Chris: We had heard testimonies of other people having feelings like that, you know, like spontaneous generative healings, I think is what they call them. But never at, like, our prayer station, you know, had we seen something like that. Emily: Welcome back. And you're listening to another episode of Open Door Policy. I'm your host Emily Mentock. And I'm joined by —. Fr. Patrick: Fr. Patrick Gonyeau. How are you doing Emily? New Speaker: I'm doing great Fr. Patrick, how are you? Fr. Patrick: Really good. In this remote world that we're in, still somewhat navigating, where are you recording from right now? Emily: Oh, this is an exotic one. I'm recording from Southern California when visiting my parents who spend a lot of time out here, they have a home — they're blessed to have a home near Palm Springs and my sister lives in Orange County. So I haven't seen her since July and I wasn't able to see my parents over Christmas because of the pandemic. So we're really blessed to get to travel. And I packed my microphone in my suitcase so that we could record an episode this week. Fr. Patrick: I'm happy for you, but four. It's four degrees right now, where I'm recording at. Emily: You don't want to know the weather here. It was a colder day here. A blistery 70. Fr. Patrick: Saw a snowman run by. Sorry. The weather is nice, you say? Emily: Oh my gosh. Yeah, it's so beautiful. Oh my gosh. We're so lucky. It's been, I mean, I need vitamin D to survive — I guess all humans need it to survive, but I feel like I really needed it this winter being in my apartment in downtown Detroit, all winter. Fr. Patrick: What has been your favorite moment in your favorite experience so far in Southern California? Emily: Oh my gosh. Well, everything's really perfect. The purpose of the trip is just to see my family since I hadn't seen them in so long. I calculated and it's the longest I've gone away from my family ever in my entire life. Because I went to college where I grew up, in town at Notre Dame, I didn't study abroad, and I mostly stayed in town for my working career. So I had never been away from my parents or my sisters this long ever. So yeah, it's just been such a blessing to be with them. And what about you Fr. Patrick? How have you been — what have you been up to? Fr. Patrick: All is well. I just want to share a warm, sunny weather story for a second. You know, I love the sunshine, right? But I moved to Tennessee for a while in my life. You know, back in my twenties. And it was so hot in the summer. And it made me appreciate, like, the Michigan summers, which are beautiful. And honestly, like, the older I've gotten, like, you know, I've got some Irish heritage and I burn pretty easily, and several of the men, most of the men in our family have the gene where we go bald, and it's just not a good combination for that sun. So I'm grateful for, like, the Michigan seasons where, like, I love sunshine. I love a visit to Florida if I can get it once in a blue moon, but actually I've come in my older age to just love, like, that Michigan, we don't get cooked all the time by hot sun. So, you know, I'll take the four degrees today, though I'd like one or two days of that Southern California stuff. Fr. Patrick: But hey, the Son, Jesus Christ is always shining in beloved disciples. And this first — this guest of ours tonight, the first time I met him, I remember vividly — well, my first recollection of standing in the sacristy is St. John Newman in Canton, right? All right. And this guy was just clear, right from the get go, like, so full of the Lord's love and radiant, kindness, and joy, truly authentic. And I'm going to pitch it to you, Emily, take the intro. Emily: All right. So our guest this evening, is it Chris Leach. Chris Leach has worn even multiple hats in just the short time that I've known him, but currently he is the Director of Evangelical Charity for the Archdiocese of Detroit. We're really excited to be working — or hearing from Chris today because that's such an important initiative of the work that we're doing to Unleash the Gospel in all of our parishes. Archbishop has been really encouraging us to see evangelical charity as an essential part of the evangelization work that we do. So can't wait to hear from Chris about his work and his journey. But before we introduce him, I'd love to just share three fun facts. And these are truly fun ones to share about Chris. Emily: The first one is that he got a pandemic puppy even before it was cool, he says, really before there was a pandemic, so in December of 2019. And the puppy is doing great! The puppy has been at home with Chris through all of our work from home situation. And we'll have to hear more about the puppy once we turn it over to Chris. He also incredibly lost 185 pounds in the past two years. And now his Encounter School of Ministry project is to share that overflow of grace to help others also lose weight. So what an amazing journey about that. Two health guests — health-focused guests back to back, Fr. Patrick, with Michelle and now with Chris. And then finally, also coming to work for the Archdiocese of Detroit was Chris's first departure from direct ministry. And maybe Chris can share more about the difference between direct — or versus the ministry he's doing now. And although it's hard — to maybe the