Hallelujah!

Today is a banner day. This morning at 9:30 am I mailed Jairus House's application for 501c3 status to the IRS! Yeah, yeah and yahoo! This has been such a long time coming. I am truly blessed to be working with a very competent consultant, Paul Mastrodonato of nonprofitworks. He has helped me wade through everything, knew just what questions to ask, explained what the process would be, helped me know the best way to word things, made excellent suggestions as to what the website should reflect, then filled out the paperwork.

Yesterday, I signed the paperwork, wrote the check, and this morning, I MAILED IT OFF!!! Paul says its possible that by end of summer we will be approved. He doesn't foresee any blocks, which he has a good sense of since he has helped a number of organizations get their approval. What a joy to work with someone so helpful. If anyone out there is thinking of starting up a not for profit organization, I highly recommend his services.

So the waiting begins. The application will be assigned to a case worker once it is received. They will get in contact with us with any questions or requests for further information. It's all good. Stay tuned for further updates. Meanwhile, I am working on a summer video project.

I am writing Morning and Evening Prayers for People Undergoing Chemotherapy. This is the first volume of what I hope will be a helpful DVD series. I want to record it in the chapel at the seminary at Nazareth College - a beautiful space. There will be prayers on rising, prayers at midday, and prayers before retiring that focus on preparing for chemo, undergoing chemo, and after chemo - a week's worth of meditations taken from the Psalms, from the prayers of holy people of the past, and including sung Lord's Prayers and Gloria Patria's.

It's similar to Phyllis Tickle's Divine Hours, but addressing the things a cancer patient would encounter as they consider and undergo chemo. Some of the passages are chanted, others read, others sung. I have already begun to enlist people with resonant voices or peaceful demeanors to assist. I hope to have both a written version and a "performed" version on DVD. Someone suggested for future DVD's that I ask cancer patients and survivors to read/chant/sing. Great idea. I will look into it.