John & Sarah's Home Enthronement ~ Testimony

John and Sarah had invited several men to their home last December, and the experience was so rewarding that they rebooked several of the men to return at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday for prayer. Sarah was advised that about 4 or 5 of us would be showing up. 

About The Men of the Sacred Hearts:  established in Detroit since 1964, this group has 45 volunteers, mostly men, who take the statue of Our Lady of Fatima (each team has a statue) to homes by appointment. Our Rochester Team works on a general call out to the brothers (what we call ourselves), and whoever can make it shows up. In 2024, John and Sarah welcomed 3 or 4 of us into their home. 

Sarah was surprised when 11 of us stood on their porch in the snow, carrying the statue and a bag of supplies. Sarah pulled me aside as we filed in, I was one of the last, and she said, “I don’t think I have enough food, Dave!” We joked that perhaps Our Lord would perform another multiplication-of-loaves miracle and save the day. 

Our Detroit Teams experienced a tragic decline in membership participation when COVID-19 hit, and we suffered for about 3 years without enough volunteers to visit homes requesting our services. But slowly we began to attract new members. Our Lake Orion team serves a large Latino community, and we have two men who came to the USA years ago from Mexico and would now like to begin a Spanish team. We are going to supply a Our Lady of Guadalupe statue for this team, who will serve the Spanish-speaking community in their area. We have another Chaldean team forming, which came from our Troy team. The leader is a Chaldean Deacon and is well known in the area. 

It is a blessing to be financially stable and grow our volunteer base during a time of what we have been writing about, the rebirth of Catholic Faith with younger adults with large families. Some of these families came from parents who walked away from their Catholic faith. But these young people felt something was missing from their abundant lives: God. 

When we gathered in Sarah’s kitchen, where the food was laid out, our men took plates and began loading them with potato pancakes, blueberry muffins, and fruit. I went last. There was still food in the serving dishes, fruit in the large serving bowl, and 5 or 6 muffins left. Someone had cut the muffins into quarters, and that helped. Sarah and I winked at each other, knowing that God always provides. 

Families who have invited us into their homes comment that the experience is a faith-filled blessing for their family. The Intercessory Prayer (praying for the individual) elicits deep, meaningful prayer intentions from parents and children alike. Siblings have prayed for each other to change their behavior or direction in life.

Spouses have prayed for each other's problems, such as addictions and sinful habits. It is usually a very pleasant experience, but sometimes it can become a venting session about family matters, and it always ends well by the time we leave. Of course, we never discuss the family problems with others, as this was between Jesus and the family. 

Our team members feel they were called to help in this ministry.

We feel blessed and humbled to give up our Saturdays for Jesus. 

Merry Christmas,

David Tay

(I’m the one looking over Blessed Mother's right shoulder and the boy in a blue pullover, left shoulder) 

Sarah's Testimony:

"I really wanted to tell you this in person, but I just have to say how many heartwarming moments we have had as a family again since having mother Mary here.

Noah was downstairs in the basement watching TV and I told him that the rosary was going to start and he came flying upstairs and was ready to go sit down and pray. It’s very hard to get him upstairs once he’s down there, but all I had to do was mention that we were going to say the rosary and he came flying up the stairs.

When we were praying the rosary live through relevant radio last night, Noah whispered to me that this is his favorite time of the day. Before it started, he passed out holy water to all of us which melted our hearts. The other day Christian had a lot of tests to study for and he’s been behind in his classes because he was out sick earlier this month so there was a lot of catching up to do. He was concerned and when he came down and prayed afterwards, he said that he felt a lot better.

The other night when I was gone, John, Christian and Noah were watching a Christmas movie and it was almost time for bed and Noah reminded them that they needed to go pray with Mother Mary so they went and did that. I absolutely love having her here with us when I was wondering how much these statues cost because I feel like we need one here! Please pray for my party tonight that it’s very much filled with peace and prayer and happiness. 

Thank you!"