challenges of doing that air support work to help parishes through the pandemic. Certainly so many blessings in this year and was able to, he was even able to join the Our Lady of Good Counsel in Plymouth Youth Ministry team. So welcome, Chris. Chris: I'm excited to be here. I'm putting away some of my envy, Emily, over the weather ;cause I'm with other Fr. Patrick. Four degrees here. Emily: I know, I got lucky. This was of — all the weeks, this was the week to leave. Chris: I love it. Well, thanks so much for having me here today. Fr. Patrick: Awesome to have you, brother. Well tell us, man, how did you become such a joyful missionary disciple? Like what was — when did you encounter Jesus? Chris: You know, I've always known Jesus. Like God has been very good to me. Like, I grew up in a very Catholic family. My dad was in the Permanent Diaconate for the Archdiocese of Detroit. So he was in formation when I was very young, so I like to tell people that my sisters and I, we kind of grew up in the basement of Sacred Heart Major Seminary, because he would be — he and my mom would be at Formation Day and we would get to hang out there and everything. So yeah, so faith has been a big part of my life and I was very blessed as a high school student to be in a great youth ministry program. And through that was called by my pastor to enter youth ministry as an adult. And it's a way to continue to give back that blessing and to thank God for, you know, some of those early faith experiences that I had. Fr. Patrick: What a phenomenal witness to discipling in a family. That you were discipled by your folks from young age, plugged into a youth group where you got discipled well, which probably played a huge role in your youth ministry experiences. Was there a moment, Chris, where it just like, boom — I'm all in for Jesus, no turning back? Was there a particular powerful encounter that just like, man, this is legitimate. I'm never going back? Chris: You know, I think the earliest encounter like that was, I was in high school and I got to spend some time at Notre Dame with a Life Teen, like, leadership camp. And it was the first time I'd been in, like, a huge group of young people, just solidly bought into the Gospel and, you know, willing to ask for the coming of the Holy Spirit in, like, profound ways. So I do remember at, like, it's a Eucharistic Adoration times there, knowing that God was calling me to be a part of the Church, to be a disciple, in a powerful way. And that's when I started thinking, how am I going to live this out, and how am I going to continue discerning what my vocation is? And all of that going forward. But those those encounters have just continued to deepen, you know, and I can think even in the last, you know, five or six years where, you know, there isn't maybe one defining moment like that, but a whole series of them. Of each time I think, like, Oh, maybe this is where God wants you to be, there's a deeper place. There's more. Fr. Patrick: Glory to God. Chris: And I've just been blessed to be able to, you know, like, almost chase that presence. Emily: That's great, Chris, thanks for sharing that. You know, it's amazing all the different ways that people — the journeys that people are on to become a joyful missionary disciple. Some of our previous guests we've had this season have had those big conversion moments, or had time away from the faith before discovering again. But what a beautiful testimony here that it was just part of your upbringing that you would have that encounter with Christ, that life-changing encounter as young as in high school or in college. That's just so incredible. But what was your first job working in ministry where you started to kind of live out that call after the encounter you had? Chris: So my first job working in ministry was as a Youth Minister at Our Lady of Good Counsel, the parish that I grew up at. So when I was going to college, I was studying criminal justice and pastoral ministry at Madonna University thinking, you know, I wanted to somehow work with young people. And my pastor, who was Fr. John Sullivan at the time, invited me to work as a high school Youth Minister at the parish. He saw those gifts and asked me, you know, if I can help them minister to young people. So it was very cool to become the youth minister of a program that I had been a part of. And my younger sister was a part of the program at the time. So that was a huge blessing to get to spend that time with her too. But yeah, that kind of started me off in youth ministry. Chris: During the same time, the archdiocese had a ministry to youth who are incarcerated. So with the criminal justice background, I was able to volunteer in that and later do some work with them as well. So it was just — I was very lucky that there were people who had their eyes open asking, like, who's got the gifts for ministry and who can we invite into this ministry? And, you know, they invited me. Because I don't know that it — it maybe would've become my idea, but it definitely wasn't when it started out. That the encouragement, you know, from my pastor helped a lot. Fr. Patrick: How did walking with Jesus as a youth minister help form you as his disciple? Chris: Young people are they're like a very fertile ground for the coming of the Holy Spirit, very eager