How To Rebuild A Church

I received a letter from one of our parishioners last week, which I want to share with you all. Having listened to our desire to Renew Visitation and the need we have to all pitch in to build up our parish, one of our families sent me this email.

“Before Mass this morning, my wife and I were watching a BBC nature program about drought. One segment was about the Great Mosque of Djenné in Mali which is built of adobe, essentially river mud and rice husks. Each year, they have to put a new layer of mud on the Mosque so that it doesn’t disintegrate in the summer rains. Once they mix the rice husks into the mud, they have to wait for it to mature.

The lack of water from the drought slows down the maturation process. The entire village was getting anxious because the Mosque is the center of their life, and the rains were only days away. Finally, the villager in charge of the mud proclaims it ready. Everybody drops everything. The entire village—women, men, children, & babies—goes down to the mud pits, slogs it up to the Mosque and gives it to those who climb rough ladders and the external wooden beams and slather mud on the cracked exterior. The kids get bored and start slinging mud at each other until an adult chases them down to the mud pits again. It’s great! It made me hope that Visitation sees our Church as the center of our lives and we rebuild it with as much energy and enthusiasm as these people.”

Fr Jim