GOOD NEWS! NEWEST BOOK IS PUBLISHED AND AVAILABLE!

 

With the help of Mr. Tim Schoenbachler and Ms. Christy Brown's staff, I have just published a new book about the completed Saint Theresa Family Life Center down in my home parish of St. Theresa of Avila in Rhodelia Kentucky. It is entitled The Little Community That Could in a nod to the old children's book The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper. The essence of both books can be explained in the words of Henry Ford who said, "Those who think they can and those who think they can't are both right." 

Dedicated to Ms. Christy Brown, a major Louisville environmentalist in the spirit of Pope Francis, this colorful book tells the story, in detailed descriptions and photographs, of the transformation of the old closed-for- thirty- years St. Theresa/Cross Roads School into the new Saint Theresa Family Life Center to serve all ages in the communities around St. Theresa Church in Rhodelia and St. Mary Magdalen of Pazzi in Payneville.  

Christina Lee Brown

At the heart of this extensive renovation is a new geothermal/solar panel HVAC system and various other new ecological technologies that cut its energy operational costs by 50% while doing our part in helping to save the planet. Color pictures of its equipment, its installation and the way it operates are scattered throughout the book. 

The body of this book tells the story of how the new Saint Theresa Family Life Center could be a place where Ms. Brown's eight-fold Circle of Health effort might be implemented: environmental, intellectual, psychological, spiritual, physical, economic, cultural and nutritional health.  

Table of Contents

Introduction ........................................................................................................9

A Brief history of St. Theresa Church ..............................................................13

A Problem and a Solution ................................................................................19

Building a Culture of Health - Educational Programming ................................23

   Part one: Preserving our Cultural health ........................................................25

   Part Two: Preserving our Spiritual health ......................................................35

   Part Three: Preserving our Intellectual health ................................................39

   Part Four: Preserving our Psychological health .............................................41

   Part Five: Preserving our Environmental health .............................................43

   Part Six: Preserving our Economical health ...................................................51

   Part Seven: Preserving our Nutritional health ................................................53

   Part eight: Preserving our Physical health .....................................................55

Family Life Center - From Beginning to end (Photo Gallery) .........................57

Conclusion ........................................................................................................69

After reading and re-reading this book when it was done, it occurred to me that it could also be a book about parish revitalization in small rural communities in general.  It has many direct and indirect messages about the much needed use of imagination in ministry especially in small rural communities.  

This book is not meant to get others to do what we did. It is meant to inspire and motivate them to consider the ministry opportunities and possibilities right in front of them, in their own situation, so that they might help it reinvent itself through making new imaginative connections and creative partnerships. 

Let it be known that any such parish revitalization will require even more than imagination. It will require (a) the faith of our pioneer ancestors who passed the faith on to us and (b) the focus and the purpose of a person who understands the power of belief in getting things done as demonstrated by the determination of  The Little Engine That Could. In a revitalization process like this, the building is not the only thing that is transformed. The participants in such processes are often themselves transformed internally as they make external changes to a building. 

In conclusion, as I have said many times before, "The biggest shortage in the Catholic Church is not money, but imagination."  You really can move mountains with enough faith, imagination, hard work and a bit of outside help! If you have those things going for you, money will find you! 

AVAILABLE NOW AT AMAZON BOOKS

All of Fr. Knott's books are available from Amazon Books through his online bookstore.

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