to take challenges. So as a youth minister, we get to give challenges to young people all the time to like grow deeper, but they're going to know if we don't follow. You know, like if we don't meet those same challenges. So it's a great, like, accountability piece, you know, to teach a young person how to call upon the Lord, but then to, in those moments of your own life call upon him as well. You know, I even remember when I was at St. John Newman as a Youth Minister, before I came and worked for the archdiocese. And during that time, my father passed away, he had cancer and went through a kind of a battle. And I think about how in a time of grief, in a time of loss or, you know, kind of struggle, and as beautiful as his passing was, and as good as God was to my family through all of that, I think about how easy it would have been to be discouraged if I hadn't had all these young disciples who were coming to know Jesus and, you know, showing his love in such a powerful way. And had this real strength of that community that was willing to rally around their youth minister at a difficult time, you know? So, I mean, it's been the hugest blessing of my life in order to be a lay minister and to serve the Church. And especially as youth minister. Emily: That's awesome, Chris, thank you so much for sharing that. Everyone in parishes, they're aware of youth ministers and youth ministry. You see our high school kids highlighted and the different work that they're doing, but I don't think a lot of people have the opportunity to actually, you know, be a joyful missionary disciple witness along joyful missionary disciples of that age. Because of course, it's not that they haven't encountered Christ yet, even like yourself, sometimes kids of that age are encountering Christ right there in that moment. And so what an incredible experience to hear from you, what about just the joy and the blessing of working with the youth in our archdiocese? Chris: Yeah. And I think it's so great that you see a young person encounter Jesus for the first time. There's that sense of wonder that just passes over them, right? And you can feel it. But what it reminds us, it's like if we ever lose that, it's because we stopped seeking after the Lord, you know? Like they're encountering him for the first time, but there's always more, there's always a deeper place that he wants to meet us. So it's great to have the young Church as that reminder that we have to — Pope Francis says, right? Like the Church has to always be young. We have to keep seeking that and not lose that spirit. And if we don't have youth ministry and we don't have young people as that reminder, we can grow stagnant in our own faith. So it's just, I think it's really hard to be a youth minister or a catechist, you know, with, with the young Church and to lose that. Because you're just, you have that joy in that sense of wonder in front of you all the time. It's a huge, a huge grace. Fr. Patrick: It's pouring out of you, it's infectious, brother. I got to dig in. Go after it man. How do you keep seeking the presence of the Lord? How are you going deeper? And you know, it's so clear you value it, just fire away, brother. Tell us about your prayer life, man. Seriously, that was spicy good. Chris: Well, my — kind of recently in the last couple of years, what I've been really seeking the Lord is through some different healing ministries. And a couple of years ago, some friends of mine had read the book, Unbound. Unbound: the Practical Guide to Deliverance, and —. Fr. Patrick: Every person should read it. Chris: I was invited to St. Paul on the Lake Parish, because they were doing a workshop on it. And I thought it was a workshop for people that wanted to lead Unbound, but really it was a workshop for people that wanted to receive. And I showed up and was like, well, Lord, I'm here. So this is where you called me to be in this moment, you know, so I'm going to receive this and I'm really going to dive into this. And I had a really powerful encounter, you know, during that workshop. So then I signed up again for what I thought was a leaders' workshop this time, it was at Our Lady of Good Counsel, a little closer to my home. And I brought two of my other friends and we showed up. And again, it was for people who wanted to receive. Emily: Oh my gosh. [laughs] Who is writing their, like, event copy? Chris: I know! And then my good friend, she said to me, "Well, this is where we are, maybe we're supposed to be here." And I was like, well, that was my — that was what I said last time. So you know, we can't turn around. And so, my two friends, we went through it again, and it was just an even deeper encounter with the Lord. And so I got really involved with Unbound Michigan and different things and helping to lead Unbound prayer with young people and come up with models that worked for young people. And right around the same time I learned about this place called Encounter Ministries. And there's a healing school, which Fr. Patrick knows a lot about. It's a great place. And I said to myself, if I ever had Monday nights free and had some of the freedom to be able to take their classes, that I would do that. And then I got a job with the archdiocese that didn't require me to work Monday evenings. And I said, well, I said if the door was