Emily: Welcome back to another episode of Open Door Policy! 'm Your co-host, Emily Mentock, and I'm joined today by, Fr Patrick: Fr. Patrick Gonyeau. How you doing Emily? Emily: I'm doing great father Patrick, how are you? Fr Patrick: Good. All right. What's the Emily Mentock life update? Any, any area you want to choose? Maybe it's: I went for a walk with my husband, or I've been reading the letter to the Romans; uh what's going on with you? Emily: Oh, wow. That was some great predicting. Romans is actually my favorite book of my Bible. Good memory! New and exciting stuff. Okay. So I have to share it. I was a sign of hope for me that, you know, we're maybe making it to the other side of this pandemic--over the weekend, went to my first Tigers game as a Detroit resident, it was just super awesome. We were excited. We, you know, when we chose our apartment downtown, we loved that it was gonna be near to the park. When we signed our lease before the pandemic, we had these dreams of, oh, in the summer, we'll be walking over to games all the time. And then of course, none of that happened last year. It was so sad and, you know, questioning all of life's choices and the darkness of the ban-time, but this past weekend, we got to go and it was so fun. I had a blast and it just really felt like, oh, this is--our dreams are finally coming true for what we thought our life in Detroit would look like--and more, I mean, we also had a, another just community building activity at St. Aloysius, our parish, every third, Sunday they have sandwich-making for their sort of ministry that they do over there. And they invite people to come and help make PBJS. And so we walked over to the parish office after mass on Sunday, and it just felt safe and fun; there was a great group there. We made a bunch of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the people who stopped by St Al's and the different services that they do. So that was really fun, just a great community-filled weekend, doing activities that, you know, a year ago, were nowhere in sight. So, That was a great joy. Fr Patrick: Praise the Lord. Hey you know, when you, when you go out with the, with the PB and J ministry--tell us more about that. Like, what's your, what's been your experience of that? Emily: Well, I haven't actually given them out yet, but it was, I mean, but I mean, other than the person. Yeah. So it's been great to see. We don't want something we love about our parish is how they, there is such a focus on serving the community. You know, father Mario likes to talk about it being everybody's church in downtown Detroit. And I've just loved the sense of welcome, not only to us as new, you know, young adult Catholic residents in the neighborhood, but also the way that any, like whoever walks in the door, whether it's a person who is experiencing homelessness, like is always welcome and then even welcome to come over and help make the sandwiches or get one. And and every time that I've been, I think over in the, like the parish office next to the church, that if there's somebody kind of lingering outside, father Mario or Beth will go and say, Hey, can I help you? Can we get you anything? And it's just been something that's important. Cause I don't, you can't live in probably anywhere in the world, but especially in downtown Detroit and just ignore some of the people, some of the other people who live there maybe who are experiencing homelessness or things like that. So I love that they see that as an integral part of our parish community. And that's really great to be part of. And it's just fun to make PBJ. Fr Patrick: Right, remember, Saint Teresa of Calcutta said you know, she spoke of Christ in the distressing disguise of frail humanity--Christ in the distressing disguise of frail humanity so that the people we see on the street and if we can just love them and trust it in some way, we're caring for Jesus that, that right there, it keeps, keeps the flow of grace going beautifully in our lives. Thanks for sharing that Emily. One more quick question. Comerica park. Oh, I'm turning it. Yes. Friends. It is finally come the Emily Mentock episode. Oh we're not there yet, but we'll get there soon. Hey, what did you eat at the ballpark? Everybody likes to eat something to the ballpark. Emily: Okay. So this is, this is a funny one. So obviously I have limited choices, right? Because, because I don't eat meat or dairy and things like that at the ballpark. So we did have a couple of beers, which was fun, nice to just be outside in the warm weather, having some beers on Saturday evening. But also, I determined that the best option for me. So I've gone to Comerica in the past, and there's usually like this nacho kind of, or not, not like a fajitas place and I could get