Thank you so much, St. Anne!
I want to thank you all for your affection last Sunday and for your love for the Lord in the Eucharist. I can’t tell you, there are not enough words and time, what it meant for me as a priest to bring you the blessing with the Blessed Sacrament. I have so much to learn from you! The manifestations of devotion to the Lord in the Eucharist that I witnessed, the tears that I saw in your eyes, the altars that you prepared, the songs with which you received Jesus, the palms with which you expressed your faith in his sacramental presence, your emotion, and joy when you saw him come to your homes...
Today I will post in Flocknote the comments from some of you that we have received since Sunday. I invite you to read them because they will give you much encouragement and allow you to understand a little bit of what happened 3 days ago and the great faith of many of our families. They are truly moving.
Over the past few days, we have had people ask to join our parish especially because of what they have seen since last weekend. Other parishes have contacted us to ask how we are organizing this ministry to be able to implement it in their own communities. Blessed be God!
I also want to thank you for paying attention to what we say or post on social networks - that is a sign of your love for St. Anne and your desire for God. We speak from here and sometimes, we don't know if the words arrive, or how many people receive them. It is like those stories in which a man on a desert island puts a message in a glass bottle and throws it into the sea waiting for someone on the other side of the ocean to find it and read his words. The response from last weekend tells us that you are there, listening to us. In about 24 hours, more than 500 people signed up for the blessing with the Blessed Sacrament. It was quite impressive, just as it was impressive to read yesterday the report of your financial contributions online last weekend.
I want to say this so that you can all feel proud of our wonderful community. Last weekend, we exceeded $ 41,000 in donations, most of them through the Internet. That is equivalent to a collection on a normal Sunday, with all of you attending Mass in the church.
I know that some of those donations were donations for the whole month or that they were even one-time acts of sacrificial giving, but it is still an extraordinary amount.
On behalf of the entire staff, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for that. I also want to tell you that our staff is extraordinary like you and that they are also sacrificing themselves, each according to their ability. You need to know, in an exercise of transparency, that several employees are giving up their entire salary to help other co-workers. I too, as pastor, will give 100% of my salary to the parish until we return to normal life because here we are a family and we are supporting each other so we can come through together. Other employees are giving from their earnings 60%, 50%, and 30% so that we can all overcome this difficult time together. Others are giving according to their ability and, to all, I am infinitely grateful for their sacrifice. We need you to help us these days, but we are also doing everything we can to help one another.
Therefore, to all o you, my heartfelt thanks. Thank you for your love for Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. Thank you for the great faith lessons you gave me last Sunday. Thank you for loving and caring for our parish. Thanks to those who are helping us financially. Thank you for being there, on the other side of the sea, to receive our glass bottle with our cry for help. Thanks for your patience with us. Thank you for staying with us. Thank you for making St. Anne, a light to the world, a “city set on a hill that cannot be hidden”.
May that light be only for the greater glory of God and the salvation of souls.