open, I was going to try that. So I'm in the second year at the Encounter school. And yeah, I've really just been like pressing in to my own healing, but then also allowing the grace that God's given me to overflow and flow into other people too. Emily: I've heard it talked about a lot: healing ministry. I have some friends who are involved. I know Fr. Patrick, that you're involved. But for our listeners who may not be as aware, what is healing ministry? What is that Unbound prayer that you talked about? Chris, could you — maybe Fr. Patrick, you can lead and then hear from you, Chris, from your experience as well. Just real quick. What is that kind of prayer? Fr. Patrick: Chris? How about I do a short one on physical healing, like, and I'll pitch it over to you for Unbound. Chris: Sounds good. Fr. Patrick: You've just become a co-host. I'm brand new too, buddy. So here we go. You know, in Mark chapter 16, Jesus, when he says to, you know, as he's ascending he says to them, right around the Ascension, he says, you know, these signs will accompany those who believe in me. In my name, one of the things he says is, they'll lay their hands on the sick and they'll recover. And at the last supper in John chapter 14, verse 12, he says, "Amen, amen. I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do. And even greater works than these." And back to Mark 16, we hear that they went forth and proclaimed the Gospel and the Lord accompanied them with signs and wonders. Fr. Patrick: And as we read through the Gospels, we see that Jesus is always teaching and he's proclaiming and demonstrating. His first public message, you know, in Matthew's Gospel, the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven is at hand, and then, he proclaims it then he demonstrates it. You know, in Mark's Gospel we've been traveling lately. He drives out a demon a couple of weeks ago, we got this first public demonstration of power that we read of the Mark's Gospel. Then immediately, when he leaves the synagogue, he goes and heals Peter's mother-in-law. And so Jesus, you know, the kingdom of God is at hand, the kingdom of heaven is at hand and he shows how he treats sickness and he loves to heal. We know that, you know, not everything is healed in this life. And we do believe that we will receive the gift of a resurrected body at the second coming of Christ. Speaker 3: But even now the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And you know, the Catholic Church teaches in the Catechism 2565 that the grace of the kingdom is our soul in union with God. And we can truly lay claim to what Saint Paul said, "Yet I live, no longer I. Christ is living in me." If we have faith for that, we can take a step further and say, I can do the works that Jesus did. Because he said, "Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do. And even greater works than these." At Encounter Ministries, which I'm blessed to be involved with — Dr. Mary Healy is a dear friend of Encounter, and she wrote a book on healing that really, the premise is, I would say, I hope I don't mis-paraphrase her, is that if you are a disciple of Jesus, don't worry if you don't have a charism for healing, don't worry if you're not a saint. I mean, we all want to strive to be a saint and we can ask for a charism, but as you go and share the Gospel with people, look for opportunities to pray for people. To pray for physical healing, with expectant faith, because Jesus still heals today. Maybe Chris, you can tell a story and a little bit about Brian, that one we witnessed this summer. You were in you and I were there for that. That was awesome. So the Lord loves to heal, and the Archbishop has said in Unleash the Gospel, signs and wonders are a normal part of the life here in the Archdiocese of Detroit. We are really being blessed in the New Pentecost to just to lay hold of our true DNA, the blueprint of the Church in Acts the Apostles where signs and wonders are normal. And they accompany the Gospel and help hearts to realize the kingdom of heaven is at hand. He's worth everything. He's the pearl of great treasure. That's probably the last time Emily'll ask me a question. Chris! I don't have long — short form, people know. Chris: Beautiful. That was beautiful. In Unbound we're doing a similar pressing in, in terms of acknowledging the truth, that God created us to be free, to receive his love and to share in his blessings and that over the course of our lives, lots of things, try to leech that freedom, right? Whether that's sin or it's unforgiveness, or just like wounds that we carry from different traumas throughout our lives, any influence of evil spirits, or anything like that comes in and just slowly tries to rob us of that freedom. So in the Unbound prayer model, we're looking at just like five simple prayer skills or steps that we could lead people through in order to allow them, in Jesus' name, to reclaim that, like, holy state, they were created to enjoy, right? To have freedom. So we can walk people through like, how do we repent of the sins and those things that are our own fault? Chris: How do we forgive and let go of the faults that we find in others? How do we renounce addictions and things like that that have come onto our lives and, in the name of Jesus, claim authority over all of those things