like a vegetarian thing, but that wasn't open cause it's not fully open yet. So I decided the next safest thing was to get an actual nachos because there's no way that's real dairy. And so I was like kind of muting my vegan standards. As a dinner I ate ahead of time before we went in. But I actually will usually eat like one hot dog a year at a baseball game, just because it's part of the experience, you know. Fr Patrick: They're so delicious. Well, I have something really awesome to share. So two quick updates. The first one is maybe Ron can make this happen and overlay it, but a tradition in Detroit with the Detroit tigers, one of the coolest traditions for decades, Ernie Harwell, the famous Ernie Harwell when spring would come, he would actually read on the air from song of Psalms. Chapter two, he'd say arise. My beloved, my beautiful one, and come. Ernie Harwell: "Low, the weather is passed the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth. The time of the singing of birds has come and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land." Play ball! Emily: Oh my gosh! I've never heard that. Fr Patrick: Oh, he would do it. It was awesome. And one other quick update is we got good news, bad news and good news about our big Notre Dame plans. So I'm not letting those go. I mean, Ron and I got our pop-up tents. We're going to whatever we got to do, do it. Okay. The good news. I think other people want to come on this road trip, so we'll see what happens. It'd be so cool to do some Open Door Policy down in South Bend and maybe during some tailgating, we'll see what happens. Bad news, we were shooting for it--I was asking a friend to see if she could work out, help having a healing service at the Basilica at the Sacred Heart. Didn't quite work out. That's the bad news. Good news, there, this friend has a parish in South Bend, Indiana that most likely would host something on Friday night. So, It would be an awesome ministry weekend. So stay posted friends. And, what if we even got there? What if we even got some friends to come on down a little Detroit-contingent, maybe Emily Mentock, you know, somebody who could give us a tour of the campus and stuff like that. Emily: I can give you a tour of the campus. I basically grew up on that campus. Fr Patrick: Wow, awesome. Praise the Lord! Oh, Hey. Maybe, maybe, maybe Ron can break out the tour bus on head of the musical past folks. Alright, everybody out there. Just say a prayer. We'll, we'll give you enough date to come. Maybe a little South Bend fund is coming open to Open Door Policies and yours way, but with no further ado, there is this priest I got to, yeah-- Emily: We do have a guest on this podcast today. Fr Patrick: He's in a green room, like, would you forget about me? No, Fr Jacob VanAssche is absolutely awesome. I mean, from the bottom of my heart. He is the administrator at Saint Damien of Molokai. He speaks beautiful Spanish. These days, he's living out his life as a joyful missionary disciple, Catholic priest, pastoring, the people of Pontiac. He loves seeing the hunger for God in his parish and the holiness of his community makes him want to grow in holiness himself. Three fun facts about Fr Jake: he likes to shoot sporting clays, and he likes learning about woodworking, and this is wild, he's a Great Uncle and he's only like 30 something I think, but with no further ado, welcome Fr Jake VanAssche. Fr Jake: Well, thank you so much for that Patrick. Thank you, Emily. That was a wonderful introduction. Yeah. I--here in Pontiac, great, Pontiac, Michigan, hearing those fun facts, I was thinking, what, what were those fun facts I shared again? I was like, oh yes. Oh, sporting clays. That's right. Oh, that's that's right. Woodworking, which in both of those, believe it or not, I'm not good at all. Fr Patrick: You still have all your fingers though. Fr Jake: I was actually, well, most of them--no, and I actually was in a league for this winter for sporting place and my--a friend of mine--we were in Francisco, we were--it was just something to do on my day off or something like that. We came in last place in our, in our division, but you know, and that's, that's a good sign. It means I'm, I'm spending most of my time at the parish, that's good. And woodworking, not so much, but hopefully I'm a, I'm a decent uncle, I suppose. And I guess a great-uncle. Yeah. So I just turned 32 years old. And so you started thinking like, are you, you're not old enough to be a grandpa or anything like that? Grand-uncle, if you will. But no, I'm, I'm the youngest actually of nine. So I have five sisters and three brothers and they all have like a ton of kids. And so I've got about 30 nieces and nephews. And so, yeah, my, my, my great niece was just born a few weeks ago and