tuition costs. The simple reason we created it was so that I could send any gifts I received on to the Church. At this point we were still pretty sure we would incur some massive debt as we were building and I’m always conscious of our school, hoping that one day we can build a massive fund to lessen tuition.
So we worked with lawyers and other such people and ended up creating a nonprofit to help us get equipment to broadcast and to help us raise money for our Church. We felt called by God to process through the streets and neighborhoods of Grand Blanc with The Blessed Sacrament. During the first six months of Quarantine, we walked dozens and dozens of miles, taking Christ with us, blessing homes, blessing people, reminding everyone that they are not alone, that they need not be afraid, that Christ was with them and the Holy Family was there on His behalf.
We did Last Rites through nursing home windows, sometimes using a stepladder and a bullhorn. We reached out through phone calls to as many parishioners as we could. We sent letters and cards to people and found new and unique ways to minister. God is so very good to us …he filled us with energy and new ideas and the response has been unbelievable.
I pray that you feel the joy of the Lord in this report. I am so blessed by your hunger for God and your desire for this parish family to be a City on the Hill; one that does not hide its love for God or its desire to serve.
In the end, by God’s Grace, we emerged from this crisis stronger than we ever could’ve hoped. God’s Holy Spirit and your hard work and sacrifice have brought about a couple miracles:
If everyone stays faithful to the pledges they made to Witness to Hope and Restore the Temple, we will have no debt for the Church. None. To be clear, we were anticipating a debt somewhere between $300,000-$800,000 upon completion of the Church. Now, it appears we won’t have any.
We now have a large and active “virtual parish”: namely, a group of people from other countries and states who pray with us online and support us financially.
· Our registrations for the parish are up, our school is thriving because of the hard work of the employees and the commitment of our parents.
· We have no debt of any kind: the six-digit debt we had to the MCC is gone.
· I was able to create a nonprofit that will benefit our Church and School.
All of these things and more. I just can’t wrap my heart around it.
I will follow this letter up with a series of updates about all the goings on and changes in our parish, as well as our future plans. The next update will be about our Masses and how all of our various ministries will emerge in our new parish.
I’m so very, terribly grateful to God that I get to be your priest.
All of my love and prayers.
fjk