Detroit, MI

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This report comes from team leader Mark with the Eastern Market SPSE team in Detroit, MI:

Anne and I returned to Eastern Market last Saturday. When we arrived, there were already two other groups stationed near our preferred spot at the northwest corner of the market. We chose to move half a block down to another crosswalk. Anne is really blessed, as well as practiced, with the gifts of healing prayer and praying out loud with people. Maybe this is the reason why we prayed with more people than usual. Throughout half of the outing, one person after another approached us asking for prayer. At times, there were multiple people lined up waiting for their turn to receive prayer.

We prayed for a dozen people and their various intentions. Most asked for prayers for physical health, relationships with family, some for material goods. Anne and I took turns leading prayers out loud with all of the visitors. We prayed for their stated intentions and added in more intentions: that the individual would grow in faith in Jesus, that they will receive many graces from God, that they will grow in virtue and do God’s will in their life and, most importantly, that they will eventually spend eternity with God in Heaven. Most of the people said that they felt much better after receiving prayer—I said that was a signal grace from God encouraging them to pray and telling them to turn to Him more often. Almost everyone accepted a Rosary, medal, holy card, and/or pamphlet as well as a challenge to explore the Catholic Faith.

For the first time, we witnessed two distinct political protests and marches along Russell Street. While these marches were intended to be disruptions, we simply stopped and prayed with outstretched arms as the protestors marched by us. There were also several people recruiting voters to sign two or more different petitions. We had a very brief interaction with one middle-aged man and a much longer conversation with a young man in his twenties. The young man, our last guest of the outing, approached us out of curiosity. It was quickly apparent that he was more interested in our rosaries than in gathering signatures. I explained the Rosary as a way to meditate on the Gospels and a way to better understand the life of Jesus. He accepted rosaries, medals, and several pamphlets. We offered to pray for his intentions and he asked us to pray for his mother

Praised be Jesus Christ!