I just heard, I just heard there's going to be another one on the way from another one of my nephews just celebrated his wedding, celebrated his wedding back in August, and they're gonna be expecting, so we're really excited. Emily: Well congratulations, that's got to be fun with all those kids around. That's great. Fr Jake, thanks so much for joining us today. Would love to, you know, maybe in hearing about your different siblings and stuff, we want to know what your life was like growing up, as you know, were you, did you grow up Catholic? Where, when did you start feeling like you had encountered Christ, or joyful missionary disciple? What was your life like, kind of growing up as the youngest of nine? Fr Jake: Okay. Yeah. If you could imagine a family of nine, it was pretty boring and it was pretty quiet growing up--no, it was, it was crazy! We, we shared rooms until I was, gosh, until the last one moved out. I was--I was like, yes, finally. And then I was like, hello, where'd everybody go? It was like, you know, so it was, no, it was great. I grew up in Romulus, Michigan. I went to school in Romulus schools K through 12. Yeah, I, I get there. So I was, I always had like older siblings. My oldest sibling is 21 years older than me, and so it's like, that's why, yeah. I've got older nephews now. And, and so it's been a great blessing to have such a family that, right now, I think I'm the one that lives farthest away out of my brothers and sisters from, from my parents' house right now--they're all right there. And it's like, you go and visit home and everybody shows up, and it's just always a party. There's always some kind of baptism party. There's, you know, there's always something on--birthday party--but no yeah, so I grew up in Romulus, Michigan. We grew up as a, as a strong Catholic family. We basically, we went to, we went to mass every week. And I, I always tell my confirmation students, like you think going to mass is so tough every week. Like my mom, like, I was like, I had to walk up to school. I would have to walk to school uphill both ways, 20 miles, no, but, but no, I think about, like my mom and my dad, who had to get nine kids ready for mass. And we went to the 7:30 a.m. morning mass every Sunday, which-- Emily: That's early, for me. Fr Jake: --and for the rest of the world as well. But but no, it was, it was, it was something that was just instilled into us, into our family, that the faith is something important that, that Sunday was always meant to be the day we start off with the Lord. We--it's a day, the day of the Lord. And so even though I maybe didn't all I did not always appreciate, not maybe I did not always appreciate getting up early and being, being an altar boy and, and serving mass, you know, all those years then. But then, it really instilled something, though going to--an importance. And I think, I think a reverence for the Lord and, and a love for God. So, so yeah, my, my faith journey was, it was basically, it was interesting for a while there, I--thinking about being called to the priesthood, through all that stuff and, and just trying to find my way my, you might own love for God, you know, in the midst of all. So-- Emily: Yes. So when you're growing up and watching your siblings, your older siblings, start to get married and have families, what was it like for you to start thinking about the priesthood? You mentioned you're an altar server-- you're serving mass, and I've always heard that, you know, that's one important way to get, like, boys thinking about the priesthood. So when did that, when--do you remember the first moment you thought, hmm, maybe I'm called to the priesthood? Fr Jake: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I, I, I was the altar server, but I think in all of my siblings, weddings, but no, I, I believe it or not, it was my first couple of weeks serving at mass. I was probably seven or eight years old. I just reached the first communion and I was so excited. I got to be--finally, I got to be an altar server and serve mass and to be close, you know, you know, at the heart of the scene here, like what's going on here? And I remember Fr Wytrwal. He was a real short, little-old priest, and, and just a friend of our family. And he, he asked me, he's like, "Jake, what do you want to be when you get older someday?" I said, oh Father, I, you know, I want to work construction, probably with my dad. You know, we had a construction--VanAssche construction. I'm like, I want to work construction with that. "You're going to make a fine priest." Well, again, I don't think it was respected at that point, but I think it did plant a seed that I was like, oh yeah, like, yeah, where did this come from? Like, how does that work? And yeah. Preset to come from somewhere; they