“I give thanks to God every time I think of you, praying always with joy in my every prayer for all of you … ” Philippians 1:3-4
My dear and respected Fr. Jim, Fr. Sibi, Deacons, Staff and parishioners of Mary Queen,
It is with great gratitude I, Fr. Andrews Kollannoor, M.S., am writing this letter of acknowledgement and appreciation from Our Lady of Salette Church, Sulphur.
Facing the aftermath of Hurricane Laura (a rectory without shingles and a portion of the roof blown away; parish hall with water damage; dozens of big trees fallen all around; without any electricity or water; no food possible to cook or available to buy; parishioners displaced or lost their houses, barns, cars and most of their possessions) I couldn’t believe my eyes seeing the devastation. Being helpless and overwhelmed after coming back from the mandatory evacuation, I prayed “O God, come to my assistance; O Lord, make haste to help me.” The next morning, as one of the respondents, Fr. Jim Kuczynski called me and said, “Fr. Andrews, Mary Queen wants to help your parish through this catastrophe.” I couldn’t believe the help which came from Mary Queen! I remembered the words of Our Lady to Saint Faustina, “I am not only the Queen of Heaven, but also the Mother of Mercy.” I admire the parishioners of Mary Queen, who not only have a deep devotion to Our Lady, Mary Queen and Mother of Mercy, but who also have a deep devotion to acts of Charity and works of Mercy! I would like to express great gratitude to all parishioners, most especially Chris Austgen, coordinator for the Social Service Ministry, for stepping up to organize an amazing outreach for Our Lady of La Salette, Sulphur, which is the poorest parish in Sulphur and located in an area of hundreds of needy families who lost everything; no food, no restaurants and not even a safe house to live in! My companion La Salette priest, Fr. Lawrence Kohler (86) asked me, “Where do we get food?” I said, “I don’t know!” Then he responded, “God will provide!” Yes, indeed; God provided “Manna” from Texas! I can’t thank enough the Knights of Columbus from Mary Queen, who worked with the Lighthouse under the leadership of Grand Knight Mr. Matt Hermes and Mr. Tony Scarps, a district officer of K of C, to provide fresh, homemade lunch and supper for six days! I guess on the seventh day, they rested! I couldn’t believe the hard work of members of Lighthouse and Knights of Columbus. Cooking two meals for 500 people for six days, driving morning and evening back and forth from Galveston to Sulphur and serving people six hours a day; that’s, to me, the real Christian faith like the Good Samaritans living out the sacrificial love towards their neighbors! A real miracle of multiplication of bread in modern times by the Lighthouse and the Knights of Mary Queen.
The Gospel of Mark presents Jesus with three women going to the tomb, taking spices to anoint Jesus. They were saying to one another, “Who will roll back the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb? When they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back; it was very large.” (cf: Mk 16:1-4) Seeing the large pile of debris, fallen shingles and metal sheets that made the backyard at the Rectory, the Shrine of Our Lady of La Salette and the Prayer Garden into a forest, I asked myself, “Who will remove this forest back into the former Shrine garden?” I heard a voice telling me, “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” (Mt. 17:20) To my amazement came The Men’s Ministry from Mary Queen, Friendswood, under the leadership of Fr. Sibi Kunninu, M.S., with the 12 ministers: Deacon Chuck, Mike Stuart, John Becker, Steve Hernandez, Matt Henderson, Barb Henderson, J.C. Mills, Miguel Camacho, Den Sowa, Don Goins, John Mulvahill and Brian Bertrand! Surprising to see them unloading wheelbarrows, rakes, tarps and chainsaws, I realized they are here not for a picnic but to work hard to clean up mountains of debris. Six hours of their hard labor turned around a couple of acres of land into a green meadow! I do not know how to thanks them for such an incredible job!
The beauty and climax of the story of the Good Samaritan in Lk 10:25-37 is that the story does not end on the same day. There was a next day of actions of a promise for the future that “I will come back and give more if you need.” The next day, he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper with the instructions, “Take care of him. If you spend more than what I have given you, I shall repay you on my way back.” (Lk 10:35) When Fr. Jim pulled out a brown envelope of 15 gift cards worth $100 each and told me, “Take care of the needy and if you have to spend more, I hope our generous parishioners will give more!” Just six weeks after Hurricane Laura, we were hit by Hurricane Delta. Our people were completely devastated, and Fr. Jim was able to keep his promise by the generosity of the parishioners and wrote a check for the complete amount gathered, $18,000! I couldn’t believe the incredible acts of charity of the parishioners of Mary Queen, Friendswood, towards us! I could summarize and say Mary Queen came to the rescue of Our Lady of Salette! Thanks be to God!
My heart being filled with great gratitude and tears of joy in my eyes, let me conclude this thank-you letter in Our Blessed Mother.
Fr. Andrews Kollannoor, M.S.
Pastor, Our Lady of La Salette
602 Claiborne St.
Sulphur, La., 70663