President's Desk
JUNE 2009

UPDATE ON RESOURCE CENTER

It has been an exciting month as well as a little disappointing also. We were able to visit a facility that will be perfect for the Resource Center. It has the area to evangelize, the office space to run the ministry, the space for the gift shop that is so necessary for our evangelization efforts, plenty of room for a kitchen, chapel, board room, meeting and counseling rooms as well as anything else we need as time goes by.

The total of 28,000 Square Feet with a 22,895 Square Feet area is plenty to hold the conferences (adult and teen) allow local ministries use of the large footage which is not available anywhere else, provide a spiritual place for wedding receptions at an affordable price as well as special event receptions as well. A teen night will be one of our first priorities to give our youth a place to go that is local and supervised. The rest of the area will be for offices and the gift shop.

It is located in South Tucson on the corner of 4th and 36th street, ery near to the freeway with ample parking as well. It is very easily accessible which is important.

Earlier this week we thought we had a benefactor to help us with this but it did not go through. We have several people trying to find a source that will see the possibilities we offer this community; however, in the process we realize that as this ministry is quiet in imitation of Our Blessed Mother we really don’t tell all that is done here and how much experience there is to really make a success of this project.

We have experience in putting together conferences in the past and have contacts all over the world to make the evangelization and educational part of this projected Resource Center very fruitful attracting people from all over the area. Our team includes organizers, counselors, prayer teams as well as people wanting to help with security for our youth programs. Over the past 14 ½ years we have gathered the expertise to handle this unpublicized part of this ministry. As we were questioned about what we do for others, I realized we really don’t publicize that part of the ministry as well. Often I report healings and prayers answered which is a priority in the ministry but not what we do for others like:

Providing educational materials including books, bibles, liturgy of the hours etc. to our Priests and religious at no cost or a major discount. This has included a complete set of  24 Cardinal Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI)  books for one of our Priests here in the ministry. We have provided Sacramentaries and Lectionaries for our parish as well as any special request that our newly ordained Priests have requested over the years.

Giving rosaries to church catechism classes, special events and funerals at no cost. Just this week a gentleman called to see if he could get "low cost rosaries". As I questioned him I learned that his daughter had just passed away and he wanted to give them to the people that were going to attend her rosary novena. I told him to come in and pick them up as a gift and a prayer from this ministry.

Providing supplies such as Mass Kits, Pix's altar supplies etc. to our Priests and Churches. This week one of our Priest's came in and needed 2 Pix’s (they were the gold cases the Priest uses to carry the Eucharist to the sick or home bound) the cases and a DVD. He also needed a Rosary for his mother who was in Uguanda and he was sending them back with his brother. He received them at no charge.

Providing statues and pictures to our churches at no charge. I cannot remember how many statues have been donated to our area Churches. I remember Our Lady of Guadalupe to the VA Chapel, St. Therese for the Garden at Santa Cruz, The Risen Christ, St. Jude, Infant of Prague, and many more as the local churches have needed.

Providing the Magnificat Magazine each month to two Parishes for the Priest and the secretaries so they can be used for the homilies and the intentions for the Masses at no charge to them.

Over the years the major financial burden of taking our Priests on pilgrimages with their expenses covered has been a tremendous amount. I honestly do not remember how many have gone but the cost per Priest has ranged from $1,000.00 per trip to over $5,000.00. For trips to South America there were over 15 and Europe over 10 and to the Holy Land, so far 2

Without being more specific, we really feel that as the Bible says, "don't let your right hand know what your left is doing" we don't believe that it is necessary to disclose all this just to get the benefactor we need for this project. We believe God will provide, so as we continue to try to find the benefactor or benefactors we will appreciate your prayers to help us to make a difference in this world we are living in on a much larger scale.

If you would know of anyone that we can contact, please email us with the information, it will be very much appreciated and we will continue to ask St. Anthony to help us find the source as well as Blessed Andre (he buried only medals to ask for the intercession of St. Joseph to build the largest oratory to St. Joseph in the world and this was accomplished with prayer, not paper work.)

May God continue to bless you in this coming year dedicated to Our Parish Priests and our exciting news that Martin Doe will be able to start writing the reflections again for our web site starting next month.

Also an update: Please pray for Deacon James as he will be ordained to the Priesthood on June 20th and OUR FUNDRAISER ON JUNE 21ST, FATHER'S DAY.

Gayle