don't just, like, fall out of the sky from heaven. They're like, you know? So I, even though, like, I can't say like, from that point on, I knew it was going to be a priest, but something, I think important was started there then--knowing that the possibility for priesthood was there in that. But yeah, and I saw, I remember seeing Fr Wytrwal--I was always a sarcastic young young man--I was like, oh, I guess he, oh, he's kind of old, I've never seen a young priest before. So, like, yeah, where do priests come from? So, it made it a possibility for me, even at that, at that young age. Fr Patrick: Man, Jake, that's inspiring--especially that your, your parents right out of the gate--I had to flip really quick to Matthew 20--after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb. I just think that's awesome about your mom and your dad starting the Lord's day, starting the Lord's day with, with the Lord and, and mass. That's awesome. And the morning of the Resurrection. Hey, I got to ask you-- New Speaker: they, they, Fr Patrick, they also had an 11:30 a.m. mass we could've gone to. Emily: I was gonna say, I, I start the Lord's day at 11 a.m. mass on Sunday! Fr Patrick: Oh man. I'm more awake for the 11 a.m...sorry, everybody at 9 a.m. But anyway, so, so Hey, Jake, got to ask you those seeds planted the faith, you know, and then you serving, and having that seed planted as a, as a, as a boy to consider the priesthood--take us down the line, like maybe into your high school, teen years. Like when, you know, when did that seed start to bloom more in your call to become a priest? Fr Jake: Well, it definitely, I think that seed was planted at first on, on rocky ground. Or even in the midst of the learns because, for a while, there that even though it was there, my, my heart itself quite wasn't ready for it--to receive a gift. You know, and so I, I think even going on, we were very dedicated and, and serve the Lord every week, and in those very formal ways in the liturgical ways. And I love to this day, love to celebrate mass, throughout high, throughout high school, I have to say that I, it was like one of the last things I wanted to do. I was one of very few Catholics in my high school, and so being even Catholic, or openly Christian, was something that I didn't always feel comfortable with where I was even, I'd say, there were times I felt embarrassed. Like, like, well, all my friends, they don't have to go to church at 7:30 in the morning. Like, why do I? And so there was a little rebellion within me there, like, as I grew up and just kind of distanced, like, I don't want to have anything to do with this. I don't, you know, this is nice and everything like that, but look at all my friends, like they seem to be fine. And so there's some throughout high school, and even junior high and high school, I played a little football then early on, but then I, I, I really, I started getting more into a little bit of a jokester. If you can imagine. I, I was a little bit of a class-clown that you could possibly, possibly imagine. I was always talking in class and talking over the other kids, getting in trouble, sent to detention. And, and, I just, just kind of, I had this quiet heart, this, this, this, this this, I don't know-- there was an anxiousness there--a searching, I think. And I look at it back at it now and I see, well, no, my heart was really looking for an acceptance, was wanting to be--to belong. And so I was looking, even in high school, like what group am I a part of, what group am I a part of? Am I a part of this group? Am I a part of this group? There really wasn't a place for me. And I, I got in a little trouble here and there. Yeah. We partied a little bit there. But, went off the beaten path. It was about 16, 17 years old. I did have I, I, I don't want to make it sound like I had a moment than I, the heavens, you know, opened up, but in a real way, my heart--I recognized a sadness, a certain heaviness, and I'm like, well, I'm trying to fit in. I want to get all these other people to like me. I'm trying to get everybody to you know, admire me, or I want to be accepted by all of these other people, but I still don't feel like I belong. I want their acceptance, and I want everybody to like me, and, and it was almost as if like, I didn't think this at the time, but later on meditating out, like it was like God saying, don't worry so much about who likes you or who accepts you. I accept you. And I more than like, you, I love you. I love you. And it was something I, I don't know, in a prayer and, and recognizing how much that--what my parents have been taking us to, and what did all these things mean? And I don't know, the faith, I want to say, like, is this like, like, you know, there wasn't a complete change. Like