{"id":11102,"date":"2011-02-21T13:56:05","date_gmt":"2011-02-21T18:56:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/?p=11102"},"modified":"2011-02-21T13:56:05","modified_gmt":"2011-02-21T18:56:05","slug":"how-eucharistic-adoration-transformed-a-parish-on-the-decline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/2011\/02\/how-eucharistic-adoration-transformed-a-parish-on-the-decline\/","title":{"rendered":"How Eucharistic Adoration transformed a parish on the decline"},"content":{"rendered":"

ACUSHNET \u2014 A little church in a small town, St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church was facing tough times. The congregation was dwindling, and Mass attendance was at an all-time low. The empty confessional was collecting dust, and donations were dismal.<\/p>\n

But then the unthinkable happened.<\/p>\n

Today, St. Francis Xavier is one of the most vibrant parishes in the diocese with standing-room only Masses, confessional lines, a busload of parishioners participating in the March for Life, and an abundance of freewill donations that will make them debt-free by April.<\/p>\n

“Jesus is on the property,” said Mary Cardoza, the spark that inflamed the parish. “We are a church on fire.”<\/p>\n

Brought up in a Catholic family, Mary Cardoza attended Catholic schools.<\/p>\n

“I had one foot in the world and one foot in the Church,” she said.<\/p>\n

But although she fulfilled her Sunday obligation, she never participated in church activities and often rebelled against the laws of the Church.<\/p>\n

“I was always a zombie Catholic,” she said laughing.<\/p>\n

When she turned 40, she decided it was time to cultivate a relationship with God.<\/p>\n

“You only go to Him when you are in trouble,” she said. [Source<\/a>]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The rest of this must-read story explains how Eucharistic Adoration transformed the parish and parishioners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ACUSHNET \u2014 A little church in a small town, St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church was facing tough times. The congregation was dwindling, and Mass attendance was at an all-time low.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sacraments"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11102"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11103,"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11102\/revisions\/11103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}