May 14

Today’s Readings: ACTS 15:15-17, 20-26 PS 113:1-8 JN 15:9-17

Since today’s Gospel and this coming Sunday’s Gospel have similar themes, I just wanted to take a moment and thank you.

In order to maintain the majority of our staff, there was a difficult staff reduction, many staff furloughs, and some temporary staff pay reductions, but your incredible generosity during this insane time has made it possible for Our Lady of Joy to be in a position to bounce back more rapidly than most parishes.

Make no mistake, we are emerging with some battle scars and we are relying on your continued faithfulness, but your response was humbling for the staff and clergy to witness on a weekly basis.

You might be thinking we did so well because we are – let’s just say – not situated in the worst neighborhood. That wasn’t it. When you look at percentage drops from last year (see: Masses with PEOPLE), we had huge losses at the beginning of March. Then, you rallied and responded to the call. The increase at the end of March and through April was downright inspiring.

And can I be honest? My fellow staff members have been inspiring, as well. I won’t list everything they’ve done, because I’ll forget to mention someone, but the leadership of Fr. Jess, Fr. Clement, and Laura Hicks has done more for the parish than you will ever know.

Thank you for allowing me to continue to be a small part of this amazing community of the Faith.

David is the Director of Faith Formation at Our Lady of Joy. If you have comments or questions, send your emails to dlins@oloj.org.

As we have lost our weekly collection income, we can only maintain our current staff for a limited time without your help. Please spread the word and sign up for auto-pay or make whatever donation you can at www.ezekielgiving.com/App/Giving/oloj.