Absolutely!
My situation is similar to yours. Our pastor is Maronite but we have been to the Shrine of the Divine Mercy in Stockbridge MA where he offered our Divine Liturgy for anyone present at that time on that day. This feast is not celebrated in the East but he is a convert. While we do not have an image of the Divine Mercy in our Church, he brought it up in today's homily. This is "New Sunday" on the Maronite liturgical calendar but it carries the message of mercy. The Church bulletin indicated today's date and New Sunday (Divine Mercy Sunday).
As Director for Religious Education, I brought all the children together today and spoke of St. Faustina and the Divine Mercy image and message. Each child was given a Divine Mercy image page to color in imitation of the actual image. Father blessed ALL of their work and the children brought their 'images' home to hang on the wall of their room or attach with magnets to the refrigerator.
May I ask a prayer from you and anyone else who drops in on this thread? The bishop has decided to re-assign our pastor to another parish up in Buffalo NY. Normally, we would be happy for him. However, he is midway through the restoration of an historical church that will be our future church. This is no mean feat! All of the work so far has been done by him and I mean that literally. He has managed, through the mercy of God, to have the roof replaced at a fraction of what it would normally cost. He and I were able, against all odds, to procure a grant to restore the stained glass windows (one of the most costly aspects of the restoration). There was no rectory for him when he arrived 8 years ago. 6 months ago, he completed restoration of the parish house and, finally moved in. We threw a housewarming for him since he had absolutely nothing. He was getting ready to proceed with restoration of the interior of the church and seeking professionals to provide us with estimates that I could then submit to grant organizations.
This decision could not have happened at a worse time! The priest the bishop intends to send us has only been in this country for 8 months and has a poor knowledge of the English language. He doesn't even have a drivers license. The best analogy I can make is that of a snowball rolling down a mountain. As it rolls, it gathers momentum. If one were to stop it, it would break up into pieces. That is what will happen to this parish.
Tomorrow morning, a group of us are headed down to the Eparchial office in Brooklyn to speak with the bishop. Despite several phone calls from various parish council members, he claims the decision was made by an eparchial committee familiar with our parish. No one form the eparchy has been up here in more than 2 years. They have NO understanding of the status on the restoration of this church. To compound matters, the RC bishop closed 5 of the 6 churches in the community where we are planning to open ours. Their reaction was one of a knife thrust into the heart. A small group remained together, another group, with no commutation, decided to stop attending mass and a large 3rd group left the church for a local, evangelical church. On Easter Sunday, I could not get home because the traffic from the evangelical church was so great, that it blocked the roads all the way down the major, intersecting thoroughfare. There were 2 police cars there to direct traffic. That brought back memories from childhood when the Catholic Churches were confronted with a similar situation.
We know from neighbors in that neighborhood that the Catholics are watching the development of our church and asking when it will be opened. With the move of this priest, we are dead in the water.
Please say a prayer and ask our Lord to open the mind and heart of the bishop. Thank you!