there wasn't--I still was kind of a hard-headed clown. But at least a converted hard-headed, clown, you know, when I started and I, I started to allow the Lord to remove some of that thorniness along that path. And that, that stony ground started to, to, to really become more receptive then to his grace and his movements there. So, yeah, it was about 16, 17 years old. I, I think I was, believe it or not. I'm gonna keep talking out loud. I'm gonna, I'm going to hold this here for two hours. You gave me, I love it. No, this is going to be my my butler's lives of the saints book. But no, but there was, I was actually--I was suspended from high school. Fr Patrick: Wow. Thanks for sharing. New Speaker: Yeah. Two, three days suspension results--I don't even remember what it was for at this point. I had been suspended a few times here and there--silly things. But I remember my, my day was spent splitting firewood. And yeah, I remember where I was. I just, I finally said a prayer, like, God, I'm not happy. I'm not happy here. And so, what's going on? What's your plan here? And there was there was like a peace there that I hadn't experienced--that no matter what group of friends I tried getting along with, or tried to be a part of that I realized I was a part of something much bigger. Fr Patrick: That's incredible, man. Yeah. Wow. I got the sense of like, when you were sharing that, Jake, of somebody listening to this podcast and taking it and offering their teenage son or daughter, like, hey, just, just listen to like the six minutes of Fr Jake's testimony, because it's so powerful hearing as a, as a teenager, how the Lord broke through in your heart, and I love that prayer, man, I mean, you could--just outside splitting wood and I could picture your parents saying, just, just go outside and just talk to the Lord for a little bit. See what happens. Fr Jake: Definitely, I was--it was something beautiful--beautiful grace moment in life. Their going to mass then didn't make it easier getting up at 7:30 in the morning. Emily: Yeah. It takes a lot of grace for that. Fr Jake: Made it easier I suppose. I understood it a little bit more, but no, like grace builds on nature. So like, so, now my nature still needs to catch up a little bit. Emily: So, so I, one of my favorite parts of the letter is like, when it actually describes, I think it's like I post nine and talking about Encounter Grow Witness and Encounter. And I just love that. It's like, when you have encountered Christ, your life has changed forever. I just, I love that part. And then yeah, the grace builds over time, but when you're experiencing that as a teenager, what did you do? Did you, did you talk to your parents about it? Is that--did you feel you had people to talk to about it? Or have you just like, you know, sort of pondered these things in your heart and they're coming out with breaking news for the first time here. What--how did you respond to that sort of moment of feeling God's grace while you were chopping wood, or that encounter of, of knowing you were loved and kind of realizing it for the first time? Fr Jake: Yeah. Thank you. I mean, that was, it's a great question. I believe it or not I, as I talk a lot and everything like that, but I'm actually pretty reserved. I'm actually pretty private, if you will. Like, I don't you know, I tell some people I ended up, I'm still nervous talking in front of people, like you're in the wrong position here, but but no, I believe it when I saw, I really, at that time I did not open that up. And even like, I went back to school and like, like I started telling my friends, like, no, I don't like, that's not my thing anymore. Like, no, I'm not going to go drinking with you guys today. Or, you know, or we're not going to go to that party or whatever. Just, they just kind of noticed, like there was something different, but I never really opened it up. Or even with my parents, I didn't really open up, but there was a very powerful moment of: I needed to go to confession. I knew like, I, I, I think I grew a lot in the faith. I, I think I had things only be a little out of order in my own life. Like I knew a lot about church stuff, you know, my family just--you just receive it by osmosis, I suppose when the faith is being lived. But I had been avoiding that encounter. And so now it's kind of like, okay, now I've encountered something new here, something real. And I continued to encounter a new--but like, I knew I had--I needed a renewal here. I needed to go and confess. And so I did, I, I I, I didn't think I was like, at the time I look back at it now as a priest and I laugh at like, oh yeah, young, young Jake--like I was like, I can't possibly go tell Fr Wytrwal. Like, he's never heard these things before. He's only a