Dear Community of St. Joseph’s,

 

            As most of you know, St. Joseph’s has had perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament going on since December 1999. Each week starting right after the 5p.m. Sunday night Mass, parishioners take an hour to sit with Jesus in our Mercy Chapel. When their hour is over another comes and takes their place. This continues through the week and ends right before the 5p.m. Saturday night Mass.

 

            Just like a family, people sometimes leave the ministry and new ones come to take their places. Sometimes parishioners’ jobs change hours, or they take a job in a different city and have to move away. Sometimes parishioners have to resign to take care of aging parents or new babies. Sometimes people have to resign due to illness, or because they have gone on to heaven.

 

            We are again experiencing vacancies that need to be filled. During our Lenten appeal we got a fantastic response, and we had just a few extra hours that need filling. However, soon after we lost a few more adorers and are again in need of sign ups.

 

            You may ask, “Why would people go to the Mercy Chapel once a week for an hour, week in, week out, some in the middle of the night, for years and years to sit with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament?” Father Theodore Dobson writes, in his book Say But The Word:

 

  “So often we want God to act in our lives, but we do not stay in His presence long enough for Him to work.

 

 “Just in the same way that we cannot walk in the sunlight without being warmed by its rays, so we cannot be in the presence of the Eucharist without being filled with Jesus’ love, to the degree we are open to it through faith.

 

 “Jesus is always available to fill us with life in the Eucharist reserved in the tabernacle. His energy is as limitless as His love. As we learn to come before Him and receive, we find there is great spiritual power to help us with our needs and concerns.”

 

Please consider signing up for an hour to spend with Jesus in our Mercy Chapel. You won’t regret the time you spend with Him.

 

                                    Andy & Sondra Geyer

                                                            Perpetual Adoration Coordinators