A Labor of Love
GREENSBORO — The Hispanic community of Our Lady of Grace spearheaded an unexpected renovation effort that breathed new life into the dormant St. Joseph House and strengthened the church along the way.
Operations Director Charles Longino marvels at the beauty of the remodeled Tudor home that has become the new center for activities such as the prayer shawl ministry, the young adult crocheting group and the Spanish Bible study class.
“It really vitalized the church, you can feel the excitement when people are talking about it,” Longino said.
Despite limited funding, he credits the Hispanic community for their dedication to realizing a vision.
“The thing that I found amazing was they just stepped forward and said, you know what, it is a problem, and we are going to take care of it, and they did,” Longino said.
The catalyst for change
Longino’s gratitude requires understanding of the history of the 1926 Tudor. The St. Joseph House predates Our Lady Grace Church, which was built in 1952, and came with the property.
Over the years, the home transitioned from a rectory to a parish hall, at one point even serving as the Catholic Charities office.
Pastor of Our Lady of Grace Father Casey Coleman only knew it as a neglected storage area that held old couches, obsolete equipment and boxes filled with unknown gadgets. The charm of the plaster walls, wooden floors, antique stove and arched doorways had long faded, but he saw the potential.
Father Coleman envisioned St. Joseph House as a convent that could eventually house sisters for Our Lady of Grace School and an adoration chapel while providing needed meeting space since.
“My hope was that St. Joseph House would be turned back into usable space. When I first started, I didn’t know what that looked like,” said Father Coleman.
It was difficult to see since leaking pipes, standing water in the crawlspace, stained carpeting, and mice compromised the once beautiful interior. Outside, the structural scars left after a car crashed into the exterior years prior left exposed, cracked brick and a hole in the foundation.
Although the details were not yet fully formed, Father Coleman shared his vision with the congregation.
“After Father Coleman stated he wanted to renovate, word got around,” Longino said.
Commission Chair for the Hispanic Parish Council Carlos Reyes and Hispanic Ministry Leader Jerman Duran approached Longino and offered free labor to renovate St. Joseph house.
Longino recognized their expertise, but funding for materials was nonexistent.
“If it was from somebody outside of the church, we probably wouldn’t have gone forward with it til we had better planning and a budget in place,” explained Longino. “But we knew them. We knew their faith, their honesty and their work ethic. You can’t find two better gentlemen.”
A Fall Festival brings in the capital
Duran coordinated a Fall Festival that would draw the crowds needed to raise money in a hurry. Longino trusted Duran and his wife, Nuria, with every detail but was doubtful they could recoup the $1,500 they spent on food, no less fund the entire renovation.
“I was thinking, okay, how much are you really going to raise selling food?” said Longino.
The Lord would provide because they were reconstructing this home for God, Reyes assured Longino.
The weather was warm for fall. Volunteers set up various food stands - American, Latin, Vietnamese, Malaysian - lines formed for burgers, enchiladas, and spring rolls while parishioners played guitars and sang.
The parish raised $12,000 in one day.
Volunteers get to work
Though a lifelong Catholic, Reyes became heavily involved at Our Lady of Grace after nearly dying from COVID in 2019.
“Before, I was in the world, I would go to church for big festivities, but now I try to live close to God. I am not about to waste my second opportunity that God gave me,” Reyes reflected.
Reyes took to the podium after all Masses, both English and Spanish, recruiting tradesmen, families, children, the elderly - anyone who felt called to assist with their time and talent.
Every weekend for two months, parishioners painted, landscaped, cleared junk, power washed, dried up the crawl space and decorated.
“It is exciting to see young people with full families and their kids working so hard,” said Reyes, who often had his children and wife, Nelida Valentin, toiling by his side.
St. Joseph House quickly came together with fresh paint, repaired pipes, new tiling, and mulch.
Father Coleman said, “It was wonderful to see the parish grow in relationship with one another as they worked together for a common goal.”
Obstacles defeated
Along the way, small miracles seemed to greet each complication.
Aurora Pro Services owner Oscar Lopez attends Immaculate Heart of Mary in High Point, not Our Lady of Grace, but appeared at the perfect time.
“Call it a God thing I guess because we don’t go to Mass there, Lopez said. “It just so happens that, that afternoon, we missed the cutoff for Mass so we headed over there.”
Lopez heard Reyes emphasize that they needed HVAC help because a repair was estimated to cost $5,000 and quickly volunteered.
“Whenever it is time to do work for God, I do what I can’t do because it is for Him,” Lopez explained. “He is the only one that is going to pay me back better than any customer ever will. So whenever the church needs a hand, I immediately do whatever they need.”
Two of Lopez’s crew spent days moving and reconnecting lines to two HVAC units, a job that could have easily depleted half the project funds.
“We just responded. God called, and we were like, ‘yes, how can we help you?’” said Lopez.
Days later, parishioners discovered the carpeting upstairs was cemented to the hardwood floors with a quarter inch of glue. Reyes and Longino debated how to remove the adhesive without damaging the wood.