priest for 50 years, but now I laugh at it. I didn't realize like, oh geez, after five days you don't hear anything. But, but it was something beautiful that I went and I encountered the mercy of the Lord as well--this great divine mercy in the sacrament of reconciliation. And so that's what--that was a place where I really opened up my heart and I was able to share, and, and it continued to grow. It continued to be nourished, even though I didn't share about it. I didn't right away share about that with even family or friends. They notice everybody kind of noticed there was something odd--there was something different. Or like, he's not complaining about going to church or no, he's going to like church now on Tuesdays. He's teaching catechism, well, you know, community service hours, I suppose that count. No, no, no. But, but, but no, it was, it was--there was a time there where I just, I, I don't know. I rested in the Lord in those years, that I still kind of fought up against things, but it was, it was a growing, it was a growing and encountering joy, pure joy, Fr Patrick: That's awesome brother. And one of the things that you would, you would--we, we give everybody a couple of questions before the answer a few days before jumping on the program. And you know, one of the things that you had put about being a joyful missionary disciple is I love being rooted in the love of Christ, and inviting others into that divine love, inviting others into that divine love. And as you share your own testimony about confession, I, I can just picture people experiencing that divine love through you as a confessor. Hey, love to ask you this question: so as you're, as you're witnessing to the Lord as a priest, as you, as you're a pastor and in Pontiac, as you teach and you preach what's, what's your dream, these days, Fr Jake VanAssche? Like what's the dream on your heart these days as you serve the Lord as a priest? New Speaker: That people go to heaven. No, I really, I mean that, you know, you mentioned the, how, the, what, I mean, what does it mean to be a joyful missionary disciple, to be rooted in the love of Christ that I see my parishioners and they, they urge man to be a holier man. I look out there and I see like, you know, how much more needs to grow and how much more needs to happen. But I look out, and they want to be holier or for me, and now I want to be holier for them--there's a beautiful exchange there. And I don't know. So what do I want for them? I want them to know joy. I want them to--because joy is being rooted in the love of Christ. I actually had to give this on a, I think it was, it was either Gaudete or Laetare. I don't, I don't remember which one of those. Emily: It was one of those pink Sundays. Fr Jake: It was the pink Sundays; it was the Advent one. And, and I had to preach it all the masses at Anastasia, and I had to preach on Jesus, our joy--and, well, that Saturday morning I had to, I had to preach a funeral for a man who died young, who left behind the three small children, and that very night I had to preach on Jesus, our joy and him. I was like, am I a hypocrite here, am I hypocrite in sharing this? Like Jesus, our joy while I'm really sad, actually right now, it actually drained me. I felt out of it. I was like, well, no, because happiness comes and goes, sadness comes and goes, you know? And I realized like, no, happiness is like an inch deep and an inch wide. They say joy is like a mile deep and a mile wide when it's rooted in the love of Christ. It's like, no, I want my people to have joy grounded in the love of Christ. That way things can come. Say, you know, sadness can come and go, happiness can come and go. But it's the joy of knowing Jesus. Emily: It's so beautiful to hear you talk about joy now, because you had shared with--you just shared with us the story that when you were chopping wood, your prayer to God was that you weren't happy, that you didn't feel like you had a place. And so, how amazing that now you are witnessing to the joy that you have found in realizing that you are loved by God and how--what a gift to your parish that you are trying to share that joy with others as well. Is there--what do you do to do that? Obviously you're preaching being there, but are there some exciting things going on at your parish that you're especially passionate about, that you bring sort of as the administrator there where you're trying to build joy? I've talked about how, you know, in my parish, at the start of the podcast, like, I think there's just--have different, you know, charisms and things that they have going on. I love that we tried to be very welcoming. Not that we're not joyful, but try to be very welcoming, but, what are some of the things you do for, to bring joy to your