and over our own souls to be able to then, in the last step, just receive the blessings of the Father. And to picture that moment, right, where at Jesus's baptism where he's hearing the Father's words say like, "This is my beloved son with whom I'm well pleased." And ideally, you know, if you're going through an Unbound prayer, each of us going to have that moment where we're underneath the open heaven, hearing those words of our own Father speak to us. And I've just witnessed myself go through this model and through different retreats and things like that, where we're kind of playing around those different prayer skills and inviting the Holy Spirit in in different ways. Chris: Like I've heard that in my own life, I've seen that in the lives of young people. And I just heard testimony after testimony, now, of people really experiencing the love of their Father by going through repentance and forgiveness and renouncing and authority. And it's just been an awesome journey to go through. And too, it's played into my own weight loss journey. Fr. Patrick: Tell us more about that. Emily: Yeah, tell us about that. Chris: On my own, you know, I had struggled with weight, like, forever and — for most of my life, and it had gotten to a point where I just was literally weighed down. And I remember my roommate or former roommate at the time joined the seminary and he was living with me 'cause he was discerning joining the seminary, but he had invited into my house like lots of little devotional things that I hadn't tried before. Chris: And one of them was keeping holy water by the door. So when he moved off to seminary, he left holy water by the door. And I said, well, I'm the only one who lives here now. So this must be, you know, for me. And I was blessing myself, leaving the house and out of my mouth, I just said, Jesus, I'm dying. Like, like I need help. Like, like a prayer that just came up from within me that I — kind of startled me, took me by surprise. And I was on my way to a doctor's appointment, you know, like in this moment. So I just shared with my doctor and said, listen, I need help. Like, I don't know what to do, but, like, literally I see, like, my soul is crying out. Like, I need help with this. And she had all the right, like referrals and things that I'd heard, and it was awesome. Chris: But I really started looking into these Unbound prayer steps that had helped me with so many other things and looking at like, okay, what do I need to repent for? And what lies do — what have I believed about myself because of my weight that I need to renounce, and, you know, how can I speak the name of Jesus over the different addictions that I have and everything like that in order to like reclaim an identity? And I had a ton of support, like a ton of support that came. But that spiritual fire that's being started through Unbound just continued to burn. And I was so blessed because of that. And I've just seen so many people go through similar stories of healing because they have this freedom operating in their lives. So just cannot thank all the people enough for hosting those retreats and you know, really doing these preachings and stuff to help us learn how to connect with God like that. Fr. Patrick: Chris, I'd love to ask you about something we read about in the questions we send the guests before the program. In your second year of Encounter School of Ministry, you're working on a project that flows from your testimony of the breakthrough you got with the weight loss. And it's so awesome to hear that that clearly was a spiritual journey for you. But tell us about that project. What the Lord is doing, like, that breakthrough in your life is leading to grace overflowing, like you said to others. Go for it. Chris: I heard in one of the Unbound retreats that I went on this little piece of theology that I love, but it was the idea that God can never give us enough. He can only ever give us too much. Because in his abundance, right, like he can't fill a cup, it has to overflow every single time. And I had noticed in the life of my parents and mentors and things like that, grace overflow from them. And then I heard that same idea in Encounter. Where they're saying, like, someone could have a healing of their eyes and then they go on and pray for other people. And they just keep healing eyes. And started thinking like, well, what's my overflow? You know, like, where has God blessed me abundantly where I know that he's going to just overflow that blessing. And I said, it's definitely weight loss that, you know, this was definitely a journey for me, but it came very easy because of his grace. Chris: And if he was willing to give it to me, then I can be willing to give it away as well. And my partner on the project, Brian, who you mentioned a second ago, has also experienced great physical healing in his own life, a little more like miraculously, you know, maybe than my own, in that in am Encounter retreat setting he had legs that were different lengths and had plagued him for awhile. So as we were praying for his leg length, like in front of our eyes, was just this miracle. Emily: What? Chris: Yeah. Yeah. So he had — you were there. Yeah. I remember that you were there too, Father. Yeah, it was just an amazing miracle, but he's had healings like that throughout his