2025 WAS MY YEAR OF AT LEAST SIX MIRACLES

A NEW 500-SEAT SAINT VERONICA CHURCH IN KENYA

1. The year started out with a commitment to build a small church in Kenya at the suggestion of a local Little Sister of the Poor, Stephen Kitili herself from Kenya, here in Louisville where I have Mass every Monday and hear Confessions once a month. It was to honor her mother who was an illiterate catechist who taught hundreds of people about the Catholic Church. I reluctantly agreed to help and set what I thought was an ambitious goal of $20,000. It turned out to be 5 times bigger than I agreed to and 5 times more expensive. I had no idea it was actually going to be that big until I saw the poured concrete foundations. By then it was too late! I spent many nights worrying about whether we could possibly finish it. With God's help, lots of prayer and much help from many generous friends, they dedicated the new St. Veronica Church on August 10, 2025.  The people call it a "miracle." 

SAINT VERONICA CHURCH – BEFORE AND AFTER

 

MY BROTHER MARK'S DRAMATIC ESCAPE FROM POSSIBLE PANCREATIC CANCER

(2) My youngest brother, Mark, experienced a major health crisis last April. I think he had anesthesia at least three times as they checked his pancreas trying to find out what was going on. I anointed him and people everywhere were praying for him. The last time he was going into surgery, the surgeon asked about the closest "cancer clinic" to where he lived. It was like he was preparing us for some very bad news. When the surgeon came out of surgery, he announced that Mark was "cancer free" and they had removed the blockage between his liver and his pancreas! It was all done through his mouth and down his throat! It was like a miracle! 

A NEW HOUSE FOR A POOR SINGLE MOTHER OF TWO IN TANZANIA

(3) Through Father John Judie, I was introduced to the world of seminarians in Tanzania - some as young as 14 years old, the age I was in 1958 when I started at St. Thomas Seminary here in Louisville. Father John told me about a young 14 year old seminarian, Filbert Amos Kileo, who had been sent home because his single mother and sister at home could no afford to pay the $800.00 a year room, board and tuition costs. When his bishop, Filbert Mhasi, heard about the situation he was moved to do something about it since they both shared the names "Filbert." Bishop Mhasi told him, "Come back to the seminary and I will find the money somewhere!" When Bishop Mhasi and Father John came to see me and told me the story, I knew I had to support him with his room, board and tuition costs because I had depended on the Archdiocese of Louisville to support me through 12 years of seminary. For me, it was simply a matter of it being "pay back time." 

One part of the story really threw me into high gear. I was told that young Filbert would not be able to go home from the seminary because his mother and sister basically had to room for him in their window-less, one-room rented living situation. I asked Bishop Mhasi to visit the home and send pictures. When I saw the living situation, I asked Bishop Mhasi about how much a new house would cost. I was thinking simple and small. He sent me the architectural  drawings for a three-bedroom house with a living room, bathroom, kitchen, dining room and front and back porches. When I asked "how much" he said $13,000.00! I knew I needed to "take it on." I asked him to find out what the lot would cost so she could grow some vegetables. I knew she had very little furnishing so I asked about that too! I wanted to make sure she owned the house and the lot and it would be her security for years to come. The total cost was about $21,000.00.  Construction started on September 1, 2025. Their pastor blessed their new home and they moved in on November 15, 2025. The family feels that it is a "miracle." 

PAYING OFF THE SCHOOL DEBTS OF SEVEN POOR SEMINARIANS IN TANZANIA

(4) Besides my funding the room, board and tuition of young Filbert Amos Kileo, myself and another generous woman friend paid off the room, board and tuition debts of 6 more young seminarians who could not continue their seminary training because their poor parents did what they could, but could not afford to finish paying the expenses. For most of them, it was a miracle to get that load off their backs! 

CHRISTMAS CANDY FOR 98 RURAL CHILDREN (CATHOLIC AND NON-CATHOLIC)

(5) When I saw this picture of some of the kids in one of the "outstation churches" (mission churches) Bishop Mhasi serves, I was struck by the sad looking children. My mind went back to my country days growing up. I could see myself and my year-younger brother in front of the Bishop. I could see my sisters on the right in their home-made dresses like the ones my mother sewed for them! I asked Bishop Mhasi to find out their names and how many kids lived in that village. He wrote back and gave me their names and told me that there were 98 Catholic and non-Catholic kids. Remembering that we got candy basically only at Christmas and Easter in the 1940s and 1950s, I sent enough money to Bishop Mhasi to buy a small bag of candy for all 98 children.  I also asked that the 5 children in the photo above be the ones to hand out the bags of candy so that they could "feel important" maybe for the first time in their lives! Even that little gift is a kind of "miracle" for children in a tiny African village!  

FINISHING A HALF-DONE DESPERATELY NEEDED SCHOOL IN TANZANIA  

(6) Don't ask me how I got talked into additionally raising $82,000.00 to help finish a Catholic Grade School in Tanzania. I can't even remember when and how it happened! All I do know is that, looking back, it has been the last of six "miracles" in 2025! What made it seem "impossible" was the fact that I had promised a couple of my most generous donors that I would not ask them for more money after my big project of the St. Theresa Family Life Center a couple of years ago. I knew I needed some new donors. When I decided to "go for it," I did not believe I could do it until maybe Easter time, but I did something that I read about Pope Francis doing when he had a problem facing him. I turned to some divine help! The idea came to me in a dream.

Because of that dream, I decided to try a devotion that Pope Francis practiced. Pope Francis said that when he faced a problem, he would write it down on a piece of paper, put it under his statue of the Sleeping Saint Joseph, turn the worry over to Saint Joseph and go to bed. It reminded me that I, too, had a stature of the Sleeping St. Joseph.

Saint Joseph had four dreams in the Gospel of Matthew where an angel told him what to do next in a quandary. I put the story of the Tanzanian school in a folder and laid my own little statue of the Sleeping Saint Joseph on top of it and turned this problem over to Saint Joseph while I waited for his solution.

I never really asked people for money. I just told them what I was trying to do on my blogposts and invited them to call me if they wanted to help. Little by little, the money started coming in! Doubt and belief battled it out all through December. Right up to the last week before Christmas, I did not know whether it was going to happen or not! I told Bishop Mhasi that I would call him on Christmas Day to tell him how close we came to reaching the goal, thinking we could be $960.00 short. Before I knew it, I finally miraculously reached our total goal of $82,000.00 when the mail came on Christmas Eve!!!!! I called Bishop Mhasi on Christmas Day to deliver my "good news of great joy!" A few more gifts after Christmas brought the total up to $86,225.00! The Bishop plans to re-start the building "right away" in the beginning of January. It certainly feels like a "miracle" to me! 

To:Ronald Knott
Thu, Dec 25 at 11:48 AM
Rev. Ron,

Thanks so much for the surprise! I couldn't believe! Such a short time has
reached that amount! St. Joseph! St. Joseph!! It's really a miracle.
Please convey my sincere gratitude to all who contributed for this school project.
Let them be assured of my prayers for their health and happiness.
I will be updating you on the progress, and of course, sending you pictures.
Merry Christmas!

+ Bishop Mhasi