Now that we have your attention, let us explain what we mean.

The explosion we’re speaking of is the phenomenal increase in the number of mission requests we’ve received over the past two years. Fr. David Wilton, our Mission Director, has lamented the fact that we don’t have enough priests to cover the literal flood of invitations that he has received from faithful Catholics across the United States, Canada and even from as far away as Australia! Our mission priests are making remarkable progress in imitating what our founder, Fr. Jean Baptiste Rauzan did when he began our Congregation almost 200 years ago. He and his small band of priests worked with apostolic zeal to re-evangelize France after the devastation of the French Revolution.

Today our mission preachers, with that same zeal, are trying to re-evangelize a much wider area that suffers from even greater evils such as the lingering effects of the “Sexual Revolution” of the 1960’s, almost four decades of rebellion from within the Church and attacks from without. We are trying to re-evangelize the large number of Catholics who were never taught real Catholicism. One example is those Catholics who think that they can support grave crimes against life or elect politicians who work to keep these laws from hell legal and still call themselves “faithful Catholics.”

We are extremely delighted that our efforts have met with great success! Our missionaries have witnessed an ever-increasing number of people humbly returning to Confession after having been away from the Church for too many years or who are confessing sins they never knew were mortal due to their not having had a good, orthodox religious education over the past several decades.

One of the many reasons for the welcome increase in the number of mission requests and their success comes from a new branch of our preaching apostolate that is now in full swing and has had amazing results after having started only two years ago -- well before we knew our Holy Father would decide to proclaim the “Year of the Eucharist”. The Congregation of the Fathers of Mercy now has a special team of priests, headed by Fr. Louis Guardiola, C.P.M., whose sole work is to preach THE FUNDAMENTAL ANTIDOTE to the evils in our time: that antidote is adoration of Our Lord Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament. Our priests preach on how to begin adoration, perpetual or otherwise, in parishes, in hospital chapels, etc.; they preach “booster weekends” in those parishes that already have adoration and need to recruit new adorers; they preach week-long Eucharistic Missions and they preach Forty Hours Devotions in order to renew in the hearts of Catholics a love for and faith in Jesus’ Real, Bodily Presence in the Holy Eucharist.

This project began in the Summer of 2001 when Fr. Bill Casey, our Superior General, approached the newly ordained Fr. Louis Guardiola about it. Fr. Louis was a student of the late Fr. John Hardon, S.J., who with then Bishop Raymond Burke of LaCrosse, WI, and Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, IL, established the “Real Presence Association,” (RPA) for the purpose of educating Catholics on the Real Presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and fostering adoration of the Holy Eucharist, most especially Perpetual Adoration. Bishop Burke wrote Fr. Bill Casey and asked him to provide priests for the RPA. Since Fr. Louis had been a student of Fr. Hardon several years before, Fr. Bill asked Fr. Louis if he would be interested in this assignment and gave him the Eucharistic Adoration Handbook from the RPA which included an article on the history of Perpetual Adoration and on how to start adoration in parishes. After studying the booklet, Fr. Louis assured Fr. Bill that this was a worthwhile endeavor for the Fathers of Mercy to take on as a branch of our preaching apostolate.

In the Spring of 2002, while Fr. Louis was a parochial vicar at Sacred Heart Church in Russellville, KY, Fr. Bill appointed him as the head of our mission team that would promote Eucharistic Adoration. In the Fall of 2002, after rigorous preparations Fr. Louis began his work. Since then, Fr. James Walling, C.P.M., and Fr. James Costigan, C.P.M., have been assigned to assist with this necessary endeavor. These three priests work long and hard to preach the Real Presence of Jesus to Catholics whose faith in this Truth is weak or non-existent. Up to this point 35 missions have been preached, 20 missions are going to be preached -- the invitations continue daily -- and our priests are looking forward to a post-Lent 2005 “blitz” on California where several weeks of Eucharistic Missions are already being planned. Our Eucharistic Team has even been invited to preach in the Philippines!

As we celebrate this great Year of the Eucharist, we ask your prayers for our priests who are engaged in this Eucharistic Apostolate and for our other mission preachers who are working diligently and tirelessly to bring the basics of our Holy Catholic Faith to hungry souls so that God may be glorified and truth may reign in our country once again.

It seems that in every truly successful group of people there are always a few people who go unnoticed and yet provide some of the most important work in the group. We have a wonderful example of this kind of person in our community in a father who works silently, most often behind the scenes and yet has contributed more to our efforts than we could ever mention. The unusual thing about him is that he’s the only father here who’s not a priest and is not even ordained. He is Charles Glenn Jarman, the proud father of Fr. Glenn Jarman, one of our priests who is currently a captain and chaplain in the United States Air Force.

Mr. Jarman, or “Mr. J” as some call him, has been with us since 1997 and has served chiefly as our caretaker and for a time he was our Sunday cook (and even an altar server when the brothers were away at the seminary and the novices were away). It would be almost impossible to list the many ways that Mr. Jarman has contributed to this community. He is NOT an ordinary worker by any means. At 75 years of age, he works harder and more efficiently than men half his age. He’s never afraid to tackle any job, even one he’s not done before, and yet when he finishes, it’s always as though a professional has done the work. His labor both inside and outside our buildings gives our novices extra time to read, study and concentrate more intensely on their spiritual formation during their very important and very busy novitiate year. His work allows them to carry out the work assigned to them with greater ease. Mr. Jarman’s work gives our brothers the opportunity to have time off during their vacations from their seminary studies. His many talents can be seen in the beautiful guest apartment that he made from an old, dirty, cluttered storage area in Immaculata Hall, in the sturdy pedestals he constructed in our chapel to hold the statues and in the chapel itself, which he had a major role in renovating to make it a worthy place for Our Lord and for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

Each morning Mr. Jarman is with us in the chapel for our 7:00 am prayers and Mass and each afternoon he is with us during our Holy Hour before the Blessed Sacrament. He takes his meals with us and is always a source of good humor whether he’s giving it or receiving it. After dinner he helps clear up our refectory and then goes immediately to lend a hand with the washing of pots and pans without being asked -- and this is usually after he has worked hard for the day tending to our grounds and buildings.

Mr. Jarman has been a tremendous asset to our mission priests in his help with labeling the tape albums and cassettes, reproducing thousands of cassettes and filling the albums once they’re completed. We couldn’t count the number of times that he has been found in our tape room after dinner working on the tapes without having to be asked.

He’s even volunteered to get up at “O Dark Thirty,” as Fr. Bill calls it, to drive many of the priests to the Nashville airport -- over an hour away -- and then return to his work at our Generalate.

Every member of our community would agree that even though Mr. Jarman has not taken vows and is not ordained, he is just as much a Father of Mercy as the rest of us. He is known to be a kind, generous, friendly man to all who attend Mass here at our Generalate, but it’s very likely that not even those who are here regularly know how much work he has done behind the scenes. Since he is a humble man and never looks for public recognition, we at the Fathers of Mercy wanted to honor Mr. Jarman in this edition of our newsletter. We wanted to thank him not only for his hard work and for his contribution of his only son to the priesthood, but to thank him for his dedication to the Church -- he is a real convert of 50 years -- for his example, and for the love and fraternity he has shown to every member of this community. We hope that you will join us in thanking God for Mr. Jarman and in praying to God that more people will follow Mr. Jarman’s selfless example in whatever state to which God calls them and will dedicate themselves to God and follow His will wherever it may take them. GOD BLESS YOU, MR. J!!!