life. It also has this understanding, right? That there's definitely grace within him, with which he is called to overflow and to give away. So we're working on a project where we can tell our own testimonies of being healed to others, because there's something in hearing a testimony that all of a sudden, you start to believe that yes, God can do this, right? And when you believe he can do it, it's like you're giving him permission to do it. So we wanted to have a platform to get our own testimonies out, to teach some little prayer skills — we're not using Unbound. But to just use some prayer skills to connect people then with the heart of the Father, after this faith has grown, and then we're inviting people who want us to pray with them to just have that connection so that we, too, can pray and just ask for an overflow of this grace into their own lives and to see what God does with that. And we started telling people that was our project and a couple of the responses were like, "Oh, but God doesn't miraculously heal people from obesity." You know, like, we see like the blind get their sight in scripture and stuff, but we don't have like a story. And my response is, "Well, we don't know what God's doing." God can be as good as God wants to be, and we're going to give him any space we can in order to do that. So I mean, that's what we're starting out on here, is a weight loss prayer ministry. Fr. Patrick: That's amazing. And that is miraculous, to lose 185 pounds. Gosh. Emily, what do we need to do next? You know, I want to ask 17 questions. I better check in with you. Emily: Ask your questions Fr. Patrick. Go for it. Fr. Patrick: Woo, freedom! All right. Hey honestly, when's the last time you listened to a podcast and somebody said, "and then the guy's leg got lengthened." Seriously, can we get more of this in the Holy Spirit, in the Church far and wide that like miracles become normal? Praise God, you know? 'Cause we serve an amazing, miracle-working God. Chris, would you tell the story of Brian? People got to hear that story of his leg getting popped and I can maybe give a little color commentary 'cause I was an eyewitness with my eyes open, but, go for it, buddy. So listen to this folks. Chris: We had been praying for his leg to be lengthened on other retreats, right? Like this was something that Brian had really been seeking from the Lord for some time. And we were — Brian and I were actually there, we were doing a mission for Ireland. I think you were supposed to be in Ireland, right? So we were invited to come and to pray and to just help pray from afar, you know, in Brighton for this group of people who are in Ireland. So we were really there just to support them and to pray for them not seeking any kind of necessary healing for ourselves. But there was a woman who was there who asked for prayer and Brian and I were a prayer team, so we were praying over her, and she really felt like the Lord was asking her to have her leg healed and to have a lessening of pain in her own leg. Chris: And so we prayed and had a little bit of relief from her own pain and everything like that. But in hearing that Brian realized, wait, that's what I've been praying for too. Right? Like this might be an anointed time for the Lord to be moving in a way that heals right legs, you know? So we went over to a prayer station and gathered some people and we were just praying as we had many times before, you know, for his leg to be lengthened. And — they tell you never to close your eyes as a prayer ministry person so that you don't, like, miss like a miracle happening. And I remember I was like closing my eyes, like praying for Brian and was — just really felt like the Holy Spirit was saying like "I'm going to move," right? Like I'm going to push this like joint. Chris: And then I hear Brian and one of the other guys there go and like, "AH," just, like, exclaim out. And I, like, opened my eyes and the woman who's holding his legs, like, she's looking up like, "Oh my gosh," like what's just happened here? And he got up and just walked away. You know, like, ready to — you know, balanced and everything. And it was just a crazy anointed time. And we had seen, we had heard testimonies of other people having healings like that, you know, like spontaneous generative healings, I think is what they call them. And, but never at, like, our prayer station, you know, had we seen something like that. But yeah, it was just, it was an amazing time. But Fr. Patrick, that's not even the first healing that you and I had a part of, because you were, you were my healing story. Chris: You said we met in the sacristy, but we should tell that story. I was leading a mission to Guatemala for St. John Newman. So we were taking some young adults and some high school students to Guatemala. We were leaving on a Sunday and I had the Michigan Catholic Young Adults Conference at St. John Newman, like, two days before. So we had a statewide conference, and then I'm getting on an airplane to go to Guatemala. And my, Emily, my ears completely closed. Like I have the worst ear infection, sinus infection, like, fever. It was awful. To the point of, like, I couldn't even go to the conference. I was, like, luckily I had a great team of people, but I was like, I have to get better before I can get on this plane and