Report to Pilgrims, Volunteers, Patrons, Friends, and Family.
2023 has been a year of growth at the Our Lady, Patroness of America Center. Pilgrim visits are up 40+ percent, and the email list has nearly doubled over 2022. The mission is growing, and we are blessed!
And we are encouraged, especially considering that pilgrims are the number 1 focus at the center. We treat each pilgrim as if God sent them; I believe it is true. Each pilgrim is a gift! It affirms that Our Lady wants all of us, her children, to participate with her in bringing souls to Jesus Christ.
This year has also been a banner year in other ways. Our volunteer corps continues to grow, with many taking on specific aspects of our mission. Since we only have two full-time paid staff members, the volunteers bring specific talents, pick up the slack, and further stretch our donors’ generous contributions. My wife, Terry, and I are among the volunteers dedicated to Our Lady’s mission in Rome City.
Over the last year, Our Lady’s mission for us has become more focused. This was done through Adoration, prayer, reading, and interaction with pilgrims, particularly with our clergy. And in one most important way…
Our Bishop, Kevin C. Rhoades (Diocese of Fort Wayne – South Bend), has been even more engaged in helping us to understand and fulfill Our Lady’s plan. I was graced to meet with him and Fr. Mark Gurtner, V.G., on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. From that meeting came greater clarity concerning the Center and how our mission should be accomplished. Frankly, I was a little overwhelmed by Bishop’s encouragement and desire to help bring Our Lady’s plan to fruition. It was apparent he had focused on our future in prayer and discernment during his preparation for this meeting. His guidance blesses us! We must step up more vigorously in response to Our Lady’s call and Our Lord’s graces.
From our meeting, we now have directional clarity on the sacred imagery that should adorn the sanctuary in the Oratory of the Holy Family. In 2024, we would like to kick off the project and get drawings and project scope to the point where we can engage our stakeholders for input and feedback. Along these same lines, it is time to get a master plan for our Campus.
As we focus on the pilgrims, we need to be able to communicate Our Lady’s gift in person, in writing, and with video content, and even in languages other than English. Most important is her call to the nation’s youth. They have a unique and privileged role in her plan.
We must reach those who can never visit the Oratory of the Holy Family and bring them Our Lady’s message, hope, and mission. We need to get every willing soul in America who is open to participating in Heaven’s plan.
Some of this is within reach with our current staff and inside our current funding. However, the long-term growth of this apostolate will need more significant funding. What has become clear from 2023 is that our mission is growing, how we pursue it must change, and our efforts must increase in response. We are called to expand our cooperation in Our Lady’s plan for America.
2024
Our Lady’s call in this devotion is to live and imitate Our Lady in her Fiat and the Holy Family. This is not a call to merely imitate the acts (although that is good) but to imitate in the very essence. She calls us to do the will of God in our lives (Fiat) and remain constantly in a state of Sanctifying Grace through holiness and the Sacraments. This, on our part, will give her the instruments to work her miracles of grace in our country.
In addition to the planning for the Oratory renovation, here are the primary focus areas for 2024.
Bishop Rhoades indicated he favors the Holy Eucharist being reserved in the Oratory of the Holy Family in spiritual support of the pilgrims. This is our greatest hope for 2024. The Divine Eucharistic Presence changes everything! He will bring more to our mission’s success than anything else.
Due to our limited space for presentations and events, the Oratory is used in ways that are not appropriate for reservation. We are solving this problem by building (almost completed) a priest vesting room across the hall from the Bishop’s Suite. This frees the current vesting room to the right of the Sanctuary for a Eucharistic Chapel. To finish this project, we must add heat and air conditioning (HVAC) to these new areas and complete the bathroom attached to the vesting room. This should be finished by spring.
The downside is that the Tabernacle will not be in the sanctuary. Our long-term plan is to build a Convocation Center, which will provide the opportunity to hold larger events and, most importantly, preserve the Oratory as a place of prayer and Sacraments.
We also need HVAC for the Gift Shop, hallway, snack room, and offices in the west wing.
The biggest project that we have is one that is unfolding now. It is bringing Our Lady’s hope for America to fruition. We must reach those who will respond to Our Lady’s call by bringing more pilgrims to the Oratory of the Holy Family. And for those who cannot come here, we still need to reach them.
In response, we are working on an expanded event schedule for next summer. We will focus on presenters who love Our Lady, understand her call for America, and know that the Sacred Heart of Jesus is the destination.
To reach beyond the Midwest, we are working on expanding our internet and social media outreach with more content. The content will be about the Marian Devotion of Our Lady, the Immaculate Virgin, the Patroness of America, and her plan for her children in America to bring the Peace of Christ to the world. What a privilege she is offering to us. It will also encompass the interactions with this devotion and other Marian devotions, and for those interested, it will address the theological basis.
In short, the content will show Our Lady’s plan for America as the antidote to the post-Christian culture that has overtaken our country and, for the most part, the world. This content will be produced in-house, but video content will need professional assistance.
Also, Bishop Rhoades teaches us that this devotion is not isolated and separate from other Marian Devotions. He points especially to Lourdes, Fatima, and Guadalupe. Meanwhile, this devotion is focused on America’s role in bringing the Peace of Christ to America. It is part of a more prominent call of Our Lady for the entire world. Devotion to Our Lady of America cannot be fully understood in isolation without Lourdes, Fatima, and Guadalupe, to name a few.
It is an exciting time for us at the Our Lady, Patroness of America Center. We are privileged to participate with her!
Al ..if that is you writing… I am sooo excited, and on Board with all that you said.
I am so happy for the Bishop’s enthusiasm. ..Do know that f there is any way I could ever help. please let me know. I am all about this. Especially about bringing the youth to an ” in-depth” study of this the indwelling of the Divine Most-Holy Trinity 🙂 Many Blessings,
Cynthia
I’m here and working hard. Merry Christmas!