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Fifth Sunday of Lent
24 March 2007
Queridos amigos en Cristo,
Several weeks ago I wrote you about some exciting possibilities for Hispanic Ministry at St Mary’s and I have received such a tremendous outpouring of support and prayers that it is taking me and Diego quite a long time to respond to everyone. I just thought I would give you an update on what is going on.
This collaborative effort between St Mary’s and Prince of Peace is geared towards evangelization and apologetics, and so I have entrusted it to one of my heavenly friends, Saint Francis de Sales, who is the patron of the Catholic press. I kiss his relic next my computer every time I go to write a bulletin column. Why? When he came to Geneva as Bishop, there were 27,000 Calvinists and 27 Catholics, and they wouldn’t even let him come in the city. When he left, there were 27,000 Catholics and 27 Calvinists. Need I say more?
Things have been exciting on the Hispanic Ministry front at St Mary’s. We actually had spies from Pentecostal communities at the one o’clock Mass the other week talking to our people about how their “priest” was not so aloof as me (me?!) and how their services were so much happier than ours! Forget that I was so sick I could hardly stand and it was Lent, but we warned our people about these visitors and reminded them that the center of our church is Christ in the Most Blessed Sacrament, and that no emotion was enough to compare with the sublime dignity of the Eucharist.
During the Forty Hours, when you were all praying in church and I was sick at home with the bubonic plague or whatever was making us all sick lately, I prayed especially that Christ would find a way to reach our Latino Catholic brothers and sisters. He has answered my prayer. We have been offered up to three hours on Sunday morning on a Latino FM station which broadcasts to the whole Upstate. We may be able to get this crucial airtime for less than $500 a week. And what’s more, we can broadcast free apologetics and spiritual programming in Spanish to a population which needs it so badly.
The newspaper is still in the planning stages; but this radio apostolate, which will bear great fruit, has been dropped into our laps by the Blessed LORD Himself. Please continue to pray for the success of this holy initiative. Now I am praying to the Infant of Prague that He will find a way to pay for it as long as He wants it to go on.
Praised be Jesus Christ!
Father Christopher