take these kids to Guatemala. And I ended up going up to the church for the holy hour and the Mass, I think that Fr. Patrick was doing, just so that I had any presence at this conference whatsoever. Chris: And I went into the sacristy to say hi to Fr. Patrick, 'cause I haven't — I don't think I had met him at that point, but just to welcome him to St. John Newman. And I said, "You know, I don't know what I'm supposed to do 'cause I'm going to Guatemala tomorrow and I'm this sick. And Fr. Patrick and the seminarian that was with him prayed over me in the sacristy, which I was very, like, touched that it was happening, but I had no context for faith healing or anything at that point. I'd seen lots of, like, spiritual healing and stuff through Unbound and, like, psychological healing and stuff like that. But I walked out of the sacristy after being prayed over and my ears opened up and my — like, I could breathe. I mean, like, I walked through the door of that sacristy, got on the airplane and was completely healthy the entire time. And I was just, like, God is good. Like, he knew exactly what I needed in that moment. Fr. Patrick: Wow. Thank you for sharing that, brother. I honestly forgot that we prayed there. That's amazing. And really it's — what if every disciple of Jesus — I got to ask you a question about your new ministry at the archdiocese, but what if every disciple of Jesus, you know, in every act of Christian service was ready to share the Gospel? And that's what the Archbishop talks about is proclaiming the Gospel, and ready to pray. When we pray, the Lord shows up, ready to back it up, ready to let, you know, our Christian service efforts be charged with the power of the Holy Spirit for evangelization. I just got to say it really quick for the listeners, I had my eyes open when that guy's leg was healed, Brian, and I was standing next to somebody — there were several of us gathered around — my eyes were open. Fr. Patrick: And to me, this was fun: if you ever saw somebody, like, get zapped by electricity. Like I saw with my own eyes, his leg go "bloop," like, just pop. And and I looked at the person next to me with joy and they looked back at me like, did you see that? Did you see that? We all saw it. And what Brian said that touched my heart so much, he says, "I've been pursuing this for a year, because after I heard God lengthens legs, I went after it." Like, he'd heard miracle stories that God does, you know, it's just another wonderful attribute of our glorious God. He does love to heal and he loves that we ask for that to happen. And the spiritual ones are the biggest ones. Of course, and you have such a heart for that as well, Chris. Tell us about your new ministry with the archdiocese. It's awesome. Your heart for healing, your heart for the Gospel, and then the Lord bringing you to be the Director of Christian Service for the archdiocese now, right? Chris: Yes. As of last Monday. Emily: Official, official. Chris: Official, official. Yes. No, it's a great time. We're really excited. Yeah, when COVID started and the pandemic happened, I was asked to — I have a social work background, as well in my education and everything. So I was asked to be the interim Coordinator for Christian Services in the archdiocese. We were able to do some amazing things during the initial shutdown with our food pantries and everything like that, and just had been praying and discerning if moving full-time into the Christian Service ministries was, you know, what the Lord was asking me to do. And just this last week we've — as part of Families of Parishes, we're changing the name of the office, so it will be the Office of Evangelical Charity. Emily: Which comes from the letter, right? That's coming from the letter. Chris: Yes. Where the Archbishop is asking that all of our, our good works out in the world can be tied back to the saving love of Jesus Christ. We resist the temptation to just become, like, secular philanthropists, that we resist the temptation to think of ourselves as any other social service agency. But that in everything we do, we know like, no, we do this because we know the dignity of the human person, but we also know the love of God and we want to be that presence. So from Encounter Grow Witness, I mean, all through the Synod, we've been talking about how do you witness to the reality of God's mercy. There's lots of ways to do that, but in evangelical charity, we're looking at it through some of those more human service, typically Christian service type ministries. Emily: Can you tell us a little bit about what that was like during the pandemic specifically? You know, you mentioned that at the start of the pandemic is when you really needed to step into this role, and I know that you've just done — and we're almost at one about one year now. What was that like to serve in a time of such great need? I mean, there is need everywhere, in every corner of the world, at all times, but especially during the pandemic, can you share a little bit what that was like? Chris: You know, it was a real honor to be able to be introduced to like the community of Christian Service ministers in the archdiocese during the pandemic, because, you know, we're trying to figure out, we have to close churches and we have to go work from home and everything like that. We