“Literally while we were talking, Javier Leon Tezoquipa, owner of Impression Home Remodeling and a parishioner, came up and offered to restore the wood floors,” Longino said.
The finishing touches happened when volunteers furnished each room with tables, chairs, couches and loveseats donated by parishioner Maria Gutierrez, owner of May Furniture. Volunteers also wired a donated 68’ television and hung gifted paintings to adorn the walls.
“This is something the whole community did, and I am part of that community. It is my pleasure to be able to contribute,” Reyes said. “We can only say so many words, but the actions we act, that’s the most important.”
New community space
Although there is no indication of when or if sisters will eventually teach at Our Lady of Grace School and the adoration chapel is still in the discussion stages, St. Joseph House now functions as a gathering space, retreat center and a prayer area.
“St. Joseph House really helped bring the community together. It is a wonderful asset for the church moving forward, and it was here. It just needed to be dusted off and cleaned up and taken care of,” said Longino.
Father Coleman is proud the community was able to take his vision and turn it into a reality. "The Hispanic Ministry was overjoyed they were able to contribute to the parish in such a powerful way,” Father Coleman said.
— Lisa Geraci
St. Patrick: A model of evangelization
CHARLOTTE — Bishop Michael Martin celebrated two Masses over an extended St. Patrick’s Day weekend at a pair of historic churches – St. Patrick Cathedral in Charlotte and Old St. Joseph Church in Mount Holly. While honoring the roots of Catholicism in North Carolina, he urged Catholics to embrace the missionary spirit of St. Patrick, telling them to “get into the game” and asking, “Do we influence the culture or are we influenced by the culture?”
Starting on Sunday at St. Patrick Cathedral, which was built by Irish immigrants in 1939, Bishop Martin said God challenges us to be more than spectators. Just as basketball players push themselves to excel in games, Lent calls us to be transformed in our daily lives.
“You’ve got to be the transfigured one in the world, so that the world will look at you and be amazed at the spectacle of your life,” he preached. “So that (people will) look at you and say, ‘Wow.
I want some of what she’s got. I want some of what he’s got.’”
The Mass concluded with a beloved tradition – the playing of “Highland Cathedral” by Mark Adamson of Charlotte on bagpipes and Dr. Gianfranco DeLuca on organ.
On Monday at St. Joseph, the oldest Catholic church in the diocese, members of the Ancient Order of Hibernians and the Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians hosted Bishop Martin for an annual Mass that pays tribute to the first Catholic families who settled in western North Carolina.
The Greek Revival style wooden frame church was built in 1843 by Irish immigrants who had come to search for gold along the Catawba River. No longer an active parish, Old St. Joseph is used for occasions such at the feasts of St. Patrick and St. Joseph in March.
“It’s just rare that you get to see places like this,” said Bill Bridgeman, a Knight of Columbus who serves as the church’s caretaker, as he opened wooden shutters to allow the rising sun to light the space since it lacks electricity.
Yet the church’s idyllic presence still beckons to passersby like Deacon Bill Melton. He was in the process of converting to Catholicism years ago when he discovered the church while patrolling the area as a member of the Gaston County Police Department. “I would come at night and pray the rosary here in the cemetery,” he recalled. Monday was his second time inside the church and his first for the Hibernians’ feast day Mass.
As Bishop Martin repeated the tradition of blessing the grave of the church’s first pastor, the Irish Father T.J. Cronin, he honored all immigrants who have shared their faith in their times.
“If it were not for them, we would not be here,” he said. “If it were not for us, future generations will not know the Good News. May we take our responsibility for the Great Commission as seriously as these women and men so many years ago.”
During his homily, Bishop Martin continued that thought, noting that St. Patrick is almost synonymous with Ireland.
“I believe that Patrick influenced the culture,” he said. “To me that's our takeaway today: Do we influence the culture or are we influenced by our culture?”
“Christ, in today's Gospel, tells us to go out into a culture that has very different values and influence it in such a way that it begins to change, that it begins to be different,” he said. “To me the reason why St. Patrick is today so beloved and so synonymous with Ireland is because that's what he did.”
The bishop went on to suggest that we often allow the world to impact us.
“We aren't comfortable being uncomfortable,” as we are witnessing to the culture of Christ in our world, Bishop Martin said.
“Don't you believe that they did that?” he asked, gesturing toward the cemetery outside the church. “That they walked around in a culture that had nothing to do with Catholicism and in fact found themselves on the outside looking in, immigrants themselves… We, too, should have a little sense of that, that we're on the outside looking in.”
While we should celebrate the beauty and history of the buildings of our past, Bishop Martin said we should recognize that they were built where the people once were, and where people are today has shifted.
“We have to meet them where they are,” he emphasized. “We have to take the spirit that's in the very wood of these walls and floors. We have to take that to where people are: to the supermarkets, to our workplace, to our homes, to our schools, bringing that spirit, that vision of Jesus, into the world.”
— Trish Stukbauer. Photos by Aidan Creter | Catholic News Herald