parishioners, especially other young people at your parish? Fr Jake: Yeah. I love my parish so much. I it was my first assignment actually six years ago as associate pastor. And I just came back last July now to serve, to serve again now in a different role. But it's, it's such a, it's a vibrant bilingual it's, it's wild, but we've been trying these new things and, and the pandemic has given us a chance to just--let's try it and see if it works. Like let's stay safe and everything like that and stay distant and all that stuff, but let's try some new stuff here. And, and so the first thing was, well, the outdoor confessions weren't working anymore because I was getting cold standing out there, and so Fr Grayson and I, we were talking about this like, well, what are we going to do here for confessions for the winter? And so, as we were praying about this, this idea of having these things every Friday night, we call them mercy nights, nights of mercy, noches de misericordia, and it's, it's bilingual it's it's because, well, there's not really no speaking. It's encountering the Lord's mercy. Well, we've been placing the Blessed Sacrament out just like up on the high altar, but a picture of the Divine Mercy, both priests in confession every night; there's a little music going, it's dark in the church, except right on the altar. There's something really powerful about that. People, we had been going probably from, I I'm guessing like maybe 10 confessions every week on the normal time to now meet just one priest. Sometimes they can have up to 30 just by myself. And so it's been an incredible response--people just coming to pray, not even going to confession, but just coming to pray. So we see that it's kind of taken care of the heart. And then on Monday nights, we've been doing this thing called faith nights--taking care of the mind. Whereas we've been, it's been a catechesis--a parish catechesis. So I don't know--which ways are we starting, trying to instill joy? Well, live in the faith, because the faith and faith nights, mercy nights, whatever nights. Just come to mass and experience the love of God, you know? Cause the faith is something joyful. Fr Patrick: Awesome. Hey Jake, Fr Jake, sorry, that happens when we're you know-- Emily: When you're hanging together! Fr Patrick: Right. A classic quote from Unleash the Gospel, the joy of the gospel marker 8.1, when the archbishop wrote, "Unless we manifest to others, the joy that is ours from having found the pearl of great price and from being sure of the Gospel's invincible power, we will not attract others to listen to the good news." So I, I really appreciate what you shared about desiring that your people, yes, would be on the trajectory toward the kingdom of heaven and that they would have joy. And this whole gift from Pope Francis, the joy of the Gospel and our, our Incarnation of it in our archdiocese of Unleash, Unleash the Gospel. We've--we're so blessed in these days to discover that like joy is one of the key ingredients to being in a, an effective, an effective evangelizer. And for Jake, as long as I've known you, like God is from the seminary, just giving you a great joy. And I wanted to ask you brother, you know, what is it that you do in your own life to continue to--as, as an administrator, I'm sure you have ups and downs and things like splitting headache, issues that pop-up--but what do you, what do you do in your life--two questions really quick--what do you do in your life to keep drinking from the well that gives you joy? And what would you say that parishioners can do to assist their priests? So, you know, if the priest needs a little pick-me-up, yeah. Over to you Fr Jake, Fr Jake: For sure. There are some days that, you know--especially as getting into more administrative things, and you start the day-to-days and you start seeing the task at hand sometimes, it's easy to take your eye off the prize. The--take your eye off that great pearl that's been received and you can get into like--a little down and like--but then there's still something there. Like, no, but my joy is rooted in Christ. So there might be days where I'm kind of down, but I'd say, I have to say, the number we've already talked about as I still go to confession regularly. I, I still, I have to go before the Lord and the Blessed Sacrament and, and and still on that path to conversion this path of conversion that, like I said, I didn't just like, well, that kid was chopping wood back there, splitting firewood. You know, it didn't just magically happen, but, but no, I suppose confession, the Eucharist, celebrating mass every day has been--I, I'm going to go. And here's another hour thing. I love mass. I love them. I love the Eucharist. And so confession, Eucharist Eucharistic adoration, just, it keeps