have a real group of heroes that, you know, can't leave their posts because the people in their parishes rely on them so strongly. And they're priests and they're lay people and religious, but they kept food pantries open, they kept soup kitchens open. They stayed up all night building barriers and rethinking processes and stuff to be able to do this safely. But I think we have a lot to be really proud of and a lot to be really thankful for in the service that these people had in their parishes. Chris: Just lots of real worry stories going through that. I got to do some cool things through the generosity of the Knights of Columbus and working with Catholic Charities. We were able to keep all the food pantries open in our parishes. So that was just an amazing project to work on. We were able to work with the diocese as a Mercy in Action day every year. And we weren't sure what that was going to look like in COVID, but we had a greater participation this year, even than in years past. Just with parishes coming out with creative things that you can do socially distanced to continue to witness to the reality of God's mercy. And they came up with such great ideas in doing that. Right now we're working with — some parishes will be vaccine sites coming up and we're working on some Red Cross connections, 'cause we need blood drives to continue happening and things like that. So yeah, there's just a lot of good that can be done still. And I think the Church has been awesome at being on the front lines of a lot of this. Emily: I think we've heard that, you know, we'll know, like, carry out Jesus's love we'll do evangelization through signs and wonders. And I think hearing you describe how evangelical charity is being carried out in the archdiocese is such a sign of the work of the Holy Spirit in Southeast Michigan. So thank you, Chris, for your just sharing that, sharing about that with our listeners and for your work to lead some of these efforts and to help just guide and support, not just lead, but really support our parishes through the work that they're doing as well. Chris: Well, thank you. It's awesome. Fr. Patrick: What what's your dream, buddy? Right now? Like, where you're at in your life, what's your dream in the Holy Spirit? What's you kingdom dream right now? Chris: I think it's like a city of Detroit that's on fire. And I — we were asked to do this as an activity in Encounter, right? Like where are we going to claim? And I think like, I want to claim the city of Detroit, the Archdiocese of Detroit, like, in the name of Jesus, amen. For the Father, for his kingdom. And I can see like, Emily, I love that you bring it up, right? It's signs and wonders. And it's those ordinary acts of charity which, when done in Jesus name, can set the city on fire and can heal all this incredible woundedness that we can see everywhere we look in society today. People asking like, are there any selfless people left? It's like, absolutely there are, right? But we followed the most selfless one. And we can, you know, witness to that. So yeah, I just, I think there's an overflow of charity. There's an overflow of goodness. There's overflow of the Spirit over the city and — it's not really a dream, I know it's happening. So we're just going to keep advancing it by man. Fr. Patrick: Thank you brother. Emily: Thank you. Thank you so much, Chris, for joining us for your time. It's such an amazing to hear from you and so many different things about youth ministry, about your healing story, about the work you're doing now, it's truly just, the Gospel has come alive in you and we're so grateful to you for sharing your story with our listeners today. Chris: Well, thanks so much. Fr. Patrick: Thank you so much, Chris. It has been great to have you and speaking of Unbound that fifth key, the Father's blessing, brother, would you pray for us? Would you lead us out in prayer and ask the Father to bless us? Chris: Absolutely. We pray in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Amen. In the name of Jesus, we ask for a special presence of the Holy Spirit. Lord, we ask that you just open our eyes, you open our ears, you open our hearts to your presence. Lord, we ask that everyone hearing this podcast can feel the loving hands of their Father surrounding them. We ask that everyone listening to this podcast can hear the Father say, "You are my beloved child. With you I am well pleased." Lord we thank you for this time of blessing, and this time of love. We ask that you continue to pour yourself out into our hearts in a way that each of us can know, that each of us can also freely give away. We ask that each of us can take this blessing and bring it to our neighbors, to our families, to our fellow parishioners, Lord, and that through your love, we can set this city on fire. We pray all this confidently in the name of your son, Jesus Christ. Amen. Fr. Patrick: Father, Son, and Holy spirit. May the blessings flow, amen. You set me up for a good dunk there, Chris. Thank you, buddy. Woo. Emily: The alleyoop. Fr. Patrick loves a good alleyoop. Fr. Patrick: I do! Emily: Thank you for listening to another episode of Open Door Policy. Listen to more episodes and subscribe online unleashthegospel.org/podcast. You can also find us on Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.