St. James Church in Rockford was in need of some updating to the
paster walls in some areas of the rectory and guest areas.
Here is previous post from the removal of plaster and first day of work.
Any time the Joes get together to meet or work- we specifically include a time of spiritual reflection and discussion.
Joe Altenhoff has this to say about the spiritual reflection at St. James on our work days here:
"Our
Lenten project at St. James rectory was done at the same time as our other Joes
worked at the Poor Clair's Convent. For our first Lenten session, we read
the daily reading and reflected on how it impacted us this Lent.
This
first weekend was also the first weekend at Poor Clair's. Life at the
convent is mostly quite so we decided to work in communion with our Poor
Clair's brethren for the first hour in silence.
It was
difficult at first but then the work seemed to take on a uniqueness. We
thought about working as a sacrifice, as a penance, as a gift.
At one
time the sound of scraping water damaged plaster from the walls sounded like a
strange type of song with repeating rhythms and notes.
The
silence actually lasted more than an hour. Discussions during lunch were
richer than normal and spiritually healthy for the team.
Our
second session was lead by an active participant from the first session, a
fellow Joe from St. James, Tim Barkdoll. Tim started the reading from the Acts
of the Apostles where they are feeling the affects of the Holy Spirit on their
bold beliefs.
Tim
asked us the question, 'Why do you believe?' The responses challenged us
to really think about our faith in a way that we could discuss it with others.
The question pushed us all to think harder about our gift of faith and to be able
to express it to ourselves and the outside world.
We
thanked Tim for his good work in preparing our group for the work ahead that
day."
Here are some photo updates from the second day and painting portion of the project-
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