me grounded. It keeps me satiated. It keeps me--I definitely say that. And of course, the cause of our joy, Our Lady, spouse of the Holy Spirit, cause of our joy, the Blessed Mother. No, she's wonderful. It's like in, in Spanish we'll say, you know, we don't feel it sometimes we don't know what joy means. Say Madre, Mia, muestrame alegria. Mother Mary, show me joy. It just sounds, it just sounds cooler. It sounds cooler in Spanish. It does--Madre, Mia, muestrame la alegria. Fr Patrick: Yeah. One more time. And everybody at home, you got a prayer for the rest of the day. One more time Padre. Fr Jake: Madre, Mia, muestrame la alegria. I love it. Fr Patrick: Mother Mary, show me joy. Now the folks who are seeing like, man, it's like he's dragging on a little bit. What, what would you recommend? Like how can, how can parishioners help to, you know, just lift that priest? Fr Jake: Change the pronoun. Madre, Mia, muestralo alegria Show him joy. No, I, you know, if a priest is kind of down, like, I don't know--my parishioners, they see me sometimes. I, I, I moved fast. If you can imagine I talk fast. I, I, I walk around the church like this sometimes and every once in a while they they're, they're creative about just like father, we're praying for you. We love you. We love you. And it just like, thank you for everything you do. And I'm like, thank you, I needed to hear that today. But so, but yeah. And, sometimes you don't feel like I can't go up to my priest and tell him that I can't go to the father. Like that's like, no, he's going to like, not understand. Well, we always have connection to the Lord and be able to say, yeah, Mother Mary, show him joy. You know, Lord, like put a spark in his heart. Like, you know, and, and especially like I said, mass, like is that my vocation was really fostered during mass and the Eucharist. Pray for, pray for priests at every mass that our hearts may always have a love for the Eucharist. Emily: Thanks so much Fr Jacob. I want to make two quick comments, one, thanks for sharing that you go to confession regularly. I love one priests say that because there, you know, there's always this perception you guys are you're so holy, you're so much better, better than the rest of us, but no, it's the reminder that, you know, even priests who are going to daily mass and, and have your, you know, your daily prayer routine that you're going to confession--it's something that we can all do. And I, I just appreciate you reminding us of that, that those things of being close to Mary, confession, mass, adoration, it's something that all of us can do. Priests, laity, everyone. And then my other comment, just that, you know, it's also a great reminder to hear from you that, you know, your priests are never too busy to hear you be thankful for them or let them know that you--we're praying for them. Because I think it's like, oh, I can't, I can't bother him. Just even say thank you or to say great homily today, because he's so busy, he's got to talk to other people, but maybe I'll make a point to do that this weekend. We get a chance because I'm--it's--just thanks for the reminder from both of you guys that priests need support of their parishioners too. And it's a community, it's relational, it goes both ways and we know you're praying for us. And so just to remember, to pray for you guys, something that I think all of our listeners can take away when this episode comes out, our priests will be feeling extra love the weekend following. So, thanks so much, Fr Jake for sharing your story, your beautiful story, for your own joy and for this great reminder for our audience as well. Would you mind closing us in prayer please? Fr Jake: Absolutely. Absolutely. Father, Son, Holy Spirit, amen. Father, we thank you for calling us here together for this, this beautiful conversation. This conversation of grace, this conversation of joy. There, God, I ask you that whoever listens to these words, whoever is listening, even if it's a minute or two, may the Lord inspire their hearts to greater love of you, that they may recognize in you the joy of their lives, and through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, cause of our joy, spouse of the Holy Spirit, may almighty God bless all of us. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen. Emily: Slam dunk. Woo. Thanks for listening to another episode of Open Door Policy, where we hear different stories of joyful missionary disciples like Fr Jake in southeast Michigan, and how they encounter, grow and witness in their love of Christ in so many different, beautiful ways. You can find more episodes at unleashthegospel.org forward slash podcast or on Spotify, Google, Amazon music, wherever you get your podcasts. See you next time. God bless you, Pontiac.