After a real slow start for this year and some major hurdles we are almost at the half year and it looks like the rest of the year will be a lot more rewarding.

After we lost Julee as our webmaster we were working with another company that really let us down. We had the new format but nothing worked. We had counted on the web to accommodate the sign-ups for the Cruise as well as the payments. The site did not work so we really lost four months of advertising trying to get the minimum 400 people to go on the cruise so we can charter the ship. Also our prayer request pages, contact pages, all the inner workings and links were never fixed. With our new webmasters, OPTIMIZATION WIZARDS owned by Patricia Gonzalez and Eli Randolph we are finally up and running with our first newsletter going out with the new site in good shape. All pilgrimages can be paid for over the internet as well as donations which we would greatly appreciate.

We do have good news for the Cruise. We now have three Priests: Father Fernando Pinto, O.C.D. from Santa Cruz parish, Tucson, Arizona; Rev. Juan Carlos Aguirre, from St. Helen’s Parish, Eloy, Arizona; and Rev. Marco Basulto-Pitol, from St. James Church, Coolidge, Arizona. We are looking forward to more people signing up so we can accommodate at least two more priests for this awesome Cruise Pilgrimage.
We had a great trip to France and Italy, visiting all the major churches in Paris, going to Lisiuex, Never and on t3o Lourdes to receive the Plenary Indulgence that Pope Benedict XVI instituted for this year. We went on to Italy visiting Padua, Assisi, Lanciano, Loreto, San Giovanni Rotondo and seeing the incorrupt body of Padre Pio, the Cave of St. Michael and on to Rome with an audience with the Holy Father and visiting the churches of Rome including St. Peter in Chains which was a real treat.

We are very grateful to my guide, Roberto Salerno as he made the pilgrimage much easier, more spiritual and his added knowledge and expertise as a guide is greatly appreciated. He surprised me with a priceless gift on this trip. He gave me a crucifix that belonged to his grandmother. He said he felt in his heart that he was going to give it to me after a few days of working on our first pilgrimage. This crucifix was blessed by Pope John the 23rd. His body is incorrupt on the main floor of the Vatican. I was very overwhelmed as are those that venerate the Cross here at the ministry. We will be working together on future pilgrimages as our main focus is getting everyone to the Masses and then providing the most spiritual experience that can be provided for our Priest and pilgrims.

We were very happy to be able to see Father Jose Luis and the Carmelite brothers while we were in Rome. We went out to dinner and were serenaded by a local artist who sang the Ave Maria to us.

Even though graces come from being to accept the trials that are handed to us in whatever form Our Lord and Our Lady want us to go through, this trip came with some major problems including the financial. We lost 4 people within the last days of the trips. With groups this is financially disastrous. The exchange rate is not in our favor and the increase in the price of the trip as we dropped below the needed 20, plus the fact that I had to pay for the Priest made this a very expensive trip for this ministry. We are paying the bills but it will take a lot to recoup. We still feel called to do all we can to take our Priests on spiritual trips as they receive many graces for their priesthood. Our Lady under the title of Rosa Mystica, the patroness for Priests is always with us.

We will be contracting a bus to go to the Southern California Charismatic Conference this year. We will be able to take the Youth Group from Santa Cruz and a lot of others that could not afford the gas or the air fare. This will be great for all of us but it will be great when we get the financing for the Resource Center and have the conference here. That is our goal and as always any donations for that will be most appreciated. We are counting on our new Fundraiser, Sylvia Rodriguez to help us in that.

We have many answered prayers already this year including:

• A young man from the Sherriff’s Dept. that was charged with an offense that was found innocent.
• Two gentlemen with breathing problems, one doing great, one still needing prayer.
• One young man with some anxiety is doing great.
• Three people needing jobs are working
• Ongoing prayers answered through the intercession of St. Joseph and many more

Our donations in addition to the major fundraiser this year is better than ever before at this time of the year. We are very grateful to all our benefactors.
We will be missing our Priest, Father Godfrey, as he will be given his own parish starting July 1st. We are very grateful to him for his years of celebrating mass for us here on every First Friday and we wish him well at his new parish. He will always be in our prayers. He is on the front page celebrating mass on our slide show.

I would like to direct you to our February President’s page and the story of our major volunteer here in the store. As we did not have a newsletter to highlight that month it has brought tears to a lot of people that did see it.

God Bless all of you. Be assured of our prayers.

Gayle Sims
President